[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 929 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 929

  To amend the Small Business Act to promote the partnership of small 
    businesses and federally sponsored research entities to develop 
 commercial applications for research projects, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                June 18 (Legislative day June 17), 1997

   Mr. Kerry (for himself, Mr. Cleland, Mr. Wellstone, Mr. Robb, Ms. 
  Landrieu, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Bumpers, and Ms. Mikulski) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             Small Business

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Small Business Act to promote the partnership of small 
    businesses and federally sponsored research entities to develop 
 commercial applications for research projects, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small Business Technology Transfer 
Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) federally sponsored research at nonprofit institutions 
        has not been adequately applied to commercial purposes in the 
        past;
            (2) small businesses have the entrepreneurial spirit and 
        business experience to apply research for commercial uses;
            (3) the partnership between small businesses and research 
        institutions will create more commercial uses for innovative 
        ideas that will spur the economy; and
            (4) although to date the Small Business Technology Transfer 
        program has produced quality research proposals, an additional 
        evaluation period is warranted before the program is expanded 
        or made permanent.

SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

    The purpose of this Act is to reauthorize the Small Business 
Technology Transfer program for fiscal years 1998 through 2003 to allow 
for a more complete assessment of the impact and effectiveness of the 
program.

SEC. 4. SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Section 9(n) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
638(n)) is amended by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the 
following:
            ``(1) Required expenditure amounts.--With respect to fiscal 
        years 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, or 2003, each Federal 
        agency that has an extramural budget for research, or research 
        and development, in excess of $1,000,000,000 for that fiscal 
        year, may expend with small business concerns not less than 
        0.15 percent of that extramural budget specifically in 
        connection with STTR programs that meet the requirements of 
        this section and any policy directives and regulations issued 
        under this section.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall take 
effect on October 1, 1997.
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