Small business centers must teach AI to business owners

What it does

This bill changes the Small Business Act. It tells small business centers to help owners learn about AI. The centers must teach AI use, data safety, and computer security. They must show how to use AI in a business. The bill does not add new money.

Who it affects

Small business owners can get free help learning about AI. Small business centers must add AI training to what they offer.

One thing to notice

The bill does not give centers new money to pay for AI training. Centers must use their current budgets to teach this new skill.

From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.

Where it stands

4 cosponsors: 4 Democrats.

• Oct 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Oct 17, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Small Business and Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Small Business”
• Nov 18, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
• Nov 18, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 27 - 0”
• Jan 20, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required)…”
• Jan 20, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Williams (TX) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

5 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 8 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.

Those reports show $61,110,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 70 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.

More groups named this bill than 78% of bills with any report.

Mark Alford, who sponsored the bill, received $594,250 from PACs for the 2026 election.

• Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $54,660,000 in 3 reports
• Google Client Services LLC — $3,570,000 in 1 report
• Intuit, Inc. and Affiliates (formerly Intuit, Inc.) — $2,100,000 in 2 reports
• Doordash, Inc. — $750,000 in 1 report
• Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (sbe Council) — $30,000 in 1 report

Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.

Words to know

• small business centers — Government-funded offices that give free advice and training to small business owners
• AI — Computer systems that can learn and make choices like humans do
• computer security — Ways to protect computers and data from hackers and theft
• data safety — Keeping private facts and numbers safe and secure
• lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
• PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.