II
Calendar No. 162
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 38
To amend the Small Business Act to codify the Boots to Business Program,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY24 (legislative day, JANUARY3), 2023
Ms. D
UCKWORTH(for herself and Ms. ERNST) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business
and Entrepreneurship
J
ULY25, 2023
Reported by Mr. C
ARDIN, with an amendment
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
A BILL
To amend the Small Business Act to codify the Boots to
Business Program, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION1.SHORTTITLE. 3
ThisActmaybecitedasthe‘‘VeteranEntrepreneur-4
shipTrainingActof2023’’. 5
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SEC.2.BOOTSTOBUSINESSPROGRAM. 1
Section32oftheSmallBusinessAct(15U.S.C. 2
657b)isamendedbyaddingattheendthefollowing: 3
‘‘(h)BOOTSTOBUSINESSPROGRAM.— 4
‘‘(1)COVEREDINDIVIDUALDEFINED.—Inthis 5
subsection,theterm‘coveredindividual’means— 6
‘‘(A)amemberoftheArmedForces,in-7
cludingtheNationalGuardorReserves; 8
‘‘(B)anindividualwhoisparticipatingin 9
theTransitionAssistanceProgramestablished 10
undersection1144oftitle10,UnitedStates 11
Code; 12
‘‘(C)anindividualwho— 13
‘‘(i)servedonactivedutyinany 14
branchoftheArmedForces,includingthe 15
NationalGuardorReserves;and 16
‘‘(ii)wasdischargedorreleasedfrom 17
suchserviceunderconditionsotherthan 18
dishonorable;and 19
‘‘(D)aspouseordependentofanindi-20
vidualdescribedinsubparagraph(A),(B),or 21
(C). 22
‘‘(2)ESTABLISHMENT.—Duringtheperiodbe-23
ginningonthedateofenactmentofthissubsection 24
andendingonSeptember30,2028,theAdminis-25
tratorshallcarryoutaprogramtobeknownasthe 26
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‘BootstoBusinessProgram’toprovideentrepre-1
neurshiptrainingtocoveredindividuals. 2
‘‘(3)GOALS.—ThegoalsoftheBootstoBusi-3
nessProgramareto— 4
‘‘(A)provideassistanceandin-depthtrain-5
ingtocoveredindividualsinterestedinbusiness 6
ownership;and 7
‘‘(B)providecoveredindividualswiththe 8
tools,skills,andknowledgenecessarytoidentify 9
abusinessopportunity,draftabusinessplan, 10
identifysourcesofcapital,connectwithlocal 11
resourcesforsmallbusinessconcerns,andstart 12
upasmallbusinessconcern. 13
‘‘(4)PROGRAMCOMPONENTS.— 14
‘‘(A)INGENERAL.—TheBootstoBusi-15
nessProgrammayinclude— 16
‘‘(i)apresentationprovidingexposure 17
totheconsiderationsinvolvedinself-em-18
ploymentandownershipofasmallbusi-19
nessconcern; 20
‘‘(ii)anonline,self-studycoursefo-21
cusedonthebasicskillsofentrepreneur-22
ship,thelanguageofbusiness,andthe 23
considerationsinvolvedinself-employment 24
andownershipofasmallbusinessconcern; 25
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‘‘(iii)anin-personclassroominstruc-1
tioncomponentprovidinganintroduction 2
tothefoundationsofselfemploymentand 3
ownershipofasmallbusinessconcern;and 4
‘‘(iv)in-depthtrainingdelivered 5
throughonlineinstruction,includingan 6
onlinecoursethatleadstothecreationof 7
abusinessplan. 8
‘‘(B)COLLABORATION.—TheAdminis-9
tratormay— 10
‘‘(i)collaboratewithpublicandpri-11
vateentitiestodevelopcoursecurriculafor 12
theBootstoBusinessProgram;and 13
‘‘(ii)modifyprogramcomponentsin 14
coordinationwithentitiesparticipatingina 15
WarriorsinTransitionprogram,asdefined 16
insection738(e)oftheNationalDefense 17
AuthorizationActforFiscalYear2013 18
(10U.S.C.1071note). 19
‘‘(C)USEOFRESOURCE PARTNERS AND 20
DISTRICTOFFICES.— 21
‘‘(i)INGENERAL.—TheAdministrator 22
shall— 23
‘‘(I)ensurethatVeteranBusi-24
nessOutreachCentersregularlypar-25
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ticipate,onanationwidebasis,inthe 1
BootstoBusinessProgram;and 2
‘‘(II)tothemaximumextent 3
practicable,usedistrictofficesofthe 4
Administrationandavarietyofother 5
resourcepartnersandentitiesinad-6
ministeringtheBootstoBusiness 7
Program. 8
‘‘(ii)GRANTAUTHORITY.—Incarrying 9
outclause(i),theAdministratormaymake 10
grantstoVeteranBusinessOutreachCen-11
ters,otherresourcepartners,orotherenti-12
tiestocarryoutcomponentsoftheBoots 13
toBusinessProgram. 14
‘‘(D)AVAILABILITYTODEPARTMENT OF 15
DEFENSEANDTHEDEPARTMENT OFLABOR.— 16
TheAdministratorshallmakeavailabletothe 17
SecretaryofDefenseandtheSecretaryof 18
LaborinformationregardingtheBootstoBusi-19
nessProgram,includingallcoursematerials 20
andoutreachmaterialsrelatedtotheBootsto 21
BusinessProgram,forinclusiononthewebsites 22
oftheDepartmentofDefenseandtheDepart-23
mentofLaborrelatingtotheTransitionAssist-24
anceProgram,intheTransitionAssistance 25
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Programmanual,andinotherrelevantmate-1
rialsavailablefordistributionfromtheSec-2
retaryofDefenseandtheSecretaryofLabor. 3
‘‘(E)AVAILABILITYTODEPARTMENT OF 4
VETERANS AFFAIRS.—Inconsultationwiththe 5
SecretaryofVeteransAffairs,theAdminis-6
tratorshallmakeavailablefordistributionand 7
displayonthewebsiteoftheDepartmentof 8
VeteransAffairsandatlocalfacilitiesofthe 9
DepartmentofVeteransAffairsoutreachmate-10
rialsregardingtheBootstoBusinessProgram, 11
whichshall,ataminimum— 12
‘‘(i)describetheBootstoBusiness 13
Programandtheservicesprovided;and 14
‘‘(ii)includeeligibilityrequirements 15
forparticipatingintheBootstoBusiness 16
Program. 17
‘‘(F)AVAILABILITYTOOTHERPARTICI-18
PATINGAGENCIES.—TheAdministratorshall 19
ensureinformationregardingtheBootsto 20
Businessprogram,includingallcoursemate-21
rialsandoutreachmaterialsrelatedtothe 22
BootstoBusinessProgram,ismadeavailable 23
tootherparticipatingagenciesintheTransition 24
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AssistanceProgramanduponrequestofother 1
agencies. 2
‘‘(5)COMPETITIVE BIDDINGPROCEDURES.— 3
TheAdministrationshalluserelevantcompetitive 4
biddingprocedureswithrespecttoanycontractor 5
cooperativeagreementexecutedbytheAdministra-6
tionundertheBootstoBusinessProgram. 7
‘‘(6)PUBLICATIONOFNOTICEOFFUNDINGOP-8
PORTUNITY.—Notlaterthan30daysbeforethe 9
deadlineforsubmittingapplicationsforanyfunding 10
opportunityundertheBootstoBusinessProgram, 11
theAdministrationshallpublishanoticeofthe 12
fundingopportunity. 13
‘‘(7)REPORT.—Notlaterthan180daysafter 14
thedateofenactmentofthissubsection,andnot 15
lessfrequentlythanannuallythereafter,theAdmin-16
istratorshallsubmittotheCommitteeonSmall 17
BusinessandEntrepreneurshipoftheSenateand 18
theCommitteeonSmallBusinessoftheHouseof 19
Representativesareportontheperformanceandef-20
fectivenessoftheBootstoBusinessProgram, 21
which— 22
‘‘(A)maybeincludedaspartofanother 23
reportsubmittedtosuchcommitteesbytheAd-24
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ministratorrelatedtotheOfficeofVeterans 1
BusinessDevelopment;and 2
‘‘(B)shallsummarizeavailableinformation 3
relatingto— 4
‘‘(i)grantsawardedunderparagraph 5
(4)(C); 6
‘‘(ii)thetotalcostoftheBootsto 7
BusinessProgram; 8
‘‘(iii)theamountofprogramfunds 9
usedfordomesticandinternationaltravel 10
expenses; 11
‘‘(iv)thenumberofprogrampartici-12
pantsusingeachcomponentoftheBoots 13
toBusinessProgram; 14
‘‘(v)thecompletionratesforeach 15
componentoftheBootstoBusinessPro-16
gram; 17
‘‘(vi)totheextentpossible— 18
‘‘(I)thedemographicsofpro-19
gramparticipants,toincludegender, 20
age,race,ethnicity,andrelationship 21
tomilitary; 22
‘‘(II)thenumberofprogram 23
participantsthatconnectwithadis-24
trictofficeoftheAdministration,a 25
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VeteranBusinessOutreachCenter,or 1
anotherresourcepartneroftheAd-2
ministration; 3
‘‘(III)thenumberofprogram 4
participantsthatstartasmallbusi-5
nessconcern; 6
‘‘(IV)theresultsoftheBootsto 7
BusinessandBootstoBusiness 8
Rebootcoursequalitysurveyscon-9
ductedbytheOfficeofVeteransBusi-10
nessDevelopmentbeforeandafterat-11
tendingeachofthosecourses,includ-12
ingasummaryofanycommentsre-13
ceivedfromprogramparticipants; 14
‘‘(V)theresultsoftheBootsto 15
BusinessProgramoutcomesurveys 16
conductedbytheOfficeofVeterans 17
BusinessDevelopment,includinga 18
summaryofanycommentsreceived 19
fromprogramparticipants;and 20
‘‘(VI)theresultsofotherger-21
maneparticipantsatisfactionsurveys; 22
‘‘(C)anevaluationoftheoveralleffective-23
nessoftheBootstoBusinessProgrambased 24
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oneachgeographicregioncoveredbytheAd-1
ministrationduringthemostrecentfiscalyear; 2
‘‘(D)anassessmentofadditionalperform-3
anceoutcomemeasuresfortheBootstoBusi-4
nessProgram,asidentifiedbytheAdminis-5
trator; 6
‘‘(E)anyrecommendationsoftheAdminis-7
tratorforimprovementoftheBootstoBusi-8
nessProgram,whichmayincludeexpansionof 9
thetypesofindividualswhoarecoveredindivid-10
uals; 11
‘‘(F)anexplanationofhowtheBootsto 12
BusinessProgramhasbeenintegratedwith 13
othertransitionprogramsandrelatedresources 14
oftheAdministrationandotherFederalagen-15
cies;and 16
‘‘(G)anyadditionalinformationtheAd-17
ministratordeterminesnecessary.’’. 18
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 19
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veteran Entrepreneur-20
ship Training Act of 2023’’. 21
SEC. 2. BOOTS TO BUSINESS PROGRAM. 22
Section 32 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 657b) 23
is amended by adding at the end the following: 24
‘‘(h) B
OOTS TOBUSINESSPROGRAM.— 25
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‘‘(1) COVERED INDIVIDUAL DEFINED .—In this 1
subsection, the term ‘covered individual’ means— 2
‘‘(A) a member of the Armed Forces, includ-3
ing the National Guard or Reserves; 4
‘‘(B) an individual who is participating in 5
the Transition Assistance Program established 6
under section 1144 of title 10, United States 7
Code; 8
‘‘(C) an individual who— 9
‘‘(i) served on active duty in any 10
branch of the Armed Forces, including the 11
National Guard or Reserves; and 12
‘‘(ii) was discharged or released from 13
such service under conditions other than 14
dishonorable; and 15
‘‘(D) a spouse or dependent of an indi-16
vidual described in subparagraph (A), (B), or 17
(C). 18
‘‘(2) E
STABLISHMENT.—During the period be-19
ginning on the date of enactment of this subsection 20
and ending on September 30, 2028, the Administrator 21
shall carry out a program to be known as the ‘Boots 22
to Business Program’ to provide entrepreneurship 23
training to covered individuals. 24
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‘‘(3) GOALS.—The goals of the Boots to Business 1
Program are to— 2
‘‘(A) provide assistance and in-depth train-3
ing to covered individuals interested in business 4
ownership; and 5
‘‘(B) provide covered individuals with the 6
tools, skills, and knowledge necessary to identify 7
a business opportunity, draft a business plan, 8
identify sources of capital, connect with local re-9
sources for small business concerns, and start up 10
a small business concern. 11
‘‘(4) P
ROGRAM COMPONENTS .— 12
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Boots to Business 13
Program may include— 14
‘‘(i) an in-person and virtual, as ap-15
plicable, presentation providing exposure to 16
the considerations involved in self-employ-17
ment and ownership of a small business 18
concern; 19
‘‘(ii) an online, self-study course fo-20
cused on the basic skills of entrepreneurship, 21
the language of business, and the consider-22
ations involved in self-employment and 23
ownership of a small business concern; 24
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‘‘(iii) an in-person and virtual, as ap-1
plicable, classroom instruction component 2
providing an introduction to the founda-3
tions of self employment and ownership of 4
a small business concern; and 5
‘‘(iv) in-depth training delivered 6
through online instruction, including an on-7
line course that leads to the creation of a 8
business plan. 9
‘‘(B) T
RAVEL COSTS.— 10
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to the other 11
provisions of this subparagraph, of the total 12
amount of grant funding that a Veteran 13
Business Outreach Center participating in 14
the Boots to Business Program receives from 15
the Administration, the center may not ex-16
pend more than 35 percent of that funding 17
on costs relating to international travel 18
with respect to the Boots to Business Pro-19
gram. 20
‘‘(ii) C
OSTS NOT INCLUDED IN CAP .— 21
Costs relating to the salaries of, or stipends 22
for, instructors under the Boots to Business 23
Program shall not be included for the pur-24
poses of the limitation under clause (i). 25
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‘‘(iii) PETITION.— 1
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—A Veteran 2
Business Outreach Center may petition 3
the Administrator for the center to ex-4
pend additional funds beyond the limi-5
tation under clause (i) for the purposes 6
described in that clause. 7
‘‘(II) N
OTIFICATION REQUIRE -8
MENT.—If the Administrator grants 9
any petition submitted under subclause 10
(I), the Administrator shall submit to 11
the Committee on Small Business and 12
Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the 13
Committee on Small Business of the 14
House of Representatives a notification 15
regarding that decision by the Admin-16
istrator. 17
‘‘(C) C
OLLABORATION.—The Administrator 18
may— 19
‘‘(i) collaborate with public and pri-20
vate entities to develop course curricula for 21
the Boots to Business Program; 22
‘‘(ii) modify program components in 23
coordination with entities participating in 24
a Warriors in Transition program, as de-25
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fined in section 738(e) of the National De-1
fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2
2013 (10 U.S.C. 1071 note); and 3
‘‘(iii) consult with Directors of Veteran 4
Business Outreach Centers regarding the ne-5
cessity of instructor international travel 6
and the feasibility of incorporating virtual 7
classroom components. 8
‘‘(D) U
SE OF RESOURCE PARTNERS AND 9
DISTRICT OFFICES.— 10
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator 11
shall— 12
‘‘(I) ensure that Veteran Business 13
Outreach Centers regularly participate, 14
on a nationwide basis, in the Boots to 15
Business Program; and 16
‘‘(II) to the maximum extent 17
practicable, use district offices of the 18
Administration and a variety of other 19
resource partners and entities in ad-20
ministering the Boots to Business Pro-21
gram. 22
‘‘(ii) G
RANT AUTHORITY.—In carrying 23
out clause (i), the Administrator may make 24
grants to Veteran Business Outreach Cen-25
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ters, other resource partners, or other enti-1
ties to carry out components of the Boots to 2
Business Program. 3
‘‘(E) A
VAILABILITY TO DEPARTMENT OF DE -4
FENSE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR .—The 5
Administrator shall make available to the Sec-6
retary of Defense and the Secretary of Labor in-7
formation regarding the Boots to Business Pro-8
gram, including all course materials and out-9
reach materials related to the Boots to Business 10
Program, for inclusion on the websites of the De-11
partment of Defense and the Department of 12
Labor relating to the Transition Assistance Pro-13
gram, in the Transition Assistance Program 14
manual, and in other relevant materials avail-15
able for distribution from the Secretary of De-16
fense and the Secretary of Labor. 17
‘‘(F) A
VAILABILITY TO DEPARTMENT OF 18
VETERANS AFFAIRS.—In consultation with the 19
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Administrator 20
shall make available for distribution and display 21
on the website of the Department of Veterans Af-22
fairs and at local facilities of the Department of 23
Veterans Affairs outreach materials regarding 24
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the Boots to Business Program, which shall, at 1
a minimum— 2
‘‘(i) describe the Boots to Business Pro-3
gram and the services provided; and 4
‘‘(ii) include eligibility requirements 5
for participating in the Boots to Business 6
Program. 7
‘‘(G) A
VAILABILITY TO OTHER PARTICI -8
PATING AGENCIES.—The Administrator shall en-9
sure information regarding the Boots to Business 10
program, including all course materials and out-11
reach materials related to the Boots to Business 12
Program, is made available to other partici-13
pating agencies in the Transition Assistance 14
Program and upon request of other agencies. 15
‘‘(5) C
OMPETITIVE BIDDING PROCEDURES .—The 16
Administration shall use relevant competitive bidding 17
procedures with respect to any contract or cooperative 18
agreement executed by the Administration under the 19
Boots to Business Program. 20
‘‘(6) P
UBLICATION OF NOTICE OF FUNDING OP -21
PORTUNITY.—Not later than 30 days before the dead-22
line for submitting applications for any funding op-23
portunity under the Boots to Business Program, the 24
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Administration shall publish a notice of the funding 1
opportunity. 2
‘‘(7) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the 3
date of enactment of this subsection, and not less fre-4
quently than annually thereafter, the Administrator 5
shall submit to the Committee on Small Business and 6
Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the Committee on 7
Small Business of the House of Representatives a re-8
port on the performance and effectiveness of the Boots 9
to Business Program, which— 10
‘‘(A) may be included as part of another re-11
port submitted to such committees by the Admin-12
istrator related to the Office of Veterans Business 13
Development; and 14
‘‘(B) shall summarize available information 15
relating to— 16
‘‘(i) grants awarded under paragraph 17
(4)(D); 18
‘‘(ii) the total cost of the Boots to Busi-19
ness Program; 20
‘‘(iii) the amount of program funds 21
used for domestic and international travel 22
expenses; 23
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‘‘(iv) each domestic location and inter-1
national location traveled to for Boots to 2
Business program instruction; 3
‘‘(v) the number of program partici-4
pants using each component of the Boots to 5
Business Program; 6
‘‘(vi) the completion rates for each 7
component of the Boots to Business Pro-8
gram; and 9
‘‘(vii) to the extent possible— 10
‘‘(I) the demographics of program 11
participants, to include gender, age, 12
race, ethnicity, and relationship to the 13
Armed Forces; 14
‘‘(II) the number of program par-15
ticipants that connect with a district 16
office of the Administration, a Veteran 17
Business Outreach Center, or another 18
resource partner of the Administration; 19
‘‘(III) the number of program 20
participants that start a small busi-21
ness concern; 22
‘‘(IV) the results of the Boots to 23
Business and Boots to Business Reboot 24
course quality surveys conducted by the 25
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Office of Veterans Business Develop-1
ment before and after attending each of 2
those courses, including a summary of 3
any comments received from program 4
participants; 5
‘‘(V) the results of the Boots to 6
Business Program outcome surveys 7
conducted by the Office of Veterans 8
Business Development, including a 9
summary of any comments received 10
from program participants; and 11
‘‘(VI) the results of other germane 12
participant satisfaction surveys; 13
‘‘(C) an evaluation of the overall effective-14
ness of the Boots to Business Program based on 15
each geographic region covered by the Adminis-16
tration during the most recent fiscal year; 17
‘‘(D) an assessment of additional perform-18
ance outcome measures for the Boots to Business 19
Program, as identified by the Administrator; 20
‘‘(E) any recommendations of the Adminis-21
trator for improvement of the Boots to Business 22
Program, which may include expansion of the 23
types of individuals who are covered individuals; 24
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‘‘(F) an explanation of how the Boots to 1
Business Program has been integrated with other 2
transition programs and related resources of the 3
Administration and other Federal agencies; and 4
‘‘(G) any additional information the Ad-5
ministrator determines necessary.’’. 6
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162
118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
S. 38 A BILL
To amend the Small Business Act to codify the
Boots to Business Program, and for other pur-
poses.
J
ULY
25, 2023
Reported with an amendment
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