[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 32 (Friday, March 4, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S1264]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. LANDRIEU (for herself, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Brown of 
        Massachusetts, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Ayotte, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Pryor, 
        and Mr. Levin):
  S. 493. A bill to reauthorize and improve the SBIR and STTR programs, 
and for other purposes; to the Committee on Small Business and 
Entrepreneurship.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation with 
my colleague and chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and 
Entrepreneurship, Senator Landrieu, to reauthorize the critical Small 
Business Innovation Research, SBIR, and Small Business Technology 
Transfer, STTR, Programs. We are joined by Senators John Kerry, Scott 
Brown, Jeanne Shaheen, Kelly Ayotte, Ben Cardin, Mark Pryor, and Carl 
Levin. Frankly, after nearly 6 years of debate and discussion, it is 
well past time for us to pass this legislation and set these programs 
on a path of certainty.
  Our Nation's economic recovery is being suppressed by an inflated 
unemployment rate--which has been at or above 9 percent for 21 
consecutive months--and, as a result, a small business community that 
remains uncertain about the future and unable to invest in their 
businesses and hire new workers. They are looking for market-based ways 
to create jobs with limited government intervention and unleash their 
innovative potential. That is why I am excited about reauthorizing the 
SBIR and STTR programs, which foster an environment of innovative 
entrepreneurship by directing more than $2 billion annually in Federal 
research and development, R&D, funding to the Nation's small firms that 
are most likely to create jobs and commercialize their products.
  Small businesses are our Nation's job generators, employing more than 
half of all private sector employees and creating 64 percent of the net 
new jobs over the past 15 years. Furthermore, small businesses are our 
Nation's most effective innovators, producing roughly 13 times more 
patents per employee than large firms--patents which are at least two 
times as likely to be among the top 1 percent of high-impact patents. 
In a budgetary environment where the Small Business Administration, 
SBA, will be required to do more with less funding, it is crucial that 
the SBIR and STTR programs--one of the strongest examples of a 
successful public-private partnership--be a key part of the Agency's 
job creation agenda.
  These programs have been front and center in improving our Nation's 
capacity to innovate. According to a report by the Information 
Technology and Innovation Foundation, SBIR-backed firms have been 
responsible for roughly 25 percent of the Nation's most crucial 
innovations over the past decade plus--``a powerful indication that the 
SBIR program has become a key force in the innovation economy of the 
United States.''
  Regrettably, SBIR and expired in September 2008, and it has been 
subject to a series of 10 short-term, temporary extensions since then, 
plaguing the programs with uncertainty and potentially dissuading some 
of our Nation's most promising firms from participating in them. That 
is why Chair Landrieu and I introduced the SBIR-STTR Reauthorization 
Act, S. 4053, at the end of last Congress after extensive negotiation 
and debate. This bill--which passed the Senate unanimously in 
December--is virtually the same legislation we are introducing today. 
It would reauthorize the programs for 8 years, while making critical 
improvements, such as increasing the allocation for SBIR from 2.5 
percent of an agency's extramural research and development, R&D, budget 
to 3.5 percent over 10 years, and doubling the STTR allocation from 0.3 
percent over 6 years. Our legislation would also codify increased award 
sizes of $150,000 for phase I and $1 million for phase II in the SBIR 
program, and apply those levels to the STTR program as well.
  Our bill includes stringent oversight and fraud prevention measures, 
requiring inspectors general of participating Federal agencies to 
establish fraud detection measures, coordinate fraud-related 
information sharing between agencies, and provide fraud prevention 
related education and training to agencies administering the program, 
among other initiatives.
  The SBIR-STTR Reauthorization Act also includes an unprecedented 
compromise on the ``venture capital'' issue, which has long bogged down 
any serious progress in reauthorizing these valuable programs. It would 
make firms majority owned and controlled by multiple venture capital 
companies eligible for up to 25 percent of SBIR funds at the National 
Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Department of 
Energy, and up to 15 percent of the funds at the remaining eight 
participating SBIR agencies. Our compromise has the backing of diverse 
stakeholders from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of 
Independent Business, NFIB, and Small Business Technology Council, 
SBTC, to the Biotechnology Industry Organization, BIO, and the National 
Venture Capital Association, NVCA.
  So I look forward to ensuring that this will be the Congress to once 
and for all reauthorize these critical nationwide programs, and I am 
confident that the SBIR-STTR Reauthorization Act is the best way for us 
to get us there.

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