S.Amdt. 507

SA 507. Ms. ERNST submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
her to the bill S. 2226, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2024 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 D of title VIII, add the following:

SEC. 849. PILOT PROGRAM FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO SCALE
TECHNOLOGIES.

(a) Pilot Program for Small Businesses to Scale
Technologies.--
(1) In general.--Section 9(aa) of the Small Business Act
(15 U.S.C. 638(aa)) is amended--
(A) by redesignating paragraph (5) as paragraph (6); and
(B) by inserting after paragraph (4) the following:
``(5) Pilot program for small businesses to scale
technologies.--Upon request by a Federal agency, the
Administrator shall grant a waiver from the requirement under
paragraph (1) with respect to a Phase II award under the SBIR
program or STTR program of the Federal agency if the Federal
agency ensures that--
``(A) the total funding associated with the Phase II award
under the SBIR program and the STTR program does not exceed
$20,000,000;
``(B) not more than 33 percent of the total funding, public
or private, included or required by the funding agreement may
be paid with funding under the SBIR program or the STTR
program of the Federal agency;
``(C) for the Department of Defense, the Phase II award
directly supports a Department of Defense operational need
and has a clearly defined transition path to support military
capabilities; and
``(D) if the waiver is granted--
``(i) not more than 25 percent of the SBIR program budget
of the Federal agency for any fiscal year will be expended on
Phase II awards for which a waiver is granted under this
paragraph; and
``(ii) not more than 25 percent of the STTR program budget
of the Federal agency for any fiscal year will be expended on
Phase II awards for which a waiver is granted under this
paragraph.''.
(2) Sunset.--Effective on October 1, 2025, section 9(aa) of
the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638(aa)) is amended--
(A) by striking paragraph (5); and
(B) by redesignating paragraph (6) as paragraph (5).
(b) Requirement for Defense Innovation Unit; Pilot Program
for Acceleration of High Priority Technologies.--
(1) Definitions.--In this subsection--
(A) the term ``appropriate congressional committees''
means--
(i) the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship of
the Senate;
(ii) the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate;

[[Page S2646]]

(iii) the Committee on Small Business of the House of
Representatives;
(iv) the Committee on Armed Services of the House of
Representatives; and
(v) the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the
House of Representatives;
(B) the terms ``armed forces'' and ``Secretary concerned''
have the meanings given those terms in section 101 of title
10, United States Code;
(C) the term ``major system'' has the meaning given the
term in section 3041 of title 10, United States Code;
(D) the terms ``Phase I'', ``Phase II'', ``Phase III'',
``SBIR'', and ``STTR'' have the meanings given those terms in
section 9(e) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638(e));
and
(E) the term ``small business concern'' has the meaning
given the term in section 3 of the Small Business Act (15
U.S.C. 632).
(2) Requirement.--The Director of the Defense Innovation
Unit of the Department of Defense shall establish a
mechanism, such as a major system, to provide small business
concerns with direct access to program and requirements
offices throughout the Department of Defense that may
purchase technology from small business concerns under Phase
III of the SBIR or STTR program of the Department of Defense.
(3) Pilot program for advancing small business
development.--
(A) In general.--
(i) Set aside.--Of the amounts authorized to be
appropriated by this Act, or otherwise made available for
fiscal year 2024, to carry out an SBIR program of a component
of the armed forces, that component shall use 1 percent of
those amounts to provide for the procurement of high priority
technologies (as so identified by the chief acquisition
officer of the component), specifically the procurement of
systems that have been supported through Phase I or Phase II
awards of that program but have not become programs of
record.
(ii) Combining funding.--For the purposes of clause (i),
multiple components of the armed forces may combine amounts
that each component is required to use as described in that
clause to jointly provide for the procurement of high
priority technologies.
(B) Notification.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the chief acquisition officer of each
component of the armed forces shall submit to the appropriate
congressional committees a list of which technologies that
officer has identified as high priority technologies under
subparagraph (A).
(C) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, each Secretary concerned shall submit
to the appropriate congressional committees a report that
contains policy change recommendations identified as a result
of the pilot program carried out under this paragraph by the
applicable component of the armed forces to facilitate the
rapid adoption of technologies supported by the SBIR program
of the component.
(c) Limitations on Amount of Awards and Number of
Applications.--Section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.
638) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(yy) Limitations on Total SBIR and STTR Award Amounts and
Applications.--
``(1) Total award amount.--A single small business concern,
including any subsidiary or affiliated entity of the small
business concern, may not receive more than $50,000,000 in
Phase I and Phase II awards, in the aggregate, from Federal
agencies participating in the SBIR or STTR program.
``(2) Applications.--
``(A) In general.--A small business concern may not submit
more than 10 applications to a single Federal agency for each
SBIR or STTR program award solicitation of the Federal
agency.
``(B) Department of defense.--For purposes of subparagraph
(A), the Department of Defense shall consist of 1 Federal
agency.''.
______