December 5, 2025
Mr. Mills introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
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.
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
.