NIST bill for small business AI assistance passes House

A congressional push to provide artificial intelligence resources to small businesses took another step forward Monday with the passage of a bill that enlists the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the effort.

The Small Business Artificial Intelligence Advancement Act (H.R. 3679) from Reps. Mike Collins, R-Ga., and Haley Stevens, D-Mich., easily cleared the lower chamber, setting it up for Senate consideration next.

The legislation, which would require the NIST director to develop resources for small businesses to utilize AI, follows two Small Business Administration-focused bills that sailed through the House last month: the AI for Main Street Act and the AI Wisdom for Innovative Small Enterprises (AI-WISE) Act.

“Through this legislation, we will level the playing field,” Collins said on the House floor Monday. “We will ensure small businesses have the ability to modernize and remain competitive against their larger counterparts. Main Street is what keeps the American spirit alive. With this bill, we will ensure that Main Street is safe for generations to come.”

Some of the resources that would be provided by NIST to small businesses include technical standards, best practices, benchmarks, methodologies, procedures and processes, per the bill text, with each resource contributing to “the understanding, adoption, or integration of artificial intelligence.”

NIST’s director should ensure that each resource is “applicable and usable” for addressing a “wide range of small business concerns,” the bill states, in addition to including case studies, based on international standards, and “technology-neutral and relevant to technologies” that small businesses can access. 

The resources should also feature recommendations and references to existing federal educational materials, such as risk management, privacy and cybersecurity frameworks. The bill calls for NIST’s director to coordinate with the SBA administrator on the distribution of the resources via agency partners and other avenues.

Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said ahead of the vote Monday that he’s seen how rapidly major companies have developed AI technologies and incorporated them into their business models — something that “requires significant expertise and capital,” he said.

“As a result, many small businesses have not yet been able to fully unlock AI’s potential,” Babin continued. “It’s time to ensure small businesses can harness these capabilities as well as strengthening American entrepreneurship and competing with the Chinese Communist Party across every dimension of the AI race, including business innovation.”

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., echoed Babin’s comments on the need to help small businesses so they don’t “get left behind” on AI. He also touted how the bill builds on NIST cybersecurity programs to make sure small businesses adopt AI safely. 

“AI should be an opportunity for every American business, not just those with the biggest budgets,” Subramanyam said. “And as AI rapidly evolves from simple automation to agents that could interact with customers, handle sensitive data and even make decisions, the stakes for getting it right on privacy and cybersecurity are growing, and this bill will ensure that our small businesses have access to the practical resources they need to harness this technology.”