Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 120.djvu/3464

 PUBLIC LAW 109–461—DEC. 22, 2006

120 STAT. 3433

‘‘(f) DATABASE OF VETERAN-OWNED BUSINESSES.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) through (6), the Secretary shall maintain a database of small business concerns owned and controlled by veterans and the veteran owners of such business concerns. ‘‘(2) To be eligible for inclusion in the database, such a veteran shall submit to the Secretary such information as the Secretary may require with respect to the small business concern or the veteran. ‘‘(3) Information maintained in the database shall be submitted on a voluntary basis by such veterans. ‘‘(4) In maintaining the database, the Secretary shall carry out at least the following two verification functions: ‘‘(A) Verification that each small business concern listed in the database is owned and controlled by veterans. ‘‘(B) In the case of a veteran who indicates a serviceconnected disability, verification of the service-disabled status of such veteran. ‘‘(5) The Secretary shall make the database available to all Federal departments and agencies and shall notify each such department and agency of the availability of the database. ‘‘(6) If the Secretary determines that the public dissemination of certain types of information maintained in the database is inappropriate, the Secretary shall take such steps as are necessary to maintain such types of information in a secure and confidential manner. ‘‘(g) ENFORCEMENT PENALTIES FOR MISREPRESENTATION.—Any business concern that is determined by the Secretary to have misrepresented the status of that concern as a small business concern owned and controlled by veterans or as a small business concern owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans for purposes of this subsection shall be debarred from contracting with the Department for a reasonable period of time, as determined by the Secretary. ‘‘(h) TREATMENT OF BUSINESSES AFTER DEATH OF VETERANOWNER.—(1) Subject to paragraph (3), if the death of a veteran causes a small business concern to be less than 51 percent owned by one or more veterans, the surviving spouse of such veteran who acquires ownership rights in such small business concern shall, for the period described in paragraph (2), be treated as if the surviving spouse were that veteran for the purpose of maintaining the status of the small business concern as a small business concern owned and controlled by veterans. ‘‘(2) The period referred to in paragraph (1) is the period beginning on the date on which the veteran dies and ending on the earliest of the following dates: ‘‘(A) The date on which the surviving spouse remarries. ‘‘(B) The date on which the surviving spouse relinquishes an ownership interest in the small business concern. ‘‘(C) The date that is ten years after the date of the veteran’s death. ‘‘(3) Paragraph (1) only applies to a surviving spouse of a veteran with a service-connected disability rated as 100 percent disabling or who dies as a result of a service-connected disability. ‘‘(i) PRIORITY FOR CONTRACTING PREFERENCES.—Preferences for awarding contracts to small business concerns shall be applied in the following order of priority:

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