Bill > S3198

This bill, the Strengthening Resources for America's Entrepreneurs Act of 2012, aims to improve how the Small Business Administration (SBA) supports entrepreneurs and creates jobs. It directs the SBA Administrator to develop a plan for using its entrepreneurial development programs (EDPs) to create jobs in fiscal years 2013 and 2014, including strategies for specific regions and performance measures for job creation and retention. The bill also mandates the creation of a consistent process for collecting data on these programs to track their effectiveness, and requires the SBA to report annually to Congress on ways to better coordinate federal EDPs and reduce overlap. Furthermore, it calls for establishing a searchable online database of organizations that provide entrepreneurial development services, and for designating at least one employee in each SBA district office as a "community specialist" to work with local service providers and improve their connection to federal programs, with performance benchmarks set for these specialists.