SOAR Act

Core Policy Mechanism Top 1

SBA Growth Accelerator Grant Competition Program

Creates a Small Business Administration (SBA) grant program awarding at least $1 million per grant to organizations that support new businesses through workspace, mentorship, and services. At least half of all funds must go to accelerators serving underrepresented groups.

• Population Scope Low Directly affects growth accelerator organizations — a narrow, specialized subset of nonprofits and business-support entities — plus the early-stage small businesses they serve, a small fraction of the U.S. population.
• Budgetary Magnitude Medium Authorizes competitive grants of at least $1 million each with a 50% set-aside mandate, but the total appropriation is unspecified and discretionary, leaving overall scale indeterminate and Congress-dependent.
• Legal / Regulatory Depth Medium Creates a new statutory grant program within the Small Business Act — a new enforceable entitlement structure with eligibility criteria, use restrictions, and mandatory set-asides — but does not alter substantive rights or obligations outside the Small Business Administration (SBA)'s grant-making domain.
• Degree of Discretion Granted Medium The Administrator must implement the program and apply specified priority and consideration factors, but retains meaningful discretion in selecting recipients, weighing criteria, and designing the application process.
• Implementation & Enforcement Burden Low Imposes no new enforcement infrastructure or penalties; compliance obligations fall primarily on SBA in administering grants, not on a regulated public.
• Temporal Commitment High Amends the Small Business Act with no expiration date or reauthorization trigger, so the program persists indefinitely until Congress acts to repeal or amend it.