Sec. 5. HOPE technology innovation contracts
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The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, shall hold a merit-based competition to award HOPE Technology Innovation Contracts to qualified business or nonprofit organizations to create technology applications, widgets, and templates that eligible entities can use to create HOPE accounts described in section 4(b). The Secretary shall award not more than 10 and not fewer than 2 contracts under this section for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2030.
Contracts under this section shall range in size from $200,000 to $4,500,000. All technologies developed with funds from a contract under this section shall be open-sourced and available to the public at no cost. Except as provided in paragraph (2), a qualified business or nonprofit organization that enters into a contract under this section shall not have access to any client or household data through such contract. A qualified business or nonprofit organization that enters into a contract under this section and that is also a contractor or subgrantee for an eligible entity for purposes of assisting such entity in carrying out a HOPE Accounts Pilot Project described in section 4(b) may have limited, functional access to client or household data with respect to such assistance.
In no case shall a qualified business or nonprofit organization that enters into a contract under this section share or sell client or household data obtained through such contract. In awarding contracts under this section, the Secretary of Health and Human Service shall give preference to contracts— for client facing technology, with the Secretary giving higher preference for mobile device applications and uses and giving secondary preference for tablet, computer, and texting uses; that incorporate fail-safe systems to maintain the privacy and security of data; that are easily adaptable at the lowest possible financial costs with the least possible staff time by eligible entities carrying out a pilot project supported by section 4 and other State, county, city, municipal, and Tribal governments in a manner that can easily be utilized by low-income individuals in the United States; and that build in the ability to be easily updated as technologies evolve.