Small Business Development Center Act of 1979

(House agreed to Senate amendment with an amendment, roll call #32 (384-17))

=Title I: Authorizations and Miscellaneous Amendments= - Amends the Small Business Act to specify program levels and authorizations for the Small Business Administration (SBA) to make direct and immediate participation loans and guaranteed loans and guarantees of debentures for: (1) State and local development companies; (2) plant construction, conversion or expansion; and (3) regular business loan reform. Sets forth program levels under which the Administration is authorized to make direct purchase of debentures and preferred securities, and guarantees of debentures for small business investment companies.

Authorizes funding levels for fiscal years 1980, 1981, and 1982 for the following: (1) business assistance; (2) handicapped assistance; (3) economic opportunity loans; (4) solar and energy conservation loans; (5) development companies assistance; (6) investment company assistance; and (7) disaster assistance.

Authorizes appropriations for operating expenses and SBA salaries and expenses for fiscal year 1980, 1981, and 1982 for programs funded under this title, including funds for: (1) procurement and technical assistance; (2) management assistance; (3) economic research and analysis; (4) the Office of Minority Small Business and Capital Ownership Development; and (5) program evaluation and data management. Authorizes specified sums for fiscal years 1980 and 1981 for matching grants to small business development centers and for the administration of the small business development center program.

Makes miscellaneous and technical amendments to the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 relating to: (1) the availability of unexpended funds; (2) energy shortage loans; (3) disaster loan interest rates; (4) investment of idle funds; (5) product disaster loans; (6) duplication of disaster benefits; (7) development company debentures; (8) regular business loan reforms; (9) surety bond guarantees; and (10) procurement systems.

Makes specified low-interest loans available under the Small Business Act until October 1, 1983, for the relief of small business concerns affected by disasters occurring on or after October 1, 1978.

Authorizes the SBA to make and issue notes to the Secretary of the Treasury for the purpose of obtaining funds necessary for discharging obligations under the revolving funds established by this Act. Authorizes and directs the Secretary to purchase such notes and to use such notes as a public debt transaction in the same manner as securities issued under the Second Liberty Bond Act.

Provides that moneys in the disaster loan fund and in the business loan and investment fund may be deposited in the U.S. Treasury to the credit of such fund or invested in direct obligations or guaranteed obligations of the United States. Directs that any interest received by the SBA on such obligations be deposited in the appropriate fund and used to the extent and in such amounts as are approved in advance in appropriation Acts. Authorizes the SBA, subject to such advance approval, to purchase with money in such funds any notes issued by the SBA for the purpose of obtaining money for the funds.

Directs the SBA to pay into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury, at the end of each fiscal year, interest received on financing functions performed under this Act and specified titles of the Small Business Investment Act, provided the capital used to perform such functions originated from appropriated funds.

Includes Asian Pacific Americans under the Administration's business development programs.

Amends the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act with respect to interest rates on loans.

=Title II: Small Business Development Centers= - Small Business Development Center Act of 1979 - Amends the Small Business Act to implement a program to establish small business development centers which shall provide management, technical, and technological assistance to small businesses.

Authorizes the Small Business Administration to make grants to States, State agencies, regional entities, State-chartered development credit corporations, and institutions of higher learning to assist in establishing Small Business Development Centers. Requires such grants to be matched in equal amounts by funds from non-Federal sources. Establishes additional restrictions on such grants for fiscal years 1979 through 1982.

Requires that such center must have a full time staff director, business analysts, technology transfer agents, information specialists, and have access to part-time professional specialists and laboratory and adaptive engineering facilities.

Directs the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to cooperate with small business development centers participating in the program and to report annually to the SBA and the Congress and to make recommendations to the SBA on continued funding.

Directs the Administrator of the SBA to appoint a Deputy Associate Administrator for Management Assistance to administer the small business development center program.

Establishes a National Small Business Development Center Advisory Board composed of nine members appointed by the Administrator to advise and confer with the Deputy Associate Administrator for Management Assistance. Allows each State small business development center to establish an advisory board appointed by the Governor to advise and confer with the Director of such State small business development center.

Directs the SBA, with the advice of the Board, to establish an evaluation plan of the center program and to submit a report to the appropriate committees of Congress within three years.

Prohibits the SBA from funding any small business development center program except as authorized by this Act.

Repeals certain provisions of this title effective October 1, 1983.

=Title III: Small Business Economic Policy= - Small Business Economic Policy Act of 1979 - Enunciates a national small business economic policy which requires the coordination of planning among Federal departments and agencies in order to propose incentives to help assure that small business needs are met through private sector investments.

Directs the President to transmit to the Congress not later than January 20 of each year a Report on Small Business and Competition, setting forth recommendations for carrying out the policy set forth in this title.

=Title IV: Small Business Economic Research and Analysis= - Directs the Administrator to establish and maintain a comprehensive small business economic data base and to publish annually a report giving an analysis of historical trends of the small business sector.

Establishes the position of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy at Executive Level IV.

Revises the pay scale for and limits the number of certain employees of the Office of Advocacy.

Requires that studies of the credit needs of small business and to what extent such needs are being met be conducted by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in consultation with the SBA and the Bureau of Census, who shall report the results to the Congress by January 1, 1981.

=Title V: White House Conference on Small Business= - White House Conference on Small Business Act - Directs the President to call and conduct a White House Conference on Small Business to identify problems of small business and to develop recommendations for executive and legislative action as may be appropriate for maintaining and encouraging small business. Sets forth requirements and procedures for appointment of members to the Conference, submission of reports, and planning and administration. Authorizes the appropriation of such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this title, including reimbursement of certain expenses for conference delegates.

=Title VI: Employee Ownership= - Small Business Employee Ownership Act - Amends the Small Business Act to make employee-owned firms eligible for financial assistance under the business loan program.

States that in the case of small business concerns using an employee stock ownership plan, as defined in the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, all financial assistance shall be made to the trust created for employee ownership of stock (ESOT). Predicates such assistance on: (1) a guarantee by the company seeking assistance that it will repay all obligations incurred by the ESOT; (2) the satisfaction of the SBA that all funds acquired by the plan with the assistance of the SBA will be used solely in connection with the purchase of qualified employer securities, as defined in the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, and that such funds will not be used to acquire the employer securities of another corporation or to finance any other enterprise; and (3) a distribution arrangement which assures all participants in the plan will have a non-forfeitable right to all employer securities acquired with the assistance of the SBA no later than the expiration date of such assistance.

Authorizes the extension of loan guarantees to qualified trusts or to finance the acquisition of the employees workplace if it is a small business or a subsidiary which, if independently owned, would be a small business. States that such guarantees may be extended only if the small business or subsidiary would otherwise close, liquidate, relocate or sell out to a large business or if the owner agrees to the purchase by the employees.

Requires an employee organization or the representative of a stock ownership plan to prepare a plan containing specified provisions for the acquisition of the concern or subsidiary in order to be eligible for such guarantees.

Limits the principal amount of any loan guaranteed under this Act to $500,000.

Directs the Administrator of the SBA to report periodically to the Congress on the programs established by this Act.

Directs the SBA to conduct a study of the feasibility of extending the authority of the SBA to make guarantees directly to the seller in installment sales to small businesses.