II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 77
To reauthorize the State Trade Expansion Program of the Small Business
Administration, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY25, 2023
Mrs. S
HAHEENintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
A BILL
To reauthorize the State Trade Expansion Program of the
Small Business Administration, 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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘STEP Improvement 4
Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. STATE TRADE EXPANSION PROGRAM. 6
(a) A
PPLICATIONREQUIREMENTS.—Section 22(l)(3) 7
of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 649(l)(3)) is amend-8
ed— 9
(1) in subparagraph (D)— 10
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(A) in clause (i), by inserting ‘‘, including 1
a budget plan for use of funds awarded under 2
this subsection’’ before the period at the end; 3
and 4
(B) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(iii) T
IMING.—The Associate Admin-6
istrator shall— 7
‘‘(I) publish information on how 8
to apply for a grant under this sub-9
section, including specific calculations 10
and other determinations used to 11
award such a grant, not later than 12
March 31 of each year; 13
‘‘(II) establish a deadline for the 14
submission of applications that is not 15
earlier than 60 days after the date on 16
which the information is published 17
under subclause (I) and that is not 18
later than May 31; and 19
‘‘(III) announce grant recipients 20
not later than August 31 of each 21
year.’’; and 22
(2) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(E) A
PPLICATION INFORMATION .—The 24
Associate Administrator shall clearly commu-25
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nicate to applicants and grant recipients any in-1
formation about the State Trade Expansion 2
Program, including— 3
‘‘(i) for each unsuccessful applicant 4
for a grant awarded under this subsection, 5
recommendations to improve a subsequent 6
application for such a grant; and 7
‘‘(ii) for each successful applicant for 8
such a grant, an explanation for the 9
amount awarded, if different from the 10
amount requested in the application. 11
‘‘(F) B
UDGET PLAN REVISIONS.— 12
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—A State receiving 13
a grant under this subsection may revise 14
the budget plan of the State submitted 15
under subparagraph (D) after the dis-16
bursal of grant funds if— 17
‘‘(I) the revision complies with al-18
lowable uses of grant funds under this 19
subsection; and 20
‘‘(II) such State submits notifica-21
tion of the revision to the Associate 22
Administrator. 23
‘‘(ii) E
XCEPTION.—If a revision under 24
clause (i) reallocates 10 percent or more of 25
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the amounts described in the budget plan 1
of the State submitted under subparagraph 2
(D), the State may not implement the re-3
vised budget plan without the approval of 4
the Associate Administrator, unless the As-5
sociate Administrator fails to approve or 6
deny the revised plan within 20 days after 7
receipt of such revised plan.’’. 8
(b) S
URVEY.—Section 22(l) of the Small Business 9
Act (15 U.S.C. 649(l)) is amended— 10
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (7) through 11
(9) as paragraphs (8) through (10), respectively; 12
and 13
(2) by inserting after paragraph (6) the fol-14
lowing: 15
‘‘(7) S
URVEY.—The Associate Administrator 16
shall conduct an annual survey of each State that 17
received a grant under this subsection during the 18
preceding year to solicit feedback on the program 19
and develop best practices for grantees.’’. 20
(c) A
NNUALREPORT.—Paragraph (8)(B) of section 21
22(l) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 649(l)), as 22
so redesignated by subsection (b), is amended— 23
(1) in clause (i)— 24
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(A) in subclause (III), by inserting ‘‘, in-1
cluding the total number of eligible small busi-2
ness concerns assisted by the program 3
(disaggregated by socially and economically dis-4
advantaged small business concerns, small busi-5
ness concerns owned and controlled by women, 6
and rural small business concerns)’’ before the 7
semicolon at the end; 8
(B) in subclause (IV), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 9
the end; 10
(C) in subclause (V)— 11
(i) by striking ‘‘description of best 12
practices’’ and inserting ‘‘detailed descrip-13
tion of best practices’’; and 14
(ii) by striking the period at the end 15
and inserting a semicolon; and 16
(D) by adding at the end the following: 17
‘‘(VI) an analysis of the perform-18
ance metrics described in clause (iii), 19
including a determination of whether 20
or not any goals relating to such per-21
formance metrics were met, and an 22
analysis of the survey described in 23
paragraph (7); and 24
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‘‘(VII) a description of lessons 1
learned by grant recipients under this 2
subsection that may apply to other as-3
sistance provided by the Administra-4
tion.’’; and 5
(2) by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(iii) P
ERFORMANCE METRICS .—An-7
nually, the Associate Administrator shall 8
collect data on eligible small business con-9
cerns assisted by the program for the fol-10
lowing performance metrics: 11
‘‘(I) Total number of such con-12
cerns, disaggregated by socially and 13
economically disadvantaged small 14
business concerns, small business con-15
cerns owned and controlled by women, 16
and rural small business concerns. 17
‘‘(II) Total dollar amount of ex-18
port sales by eligible small business 19
concerns assisted by the program. 20
‘‘(III) Number of such concerns 21
that have not previously participated 22
in an activity described in paragraph 23
(2). 24
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‘‘(IV) Number of such concerns 1
that, because of participation in the 2
program, have accessed a new market. 3
‘‘(V) Number of such concerns 4
that, because of participation in the 5
program, have created new jobs. 6
‘‘(VI) Number of such concerns 7
participating in foreign trade missions 8
or trade show exhibitions, 9
disaggregated by socially and eco-10
nomically disadvantaged small busi-11
ness concerns, small business concerns 12
owned and controlled by women, and 13
rural small business concerns.’’. 14
(d) E
XPANSION OFDEFINITION OFELIGIBLESMALL 15
B
USINESSCONCERN.—Section 22(l)(1)(A) of the Small 16
Business Act (15 U.S.C. 649(l)(1)(A)) is amended— 17
(1) in clause (iii)(II), by adding ‘‘and’’ at the 18
end; 19
(2) by striking clause (iv); and 20
(3) by redesignating clause (v) as clause (iv). 21
(e) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Para-22
graph (10) of section 22(l) of the Small Business Act (15 23
U.S.C. 649(l)), as so redesignated by subsection (b), is 24
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amended by striking ‘‘fiscal years 2016 through 2020’’ 1
and inserting ‘‘fiscal years 2024 through 2028’’. 2
(f) R
EPORT TOCONGRESS.—Not later than 1 year 3
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Associate Ad-4
ministrator for International Trade of the Small Business 5
Administration shall submit to Congress a report on the 6
State Trade Expansion Program established under section 7
22(l) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 649(l)), as 8
amended by this section, that includes a description of— 9
(1) the process developed for review of revised 10
budget plans submitted under subparagraph (F) of 11
section 22(l)(3) of the Small Business Act (15 12
U.S.C. 649(l)(3)), as added by this Act; 13
(2) any changes made to streamline the applica-14
tion process to remove duplicative requirements and 15
create a more transparent process; 16
(3) the process developed to share best prac-17
tices by States described in paragraph (8)(B)(i)(V) 18
of section 22(l) of the Small Business Act (15 19
U.S.C. 649(l)), as so redesignated by this Act, par-20
ticularly for first-time grant recipients under the 21
State Trade Expansion Program or grant recipients 22
that are facing problems using grant funds; and 23
(4) the process developed to communicate, both 24
verbally and in writing, relevant information about 25
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the State Trade Expansion Program to all grant re-1
cipients in a timely manner. 2
Æ
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