H.R. 6492 — Introduced in House

I 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 6492 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES December 5, 2025Mr. 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. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Empowering Small-business Ownership Participation Act or the ESOP Act. 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.