GAO report

Paragraph (4) of section 4(b) of the SBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022 (Public Law 117–183; 136 Stat. 2194) is amended to read as follows: (4) GAO Report (A) In general Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the INNOVATE Act, and annually thereafter for 3 years, the Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a study and submit to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Small Business, the Committee on Armed Services, and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a report on the implementation and best practices of the due diligence programs established under section 9(vv) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638(vv)) across Federal agencies required to establish an SBIR or STTR program. (B) Study The study shall evaluate— (i) the effectiveness of each Federal agency that participates in the SBIR program or STTR program in identifying— (I) enhanced risk in cybersecurity practices in SBIR and STTR projects; (II) enhanced risk in patents, including co-authorship with academics in foreign countries of concern in SBIR and STTR projects; (III) enhanced foreign influence risk among employees of small business concerns involved in SBIR and STTR projects; (IV) foreign ownership of a small business concern seeking an award, including the financial ties and obligations (which shall include surety, equity, and debt obligations) in SBIR and STTR projects; and (V) security risks among applicants to the SBIR program or the STTR program, including connections to an entity, including any affiliates, spinouts, or subsidiaries of the entity, or individual on one or more of the lists referenced in subsection (g)(16)(D); (ii) by year, the number of proposals and number of small business concerns with foreign risks by each Federal agency that participates in the SBIR program or STTR program, including a delineation of how many of those small business concerns have previously received an award under the SBIR program or STTR program and the nature of those foreign risks made by each Federal agency; and (iii) the extent to which the Inspector General and counterintelligence authorities of each Federal agency that participates in the SBIR or STTR program effectively conducts investigations, audits, inspections, and outreach relating to the due diligence program to assess security risks in the SBIR or STTR program..