H.R. 6492

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6492 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 6492

To change the percentage of outstanding stock that must be held through 
an employee stock ownership plan for the purposes of the pilot program 
to incentivize contracting with employee-owned businesses of the 
Department of Defense, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

December 5, 2025

Mr. Mills introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To change the percentage of outstanding stock that must be held through 
an employee stock ownership plan for the purposes of the pilot program 
to incentivize contracting with employee-owned businesses of the 
Department of Defense, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Empowering Small-business Ownership 
Participation Act'' or the ``ESOP Act''.

SEC. 2. CHANGE TO ESOP PERCENTAGE REQUIREMENT FOR PILOT PROGRAM TO 
INCENTIVIZE CONTRACTING WITH EMPLOYEE-OWNED BUSINESSES.

Section 874 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 
Year 2022 (10 U.S.C. 3204 note) is amended--
(1) by striking ``wholly-owned'' each place it appears and 
inserting ``owned'';
(2) in subsection (a)--
(A) in the heading, by striking ``Wholly-owned'' 
and inserting ``Owned''; and
(B) by striking ``100 percent'' and inserting ``not 
less than 30 percent'';
(3) in subsection (b), in the heading, by striking 
``Wholly-owned'' and inserting ``Owned''; and
(4) in subsection (c), in the heading, by striking 
``Wholly-owned'' and inserting ``Owned''.
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