[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4511-4512]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 SBIR/STTR REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2011

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of S. 493, which the clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 493) to reauthorize and improve the SBIR and 
     STTR programs, and for other purposes.

  Pending:

       McConnell amendment No. 183, to prohibit the Administrator 
     of the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating any 
     regulation concerning, taking action relating to, or taking 
     into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to 
     address climate change.
       Vitter amendment No. 178, to require the Federal Government 
     to sell off unused Federal real property.
       Inhofe (for Johanns) amendment No. 161, to amend the 
     Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the expansion of 
     information reporting requirements to payments made to 
     corporations, payments for property and other gross proceeds, 
     and rental property expense payments.
       Cornyn amendment No. 186, to establish a bipartisan 
     commission for the purpose of improving oversight and 
     eliminating wasteful government spending.
       Paul amendment No. 199, to cut $200,000,000,000 in spending 
     in fiscal year 2011.
       Sanders amendment No. 207, to establish a point of order 
     against any efforts to reduce benefits paid to Social 
     Security recipients, raise the retirement age, or create 
     private retirement accounts under title II of the Social 
     Security Act.
       Hutchison amendment No. 197, to delay the implementation of 
     the health reform law in the United States until there is 
     final resolution in pending lawsuits.
       Coburn amendment No. 184, to provide a list of programs 
     administered by every Federal department and agency.

[[Page 4512]]

       Pryor amendment No. 229, to establish the Patriot Express 
     Loan Program under which the Small Business Administration 
     may make loans to members of the military community wanting 
     to start or expand small business concerns.
       Landrieu amendment No. 244 (to amendment No. 183), to 
     change the enactment date.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, could I ask the Chair--I know we are 
discussing the bill. But do we have a time constraint? I understand 
that at 12 o'clock there may be some additional commentary.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is no formal time constraints at this 
time.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Let me try to recap for just a moment because it is my 
understanding there may be some colleagues coming down to the Senate 
floor around 12 o'clock to pay tribute to an extraordinary woman and 
extraordinary American, Geraldine Ferraro, whom we lost this week. I 
most certainly want to be respectful to the Members who are coming to 
the floor to pay tribute to our former colleague and an extraordinary 
leader. But let me remind colleagues we are still trying to get to this 
bill, an important bill for the country, an important bill to help put 
this recession in our rearview mirror, an important bill that gives us 
yet one more very carefully crafted tool to help create jobs on Main 
Street, in rural areas, in suburban areas, and in urban areas all 
across this country; that is, the 8-year reauthorization of the Small 
Business Innovation and Research Program and Small Business Technology 
Transfer Program.
  This program is approximately 20 years old, first passed by Senator 
Warren Rudman, when a report found its way to Congress that said, 
alarmingly, agencies of the Federal Government, whether it was the 
Department of Defense or NASA or NIH, were not accessing the power and 
the technology of the small business community; that when they went out 
to do research they were just looking at research offered by either 
just universities and we are very proud of the work that our 
universities do, but they were looking at large businesses. What did GE 
have to offer? What did IBM have to offer?
  It occurred to many Members of Congress at that time that there was a 
tremendous amount of brain power and agility and quickness and cutting-
edge, innovative technologies resting in the minds and hearts and 
dreams of entrepreneurs and small businesses in America the taxpayers 
were not benefiting from.
  As you can imagine, people might think of all this technology coming 
out of New York or California. They might skip over a place such as 
Montana where the Presiding Officer is from or Louisiana where this 
Senator is from. So there were some very wise Members who said: Let's 
create a program that will direct at least a portion of the research 
and development funding of these large agencies so small businesses can 
compete.
  Now, these are grants not given out by formula or on a first-come/
first-served basis. These grants and contracts are given out based on 
merit, about what looks promising, about potential, and about what the 
taxpayers need in terms of dealing with problems.
  One thing that comes immediately to mind is the terrible tragedy 
unfolding in Japan as we speak with the potential meltdown, the process 
of a nuclear reactor melting down. Some of the technology being 
deployed to that situation, which is technology developed in the field 
of robotics, was developed, a portion of it, through this SBIR Program. 
So that makes very relevant the debate that we are having on the floor 
today.
  When people go home and now are turning on their televisions or 
listening to their radios or over the Internet following those 
unfolding dramatic developments in Japan, they know that one of the 
companies that has been deployed and some of the material from the 
United States actually was developed through this program. So that is 
just one of a thousand examples that Senator Snowe and I have provided 
in terms of testimony before the Small Business Committee to the 
Congressional Record, and in our numerous speeches on the floor to talk 
about the importance of this program.
  I would like, as the manager of this bill--I am not sure it is going 
to be possible, but I would most certainly like to have this bill voted 
on and passed by the end of this week. I am not sure the leadership has 
decided that is something that is possible. But I would like to send a 
strong bill over to the House--hopefully, a bill that does not have 
amendments on it that would warrant a Presidential threat of a veto--
and get this bill passed through the House and then passed on to the 
President so he can sign it and send a very positive signal for his 
agenda and all of our agendas for innovation--having America be the 
best educated, the best competitors in the world in terms of the 
economy, and giving our small businesses yet another tool.
  We have worked on reducing the abuses in the credit card industry. We 
have worked on capital access through a new lending program. We have 
reduced fees, reduced taxes to the tune of $12 billion to our small 
businesses throughout the country in the last Congress. We want to 
continue to work on lowering taxes where we can, eliminating 
regulations and supporting programs like this that work.
  Let's eliminate or modify those programs that are not working, and 
let's step up our support and reauthorize the programs that are. The 
assessments done and the reviews of this program by the independent 
researchers have been very positive across the board and outstanding.
  Senator Snowe and I have taken into consideration those many reports 
in the drafting of this bill and made some changes to the program so 
that as it moves forward for the 8 years it will even be better.
  One of my key goals and objectives is to make sure States such as 
Louisiana or Mississippi or Montana or Wyoming, States that have not 
previously been awarded many of these grants, know we have stepped up 
some technical assistance and help so we can find the best technology 
in this country to apply to some of our most pressing problems, 
regardless of whether they are in the big cities and big places such as 
New York, Los Angeles, CA. But we need our entrepreneurs around the 
country to benefit by a program that they have access to as well.
  So I am pleased that we can get back on the small business innovation 
and research bill and small business technology transfer bill. Senator 
Snowe and I will be coming to the floor periodically during the day to 
continue to move this bill along.
  I see my colleague, the Senator from Maryland, who is scheduled to 
speak in just a few minutes. So at this time I will yield the floor. 
Again, I hope, and I thank our colleagues for their cooperative nature 
that they have been working in in terms of trying to get our bill 
passed that will be so important to so many people in all of our 
States.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.

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