Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act

What this does

This bill keeps the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs alive and adds security screening and new funding tracks. It extends the programs' authorization from September 30, 2025 to September 30, 2031, and pushes the same 2031 date across a long list of connected pilot programs and deadlines. On security, it directs agencies to evaluate whether a small business applicant presents a risk, including by coordinating with the intelligence community, and it makes a business a denial candidate if it connects to an entity on any of eight named government lists, including the UFLPA Entity List, the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List, the Section 889 Prohibition List, and the list of Chinese military companies under section 1260H. Denied applicants must be told of the determination and its basis where national security permits, and a denial does not bar them from a future cycle. It creates a strategic breakthrough Phase II funding track: agencies with a required SBIR expenditure above $100,000,000 may set aside up to 0.50 percent of their SBIR allocation and award up to $30,000,000 to a single small business, which must have at least one prior Phase II award and match the money at 100 percent from new private or non-SBIR government capital. It caps how many proposals a business may submit each year, with a waiver only for time-sensitive topics and only up to 5 percent of topics. It requires new acquisition workforce training on Phase III awards, simplified Phase III contracting procedures and model contracts, and new data fields tracking award types in the SBIR database and the Federal Procurement Data System. It raises the Phase I technical assistance cap to $6,500 and the Phase II cap to $50,000 per project, lets awardees choose their assistance provider, adds cybersecurity assistance and I-Corps participation, and extends the GAO study deadline in the SBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022 from 3 years to 8 years.