Reauthorizing the SCORE Program to Help Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs (H.R. 1700)
Do you support or oppose this bill?
What is H.R. 1700?
(Updated November 16, 2018)
This bill would reauthorize the SCORE program for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) program is a non-profit subsidiary of the Small Business Administration (SBA) that provides free or low-cost counseling, mentoring, and workshops for small business owners and entrepreneurs related to the operations of their businesses. These counseling services can include developing a business plan, or providing marketing and finance advice.
Based on business experience and knowledge, SCORE volunteers would:
Provide personal counseling, mentoring, and coaching relating to the experience of starting, expanding, managing, buying, and selling a business to current or aspiring small business owners;
Facilitate low-cost education workshops for individuals who own, or aspire to own, small business concerns.
The SBA Administrator would be authorized to make grants or enter into cooperative agreements that total less than $10.5 million for each of the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years. These grants and cooperative agreements would help achieve the goals each chapter of the SCORE program established for itself.
The SBA would ensure that the program and each of its chapters develop and implement plans and goals to provide services more effectively and efficiently to individuals in rural areas, economically disadvantaged communities, and other traditionally underserved communities. This would include plans for electronic initiatives, web-based initiatives, chapter expansion, partnerships, and the development of new skills by participating volunteers.
The SCORE Association would:
Make use of online counseling, including by webinars and an an electronic mentoring platform;
Study the future role of the program;
Develop a strategic plan for how the program will evolve to meet the needs of small business concerns over the next five years.
The SBA Administrator and the SCORE Association would be prohibited from disclosing the contact information of a person or business participating in the program without their consent.
Argument in favor
The SCORE program helps link small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs with retired executives who can serve as mentors. This bipartisan reauthorization of the program will help small businesses across the country.
Argument opposed
These volunteers who participate in the SCORE program could create their own non-profit outside of the SBA and still be one of SBA’s partner organizations. All they’d need to do is raise their own money.
Impact
Small businesses and entrepreneurs; SCORE chapters and mentors; and the SBA.
Cost of H.R. 1700
A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.
Additional Info
In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) introduced this bill to reauthorize the SCORE program, which is the largest federal business mentoring program to help Americans start and grow their businesses:
“North Carolina small businesses employ more than 1.6 million people, or 44% of our workforce. They are the backbone of our economy. During National Small Business Week, we recommit ourselves to ensuring that small businesses have the resources they need to thrive and to continue being the job creating engines of our economy.”
This legislation has the support of one cosponsor, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE).
Of Note: The Service Corps of Retired Executives, which is now known as SCORE or the SCORE Association, was founded in 1964 and began creating local chapters in the 1970s. It has provided services to nearly 10 million Americans since its founding, and SCORE currently has over 13,000 volunteer business counselors located in 348 chapters across the U.S.
In 2014, SCORE’s volunteers donated more than 1.2 million hours of their time to mentor and train 148,800 small business owners and entrepreneurs -- leading to the creation of 56,079 businesses and 47,187 jobs. Of the clients assisted by SCORE, 107,201 increased their revenue in 2014, which is more than 72 percent of the entrepreneurs it worked with.
Media:
Summary by Eric Revell
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