Read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Establishes the New Start Program at the Small Business Administration to award competitive grants (>$100,000 and <$500,000 annually) over five years to organizations that provide entrepreneurial development programming to formerly incarcerated and currently incarcerated individuals.
Grants support curricula, one-on-one coaching, mentorship, connections to capital (including microloan intermediaries and Community Advantage lenders), and seed investment opportunities; applicants must demonstrate community ties and access to capital.
The Administrator must coordinate with the Bureau of Prisons, report annually to Congress on program activity and participant outcomes, and GAO must evaluate the program after termination.
Narrow, noncontroversial program increases prospects, but open‑ended authorization, need for appropriations, and implementation logistics lower probability.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill establishes a substantive new grant authority within the Small Business Act with clear purpose, reasonable structure, and measurable reporting provisions, while delegating substantial operational discretion to the Administrator and omitting explicit funding levels and certain program safeguards.
Degree of federal spending and open-ended appropriation
Degree of federal spending and open-ended appropriation
Likely broadly supportive because the bill targets recidivism reduction, economic opportunity, and reentry services through entrepreneurship.
Sees it as a constructive, rehabilitation-oriented use of federal support that can advance equity for justice-impacted people.
May still press for stronger safeguards, adequate appropriation, and attention to structural barriers.
Generally favorable if the program is well‑funded, monitored, and cost-effective.
Views entrepreneurship training as a practical reentry tool but wants clear performance metrics and coordination with existing SBA programs to avoid duplication.
Concerned about vague appropriation language and oversight capacity.
Skeptical of expanding federal grant programs and open-ended spending for entrepreneurial training.
Might accept the goal of reducing recidivism, but worries about taxpayer subsidy of risky ventures and overreach of SBA into prison programming.
Could support a limited, tightly conditioned version with matching requirements.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
Narrow, noncontroversial program increases prospects, but open‑ended authorization, need for appropriations, and implementation logistics lower probability.
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Degree of federal spending and open-ended appropriation
Narrow, noncontroversial program increases prospects, but open‑ended authorization, need for appropriations, and implementation logistics l…
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill establishes a substantive new grant authority within the Small Business Act with clear purpose, reasonable structure, and measurable reporting provisions, while deleg…
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.