S.Amdt. 2096

SA 2096. Ms. ERNST submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
her to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle H of title X, add the following:

SEC. 10__. ACCOUNTABILITY IN WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS
CONTRACTING.

(a) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the
Administrator of the Small Business Administration.
(2) Small business concern owned and controlled by women.--
The term ``small business concern owned and controlled by
women'' has the meaning given the term in section 3 of the
Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632).
(b) Eliminating Self-Certification for Women-Owned Small
Businesses.--
(1) Eliminating self-certification in prime contracting and
subcontracting for wosbs.--
(A) In general.--Each prime contract award and subcontract
award that is counted for the purpose of meeting the goals
for participation by small business concerns owned and
controlled by women in procurement contracts for Federal
agencies, as established in section 15(g)(2) of the Small
Business Act (15 U.S.C. 644(g)(2)), shall be entered into
with small business concerns certified by the Administrator
or by a national certifying entity approved by the
Administrator under section 8(m) of such Act (15 U.S.C.
637(m)) to meet the requirements under section 3(n) of such
Act (15 U.S.C. 632(n)) to be a small business concern owned
and controlled by women.
(B) Effective date.--Subparagraph (A) shall take effect on
October 1 of the second fiscal year beginning after the
Administrator promulgates the regulations required under
paragraph (3).
(2) Phased approach to eliminating self-certification for
wosbs.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any small
business concern that self-certified as a small business
concern owned and controlled by women may--
(A) if the small business concern files a certification
application with the Administrator before the end of the 1-
year period beginning on the date of the final rulemaking by
the Administrator in accordance with paragraph (3), maintain
such self-certification until the Administrator makes a
determination with respect to such certification; and
(B) if the small business concern does not file a
certification application before the end of the 1-year period
beginning on the date of the final rulemaking by the
Administrator in accordance with paragraph (3), lose, at the
end of such 1-year period, any self-certification of the
small business concern as a small business concern owned and
controlled by women.
(3) Rulemaking.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this section, the Administrator shall promulgate
regulations to carry out this subsection.
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