08/12/09 Small Business Survival, Weathering the Economy, Creating Jobs, and What the SBA Can Do to Assist Field Hearing
08/06/09 Confirmation Hearing for for SBA Inspector General and Chief Counsel for Advocacy Confirmation Hearing
07/29/09 Small Business and Health Care Reform Press Conference
07/09/09 Roundtable on Heathcare Reform: Small Business Concerns and Priorities Roundtable
06/30/09 Keeping America Competitive: Federal Programs that Promote Small Business Exporting Field Hearing
06/22/09 The NIH/SBIR exclusion in the Recovery Act Field Hearing
06/18/09 SBA Reauthorization Bills Markup
06/11/09 Investing in Small Businesses to Strengthen the Economy Roundtable
428A Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington DC, 20510
202-224-5175 p
202-224-5619 f
info@small-bus.senate.gov
Minority Site:
sbc.senate.gov/republican
Press Room: Press Releases
July 30, 2008
Kerry-Snowe Small Business Innovation Research Bill Passes Senate Committee
SBIR Reauthorization Bill Moves to Full Senate
WASHINGTON—Today the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship unanimously passed the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2008 to reauthorize the crucial Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The bipartisan bill is the result of months of deliberations among Committee members and includes a pivotal compromise that would allow limited investment in the SBIR program by majority-owned venture capital firms.
“Small business research keeps our country on the cutting edge of innovation,” said Senator Kerry, Chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. “We’ve worked to address many of the concerns of the small business community and of my colleagues in the House and Senate, and this bill would keep these programs going strong. This government-wide program has generated more than 84,000 patents and millions of jobs, and we need to make sure that it doesn’t lapse, so that it can continue to help keep our military strong, advance medical breakthroughs, and develop energy sources that are renewable and clean.”
“Reauthorizing the SBIR and STTR programs will unleash the ground-breaking innovation potential of our nation’s small businesses,” said Senator Snowe, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. “By increasing the percentage of Federal research and development dollars these crucial programs receive, we will pump another $1 billion into our small business economy. At a time when the nation is struggling to cope with skyrocketing energy prices and a slumping housing market, we simply cannot allow these programs to expire at the end of this coming September. Instead, we must expeditiously pass our legislation through the Senate and do everything within our power to help small businesses drive economic recovery.”
Federal agencies with an annual extramural research and development budget of over $100 million are required to allocate 2.5 percent of their extramural R&D dollars to the SBIR program. Currently, eleven agencies have SBIR programs. Since its inception in 1982, the SBIR program has been a resounding success, garnering high praise from the National Academy of Sciences in a recent comprehensive report on the program. Approximately 1 in 4 SBIR projects will result in the sale of new commercial products or processes.
Specifically, the bill passed today out of Committee:
- Reauthorizes the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for 14 years, making the new sunset dates September 30, 2022, and September 30, 2023, respectively.
- Includes a compromise on the issue of the participation of companies majority owned and controlled by multiple venture capital companies in the SBIR program, allowing NIH to award up to 18 percent of its SBIR dollars to companies majority owned and controlled by multiple VCs and the other ten SBIR agencies to award up to 8 percent of their SBIR dollars to this class of firms. The affiliation rule and the 500 employee standard remain unchanged in this bill.
- Increases the SBIR allocation from 2.5 percent of SBIR agencies’ extramural research and development budgets to 3.5 percent over the course of 10 years, 0.1 percent per year, for all SBIR agencies except for the Department of Health and Human Services, home to the National Institutes of Health.
- Doubles the STTR allocation from 0.3 percent of STTR agencies’ extramural research and development budgets to 0.6 percent, over the course of 6 years, for all STTR agencies.
- Increases the award size guidelines for the SBIR and STTR programs from $100,000 to $150,000 for Phase I and from $750,000 to $1 million for Phase II. This is in line with the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Attempts to increase geographic participation, particularly in rural states, by reauthorizing through 2014 and enhancing the Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) program and the Rural Outreach Program.
- Calls for better and streamlined data collection and assessment.
- Includes protections to address jumbo awards.