II
Calendar No. 37
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1093
To amend the Small Business Act to enhance the Office of Rural Affairs,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH24, 2025
Mrs. S
HAHEEN(for herself and Mr. KENNEDY) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business
and Entrepreneurship
A
PRIL1 (legislative day, MARCH31), 2025
Reported by Ms. E
RNST, without amendment
A BILL
To amend the Small Business Act to enhance the Office
of Rural Affairs, 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 ‘‘Coordinated Support 4
for Rural Small Businesses Act’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•S 1093 RS
SEC. 2. OFFICE OF RURAL AFFAIRS OF THE SMALL BUSI-1
NESS ADMINISTRATION. 2
Section 26 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 653) 3
is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (a), by inserting ‘‘E
STABLISH-5
MENT.—’’ before ‘‘There’’; 6
(2) by amending subsection (b) to read as fol-7
lows: 8
‘‘(b) A
PPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANTADMINIS-9
TRATOR.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Office shall be admin-11
istered by an Assistant Administrator, who shall— 12
‘‘(A) be appointed by the Administrator; 13
and 14
‘‘(B) serve as a noncareer appointee, as de-15
fined in section 3132(a)(7) of title 5, United 16
States Code. 17
‘‘(2) Q
UALIFICATION.—The position of Assist-18
ant Administrator shall be a Senior Executive Serv-19
ice position under section 3132(a)(2) of title 5, 20
United States Code.’’; 21
(3) in subsection (c)— 22
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 23
by inserting ‘‘D
UTIES.—’’ before ‘‘The Office’’; 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•S 1093 RS
(B) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘small 1
business concerns located in rural areas’’ and 2
inserting ‘‘rural small business concerns’’; 3
(C) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘con-4
cerning the’’ and all that follows through the 5
semicolon at the end and inserting the fol-6
lowing: ‘‘on the policies and programs of the 7
Administration and of other Federal depart-8
ments and agencies for assisting rural small 9
business concerns;’’; 10
(D) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 11
and inserting a semicolon; 12
(E) in paragraph (5)— 13
(i) by striking ‘‘the United States 14
Tourism and Travel Administration’’ and 15
inserting ‘‘the National Travel and Tour-16
ism Office of the Department of Com-17
merce’’; 18
(ii) by striking ‘‘small businesses in 19
rural areas’’ and inserting ‘‘rural small 20
business concerns’’; and 21
(iii) by striking the period at the end 22
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 23
(F) by adding at the end the following: 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•S 1093 RS
‘‘(6) host outreach events for rural small busi-1
ness concerns as described in subsection (d).’’; and 2
(4) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(d) O
UTREACH.—The Assistant Administrator 4
shall— 5
‘‘(1) host outreach events in various regions of 6
the United States for rural small business concerns; 7
and 8
‘‘(2) invite representatives from district offices 9
of the Administration, resource partners, Federal 10
and State agencies, and other interested persons to 11
participate in such outreach events. 12
‘‘(e) I
NTERAGENCY COOPERATION.—The Assistant 13
Administrator shall coordinate with the Department to— 14
‘‘(1) conduct outreach regarding programs of 15
the Administration and the Department and to im-16
prove awareness and utilization of the existing pro-17
grams and services of each agency; and 18
‘‘(2) convene interagency working groups to ad-19
dress issues including— 20
‘‘(A) capital access and investment in rural 21
areas of the United States, which may in-22
clude— 23
‘‘(i) identifying areas of overlap be-24
tween the business loan programs of the 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•S 1093 RS
Administration and the Department of Ag-1
riculture, including where intermediaries 2
may be able to participate in programs at 3
both agencies; 4
‘‘(ii) assessing opportunities for co-5
ordination between the Administration and 6
the Department on programs for rural 7
communities of each agency through the 8
district offices of the Administration, rela-9
tionships with rural lenders, resource part-10
ners of the Administration, and joint out-11
reach and marketing efforts; 12
‘‘(iii) improving information sharing 13
and discussion of best practices between 14
the Administration and the Department; 15
‘‘(iv) examining coordination between 16
the small business investment company 17
program under part A of title III of the 18
Small Business Investment Act of 1958 19
(15 U.S.C. 681 et seq.) and related pro-20
grams at the Department, including the 21
Rural Business Investment Program of the 22
Department; 23
‘‘(v) examining opportunities for co-24
ordination between the disaster assistance 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•S 1093 RS
programs of the Administration and the 1
Department; and 2
‘‘(vi) addressing barriers and exam-3
ining opportunities for cooperatives to par-4
ticipate in programs and access resources 5
of the Administration that are similar to 6
the financing programs of the Department 7
that serve cooperatives; and 8
‘‘(B) assisting rural small business con-9
cerns, which may include— 10
‘‘(i) identifying overlap and frag-11
mentation among the rural markets identi-12
fied by the Department and rural census 13
tracts identified by the Administration; 14
‘‘(ii) exploring opportunities to sup-15
port innovation in rural areas; 16
‘‘(iii) coordinating effective support 17
initiatives that benefit Native Americans; 18
and 19
‘‘(iv) collaborating on technical assist-20
ance, especially with respect to exportation 21
and procurement. 22
‘‘(f) U
PDATES.—Not later than 7 days after any 23
change to or new issuance of a memorandum of under-24
standing between the Administration and the Department, 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7
•S 1093 RS
the Administration shall notify the appropriate congres-1
sional committees. 2
‘‘(g) R
EPORT.— 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 4
after the date of the enactment of this subsection, 5
and annually thereafter, the Administrator shall sub-6
mit to the appropriate congressional committees and 7
make publicly available on a website of the Adminis-8
tration a report on the activities of the Office during 9
the 1-year period immediately preceding the date of 10
submission of the report. 11
‘‘(2) C
ONTENTS.—Each report required under 12
paragraph (1) shall include the following: 13
‘‘(A) The operational details of the Office, 14
including the name of the Assistant Adminis-15
trator, the budget of the Office, and the num-16
ber of full-time employees employed by or de-17
tailed to the Office. 18
‘‘(B) A summary of the activities con-19
ducted under subsection (c). 20
‘‘(C) The number of outreach events con-21
ducted by the Administration to promote poli-22
cies and programs described in paragraph (3) 23
of subsection (c) and to provide information de-24
scribed in paragraph (4) of such subsection. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 8
•S 1093 RS
‘‘(D) An analysis of the lending programs 1
of the Administration in serving the needs of 2
rural small business concerns. 3
‘‘(E) A summary of activities conducted 4
under subsection (e), including— 5
‘‘(i) the status of any memorandum of 6
understanding between the Administration 7
and the Department of Agriculture to fur-8
ther the goals of improving service deliv-9
ery, advice, and assistance for rural small 10
business concerns; 11
‘‘(ii) a summary of outreach efforts 12
under subsection (e)(1); 13
‘‘(iii) a summary of working groups 14
created under subsection (e)(2), including 15
any areas of overlap identified in capital 16
access programs under subparagraph (A) 17
of such subsection; and 18
‘‘(iv) efforts to assist rural small busi-19
ness concerns under subsection (e)(2)(B). 20
‘‘(h) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 21
‘‘(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -22
TEES.—The term ‘appropriate congressional com-23
mittees’ means— 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 9
•S 1093 RS
‘‘(A) the Committees on Small Business 1
and Entrepreneurship and the Committee on 2
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Sen-3
ate; and 4
‘‘(B) the Committee on Small Business 5
and the Committee on Agriculture of the House 6
of Representatives. 7
‘‘(2) A
SSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR .—The term 8
‘Assistant Administrator’ means the Assistant Ad-9
ministrator of the Office of Rural Affairs appointed 10
under subsection (b). 11
‘‘(3) D
EPARTMENT.—The term ‘Department’ 12
means the Department of Agriculture.’’. 13
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS Calendar No.
37
119
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
S. 1093 A BILL
To amend the Small Business Act to enhance the
Office of Rural Affairs, and for other purposes.
A
PRIL
1 (legislative day, M
ARCH
31), 2025
Reported without amendment
VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Apr 02, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\S1093.RS S1093
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS