Office of Rural Affairs Enhancement Act

Office of Rural Affairs Enhancement Act

This bill requires the Small Business Administration (SBA) to use a competitive hiring process to select an assistant administrator for the Office of Rural Affairs. The assistant administrator must have experience (1) with rural affairs and issues relating to small businesses, and (2) providing development assistance to rural small businesses.

Additionally, the bill requires the office to host webinars and regional outreach events for rural small businesses.

The SBA must report annually about the office's activities.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4549 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4549

To amend the Small Business Act to clarify the responsibilities of the 
 Office of Rural Affairs of the Small Business Administration, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 21, 2025

    Ms. Goodlander (for herself, Mr. Wied, and Mr. Golden of Maine) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             Small Business

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Small Business Act to clarify the responsibilities of the 
 Office of Rural Affairs of the Small Business Administration, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Office of Rural Affairs Enhancement 
Act''.

SEC. 2. OFFICE OF RURAL AFFAIRS OF THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION.

    Section 26 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 653) is amended--
            (1) by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:
    ``(b) Appointment of Assistant Administrator.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Office shall be administered by an 
        Assistant Administrator, who shall be an employee in the 
        competitive service.
            ``(2) Qualifications.--The Assistant Administrator shall--
                    ``(A) have education or professional experience 
                with, or knowledge of, rural affairs and issues 
                relating to small business concerns; and
                    ``(B) have experience providing development 
                assistance to rural small business concerns.'';
            (2) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``small business 
                concerns located in rural areas'' and inserting ``rural 
                small business concerns'';
                    (B) in paragraph (3)--
                            (i) by striking ``provide information'' and 
                        inserting ``promote''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``concerning the'' and all 
                        that follows through the semicolon at the end 
                        and inserting the following: ``on the policies 
                        and programs of the Administration and of other 
                        Federal departments and agencies for assisting 
                        rural small business concerns;'';
                    (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ``; and'' and 
                inserting a semicolon;
                    (D) in paragraph (5)--
                            (i) by striking ``the United States Tourism 
                        and Travel Administration'' and inserting ``the 
                        National Travel and Tourism Office of the 
                        Department of Commerce'';
                            (ii) by striking ``small businesses in 
                        rural areas'' and inserting ``rural small 
                        business concerns''; and
                            (iii) by striking the period at the end and 
                        inserting ``; and''; and
                    (E) by adding at the end the following new 
                paragraph:
            ``(6) host webinars and outreach events for rural small 
        business concerns as described in subsection (d).''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new subsections:
    ``(d) Outreach.--The Assistant Administrator shall--
            ``(1) host webinars and outreach events in various regions 
        of the United States for rural small business concerns; and
            ``(2) invite representatives from district offices of the 
        Administration, resource partners, Federal and State agencies, 
        and other interested persons to participate in such webinars 
        and outreach events.
    ``(e) Report.--
            ``(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date 
        of the enactment of this subsection, and annually thereafter, 
        the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Small 
        Business of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
        Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the Senate, and make 
        publicly available on a website of the Administration, a report 
        on the activities of the Office during the one-year period 
        immediately preceding the date of submission of the report.
            ``(2) Contents.--Each report required under paragraph (1) 
        shall include the following:
                    ``(A) The operational details of the Office, 
                including the name of the Assistant Administrator, the 
                budget of the Office, and the number of full-time 
                employees employed by or detailed to the Office.
                    ``(B) A summary of the activities conducted under 
                subsection (c).
                    ``(C) The number of webinars and outreach events 
                conducted by the Administration to promote policies and 
                programs described in paragraph (3) of subsection (c) 
                and to provide information described in paragraph (4) 
                of such subsection.
                    ``(D) An analysis of the lending programs of the 
                Administration in serving the needs of rural small 
                business concerns.
                    ``(E) Information gathered from any webinars and 
                outreach events conducted by the Administration during 
                the period covered by the report.
    ``(f) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Assistant administrator.--The term `Assistant 
        Administrator' means the Assistant Administrator of the Office 
        of Rural Affairs appointed under subsection (b).
            ``(2) Resource partners.--The term `resource partners' 
        means--
                    ``(A) small business development centers;
                    ``(B) women's business centers (described under 
                section 29);
                    ``(C) chapters of the Service Corps of Retired 
                Executives (established under section 8(b)(1)(B)); and
                    ``(D) Veteran Business Outreach Centers (described 
                under section 32).
            ``(3) Rural small business concern.--The term `rural small 
        business concern' means a small business concern located in a 
        rural area (as defined in section 7(b)(16) of this Act).''.
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