Appendix A: Small Business Communities

Text of the federal Small Business Administration’s State Trade Expansion Program Funding Opportunity Announcement

Table of Contents

Overview

According to Section 8.1.15 of the federal Small Business Administration’s State Trade Expansion Program Funding Opportunity Announcement OIT-STEP-2018-01,

Small Business Communities (for the purposes of the [State Trade Expansion Program]) are defined as:

  1. socially and economically disadvantaged individuals . . . who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society because of their identities as members of groups and without regard to their individual qualities; whose ability to compete in the free enterprise system has been impaired due to diminished capital and credit opportunities as compared to others in the same or similar line of business who are not socially disadvantaged. The socially and economically disadvantage[d] individual must own not less than 51 percent of the firm. These include:
  • Black Americans;
  • Hispanic Americans;
  • Native Americans (Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, or enrolled members of a Federally or State recognized Indian Tribe);
  • Asian Pacific Americans . . . and
  • Subcontinent Asian Americans (persons with origins from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives Islands or Nepal).
  1. small business concerns owned or controlled by women that are:
    1. not less than 51 percent unconditionally and directly owned and controlled by one or more women who are United States citizens . . .
  2. rural small business concerns—an eligible small business concern located in a rural area. . . . This includes any area that is outside of a metropolitan statistical area (MSA). MSAs have at least one urbanized area of 50,000 or more population, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration as measured by commuting ties. . . .
  3. veterans and/or service-connected disabled veterans . . . a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable . . . and who is:
    1. not less than 51 percent unconditionally and directly owned and controlled by one or more veterans who are United States citizens.
Date published: June 30, 2022

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