Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, a Federal department or agency may not carry out a mentor-protégé program for small business unless the head of the department or agency submits a plan to the SBA Administrator for the program and the SBA Administrator approves the plan. Before starting a new mentor protégé program, the head of a department or agency must submit a plan to the SBA Administrator. Within one year of the effective date of this section, the head of a department or agency must submit a plan to the SBA for any previously existing mentor-protégé program that the department or agency seeks to continue.

The SBA Administrator will approve or disapprove a plan submitted under paragraph (a) of this section based on whether the proposed program:

Will assist protégés to compete for Federal prime contracts and subcontracts; and

Complies with the provisions set forth in §§ 125.9 and 124.520 of this chapter, as applicable.

Paragraph (a) of this section does not apply to:

Any mentor-protégé program of the Department of Defense;

Any mentoring assistance provided under a Small Business Innovation Research Program or a Small Business Technology Transfer Program; and

A mentor-protégé program operated by a Department or agency on January 2, 2013, for a period of one year after the effective date of this section.

The head of each Federal department or agency carrying out an agency-specific mentor-protégé program must report annually to SBA:

The participants (both protégé firms and their approved mentors) in its mentor-protégé program. This includes identifying the number of participants that are:

Small business concerns;

Small business concerns owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans;

Small business concerns owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals;

Small business concerns owned and controlled by Indian tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, Native Hawaiian Organizations, and Community Development Corporations; and

Small business concerns owned and controlled by women;

The assistance provided to small businesses through the program; and

The progress of protégé firms under the program to compete for Federal prime contracts and subcontracts.