The bill would require the SBA to update the financial thresholds for a person to qualify as economically disadvantaged. Under the business development program, the federal government’s goal is to award at least 10 percent of federal contract dollars annually to businesses whose ownership is composed of at least 51 percent disadvantaged individuals.
H.R. 6591 would require the SBA to update those thresholds in the first year after enactment and then every four years thereafter. The SBA updated the current limits in November 2022, and under current law, assesses and updates the limits for other programs for inflation, as necessary, every five years. On that basis, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost less than $500,000.
