ESOP Act

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