House panel advances two small biz contracting bills

      The House Small Business Committee approved two pieces of legislation that members said would assist small business federal contracting.

      One of the bills is comprised of four sections, which previously were four separate bills submitted in recent weeks.

      The other has three sections.

      In its news release announcing the bills, the committee offered the titles of the sections but did not include details on what the bills are intended to do or why they are needed at this time. A committee spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

      Set-Aside Alert reviewed the texts for all seven new provisions at the Congress.gov website.

      It appears that four of the measures are intended to update definitions and reporting for small business contracting.

     The other three measures are meant to update, and add to, the regulatory framework for Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Small Business Centers, and SCORE for Small Business.

      Both bills had bipartisan sponsors and cosponsors.

      Here are the two bills advanced by the committee:

• HR 1773, Clarity for America’s Small Contractors Act of 2017:
  • Title I: Commercial Market Representatives Clarification Act (formerly HR 1597)
  • Title II: Defining Business Opportunity Specialists (HR 1641)
  • Title III: Improving Reporting on Small Business Goals (formerly HR 1693)
  • Title IV: Unifying Small Business Terminology Act (formerly HR 1640)
  
  
• HR 1774, Developing the Next Generation of Small Businesses Act of 2017:
  • Title I: Small Business Development Centers Improvement Act of 2017 (formerly HR 1702)
  • Title II: Women’s Business Centers Improvement Act of 2017 (formerly HR 1680)
  • Title III: SCORE for Small Business Act of 2017 (formerly HR 1700).

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