[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 71 (Thursday, May 1, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E787]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E787]]


                     SBIR/STTR REAUTHORIZATION ACT

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                               speech of

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 23, 2008

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 5819) to 
     amend the Small Business Act to improve the Small Business 
     Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business 
     Technology Transfer (STTR) program, and for other purposes:

  Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Chairman, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 
5819, the Small Business Innovation Research & Technology Transfer 
Reauthorization Act. This legislation squanders a unique opportunity to 
provide stimulus to our country's small business community.
  Congress created the Small Business Innovation Research program after 
acknowledging that small businesses could not compete with their 
larger, better-funded corporate competitors in the federal grantmaking 
arena. With the enactment of the SBIR program, Congress made the clear 
statement that the innovation and ingenuity of the entrepreneurial 
spirit of small businesses must be encouraged.
  Title II of H.R. 5819 would relax the venture capital investment 
standards for SBIR grant eligibility, allowing venture capital firms 
and venture capital subsidiaries of large businesses to increase their 
ownership in and financial stake of small businesses applying for these 
grants. This would cause the research priorities of these small 
businesses to be driven by the short-term profit motives of the venture 
capital firms. Moreover, these changes would effectively kill the 
spirit of the SBIR and STTR grant programs, granting access to 
corporations and other entities whose disproportionate competitive 
advantages these programs were designed to mitigate.
  The small business community in this country deserves better. For 
decades, small business has been the spark that lights our economy and 
the energy that fuels it. Let us not undermine their contributions to 
our economy by weakening the very programs that drive their success.

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