The award recipient, not the agency, selects the technical and business assistance
What the document says“shall authorize recipients of awards under the SBIR program or the STTR program to select, if desired, technical and business assistance provided under subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (2) with respect to SBIR or STTR projects”
Subsection (1)(A)(i)(I) strikes the words in subsection (q)(1) of section 9 of the Small Business Act that let an agency enter into an agreement with one or more vendors it selected, and inserts these words in their place. As inserted, the agency authorizes award recipients to select, if desired, the technical and business assistance provided under subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (2). A later clause replaces the words 'such concerns' with 'such recipients' in the same sentence.
What the document actually says“shall authorize recipients of awards under the SBIR program or the STTR program to select, if desired, technical and business assistance provided under subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (2) with respect to SBIR or STTR projects”
The agency must let the firm choose its own help. The firm can also choose to skip it. The help comes from one of two places named in the law.
Before this, the agency picked a seller and set up a deal. Now the choice sits with the firm that won the award.
No action is recorded against this proposal. That is not evidence that none has been taken, and nobody has yet read it against the record. See what the tracker does not yet cover.