H.R. 1649 would require the Small Business Administration (SBA) to establish a certification program for employees of small business development centers (SBDCs) to provide assistance to small businesses on cyber security planning. Under the bill the SBA could spend up to $350,000 per year to reimburse SBDCs for certification costs. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriations. Based on that authorization level, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 1649 would cost $2 million over the 2020-2024 period to fund certification programs at 63 SBDCs.
On April 23, 2019, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 771, the Small Business Cyber Training Act of 2019 as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on April 1, 2019. The two bills are similar and CBO’s estimates of their costs are the same.