HR-9586-119
Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity.
Sponsored by James McGovern (D-MA)
What it does
This bill would make changes across more than a dozen policy areas in a single package. Key provisions include: extending and expanding the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs through 2030 and increasing agency administrative funding; reauthorizing the Every Kid Outdoors program with expanded eligibility and $25 million per year in funding; creating a National Nuclear Forensics Center within the National Nuclear Security Administration; removing the medical certification requirement for intermittent leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA); allowing FHA, USDA, and VA to insure or guarantee second mortgages; creating a one-time-per-five-years federal tax credit of up to $1,000 for hearing aid purchases (with income limits); requiring a National Intelligence Estimate on Chinese AI systems within 180 days; criminalizing the use of shell corporations to conceal foreign national campaign contributions; and appropriating $1 million each to several agencies including the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the Joint Economic Committee, FinCEN, the Space Force, the EPA, and ARPA-E.
Who benefits
Small businesses pursuing federal R&D contracts, especially those in states historically underrepresented in SBIR/STTR awards. Fourth- and fifth-grade students and home-schooled children aged 10–11 who gain access to national parks and federal lands through the Every Kid Outdoors program, including those in underserved communities and children with disabilities. Workers who need intermittent FMLA leave without the burden of repeated medical certifications, particularly those with chronic or episodic conditions. Homebuyers — including veterans and rural buyers — who could use FHA, VA, or USDA-backed second mortgages to facilitate assumable mortgage transactions. Adults with hearing loss who are below the income thresholds ($150,000–$300,000 modified AGI), including their dependents. The intelligence community and national security policymakers who would receive a structured assessment of Chinese AI risks. Election integrity advocates and campaign finance regulators who would gain a new criminal enforcement tool against foreign-money shell corporations. Federal agencies receiving the $1 million supplemental appropriations, including ARPA-E, EPA science programs, and FinCEN.
Who is hurt
Federal agencies (DoD, DOE, HHS, NASA, NSF) that would be required to transfer at least 10% of their SBIR/STTR administrative funds to the SBA, potentially reducing their own program management capacity. Employers who currently rely on FMLA medical certification requirements to manage intermittent leave scheduling and reduce potential abuse; industries with high rates of unplanned absences (manufacturing, healthcare, retail) may face the greatest operational disruption. Competing small businesses in states that already receive high SBIR/STTR awards, who may see resources redirected toward underserved states. Taxpayers broadly, who bear the cost of the new appropriations and tax credit revenue loss. Higher-income individuals (above the $150,000/$300,000 AGI thresholds) who would be ineligible for the hearing aid tax credit. Existing holders of first mortgages on properties where second mortgages are now insured, who may face increased risk in foreclosure proceedings. Shell corporation service providers and attorneys who facilitate foreign-money structures, who would face new criminal liability.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that this bill addresses a wide range of concrete, bipartisan needs in a single efficient package. They contend that extending SBIR/STTR through 2030 and boosting administrative funding corrects chronic underfunding that has slowed small business innovation, while the outreach provisions help states long excluded from federal R&D dollars. On housing, they argue that enabling FHA, VA, and USDA second mortgage insurance unlocks assumable mortgage transactions — a practical tool for buyers in a high-interest-rate environment — and that the disclosure requirements increase market transparency. Supporters further argue that the hearing aid tax credit addresses a documented access gap: the National Institute on Deafness estimates 28.8 million Americans could benefit from hearing aids, yet fewer than one in three who need them use them, partly due to cost. The FMLA intermittent leave change, they contend, reduces bureaucratic burden on workers with chronic conditions without expanding the total leave entitlement.
Opponents argue
Opponents argue that bundling more than a dozen unrelated policy changes into a single bill bypasses the deliberative committee process that each provision would otherwise require, reducing accountability and public scrutiny. On the FMLA change, they contend that eliminating medical certification for intermittent leave removes the primary safeguard against misuse, and that employer groups have documented significant operational and cost burdens from unscheduled intermittent absences — burdens that would grow without verification requirements. On the hearing aid credit, critics argue the income thresholds are too high to target those most in need, and that the credit primarily benefits middle- and upper-middle-income households who would have purchased hearing aids anyway, producing a windfall rather than expanding access. On the second mortgage provisions, opponents argue that layering federally backed second liens on properties already carrying federally insured first mortgages increases systemic risk in government mortgage portfolios, echoing pre-2008 concerns about stacked federal loan guarantees.
Constitutional context
Most provisions fall comfortably within Congress's enumerated powers: spending and taxing authority (Art. I, §8) covers the appropriations, tax credit, and program reauthorizations; the Commerce Clause supports FMLA modifications and campaign finance criminal penalties. The foreign national campaign contribution provision (Title VIII) builds on existing law (52 U.S.C. 30121) and is unlikely to raise novel constitutional questions. No provision clearly implicates the major questions doctrine under West Virginia v. EPA (2022) or the post-Loper Bright agency deference framework, as the bill grants explicit statutory authority rather than relying on broad agency interpretation.
Checks and balances
Congress gains authority across multiple domains through this bill; implementation is distributed across the SBA, HUD, USDA, VA, DNI, DOJ, and several appropriated agencies, with oversight required through committee hearings within one year of enactment under Title IX.
Historical precedent
The SBIR/STTR programs have been reauthorized multiple times since 1982, most recently through the SBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022; the Every Kid Outdoors program was originally authorized in the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019.