SBIR Reauthorization
A Link To: The SBIR Reauthorization Issues (updated)
1/31/2010 Senate Approves SBIR Extension Here's the Press Release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/senate-approves-extension-of-sba-programs-82990762.html
Here's the link to the text of the actual Bill (HR 4508):http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-4508
With this action, the SBIR/STTR Programs for all agencies other than DOD are now extended to April 30, 2010. The DOD's Programs were extended to September 30, 2010, via the Defense Appropriations Bill.
1/28/2010 House Extends SBIR Program for 90 Days
"The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to extend the SBIR program for another 90 days. The program had been set to expire on Jan. 31, 2010, but the new continuing resolution now pushes the expiration date back to April 30. The Senate is also expected to pass this legislation in short order. This is the sixth CR passed since the SBIR program was originally up for expiration in 2008. Although reauthorization bills have been passed in the House and the Senate, the language in the two bills was very different, and the two Chambers have so far been unable to reconcile the differences in the two bills into a single bill that can be sent to the President for his signature. While we are happy that Congress has not allowed this important program to lapse, it is important that the two sides can reach an agreement this year, before the new Congress starts next year and this process will have to start all over again.SBTC has endorsed the Senate’s language as an acceptable compromise, and urges the House to do so as well."
"The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to extend the SBIR program for another 90 days. The program had been set to expire on Jan. 31, 2010, but the new continuing resolution now pushes the expiration date back to April 30. The Senate is also expected to pass this legislation in short order.
This is the sixth CR passed since the SBIR program was originally up for expiration in 2008. Although reauthorization bills have been passed in the House and the Senate, the language in the two bills was very different, and the two Chambers have so far been unable to reconcile the differences in the two bills into a single bill that can be sent to the President for his signature.
While we are happy that Congress has not allowed this important program to lapse, it is important that the two sides can reach an agreement this year, before the new Congress starts next year and this process will have to start all over again.SBTC has endorsed the Senate’s language as an acceptable compromise, and urges the House to do so as well."
1/27/2010
"It was a severe blow to biotechnology firms across the country when NIH extramural research funding was exempted from their requirement to dedicate funding to SBIR and STTR awards. As a result, small businesses across the country, which the recovery package was intended to benefit, have been denied the opportunity to fairly compete for more than $200 million in grants."
1/22/2010 FAST SBIR Action?
12/18/2009
As predicted, Omnibus Appropriations bills were rushed through this week, but SBIR reauthorization was not included among them. So it'll be January before any more attention is paid to us.The SBA did get $2 million appropriated for the Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST) program for State SBIR outreach funding. This hopefully assumes there will be something to reach out for! Unfortunately that money won't go very far. FAST awards have been in the $100K-$150K range. So, not much to report, and not much to advise y'all to do. We're just hanging. If you get a chance to talk to a legislator (or an aide) during the Christmas recess, do it! They might actually be relieved you're NOT talking about health care.We do have word from the White House that President Obama will turn his attention to Small Business issues as soon as Health Care is done. We say -- the sooner the better! Perhaps we can get some REAL attention to SBIR and other small business concerns for a change. This lip service we've been getting just isn't cutting it. Frankly, we'll believe it when we see it.
10/30/2009 House agrees to a three month SBIR Extension to 1/31/2010
The following is excerpted from Rick Shindell's SBIR Insider of 10/29/09:
As reported to you on Oct 26, Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), chair and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship (SBE) were able to get the Senate to pass S. 1929 that extends SBIR/STTR for all agencies (except DoD which was handled separately) for 6 months, expiring on April 30, 2010. The bill was then sent to the House for a vote.
Naturally, Representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), chair of the House Small Business Committee (SBC), didn't see eye to eye with the Senate, so she amended the bill by changing 6 months to 3 with an expiration date of January 31, 2010. With the short leash of the current October 31, 2009 expiration, and the fact that the House will not meet on Friday, the Senate will concur with the amendment and the President will sign this new Continuing Resolution (CR).
Bottom line, the SBIR/STTR programs will be extended through January 31, 2010, except for the DoD which was addressed separately by the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, and run through September 30, 2010.
The House and Senate are still in conference trying to reconcile differences in their bills in order to pass a true SBIR reauthorization bill. All conferees are being tight lipped about the progress but it is believed that they are getting close to a compromise bill. The Senate's bill originally contained several compromises on sensitive issues while the House was closer to "my way or the highway." Consequently progress on conferencing the two bills has been very slow and tough, to the point where some question if they can "get er done."
The Senate and House Armed Services Committees, lead by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and Representative Ike Skelton (D-MO), were not comfortable with the above scenario. Realizing that the SBIR, STTR and CPP programs were of great importance and benefit to the Department of Defense (DoD), as well as many small businesses, Levin and Skelton took matters into their own hands and worked together (with their ranking members and committees) to extended the DoD SBIR/STTR/CPP programs though the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2010). The vehicle used was the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law Wednesday, October 28.
The Armed Services committees were aided and abetted by the Senate SBE, while the House's SBC and S&T committees cried "foul", sent letters to Skelton and whined to Pelosi. Ultimately House S&T subcommittee David Wu (D-OR) worked out a compromise and the 14 year DoD extension was reduced to 1 year. Kudos to Levin, Skelton, Landrieu and their staff for their efforts. Oh yes, a "restrained nod" to Wu for trying to be helpful in a difficult situation.
Rick Shindell Copyright © 2009 Zyn Systems
10/27/2009
The following is from Rick Shindell's SBIR Insider of 10/26/09:
Today (October 26, 2009), the Senate passed S. 1929 that extends SBIR/STTR for all agencies (except DoD) as well as other small business programs for 6 months, expiring on April 30, 2010. This bill does not effect the earlier DoD SBIR/STTR 1 year extension passed by Congress as part of the DoD 2010 Authorization expected to be signed by the President on Wednesday.
Mary Landrieu (D-LA), chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship had this to say about this new extension bill (S.1929):
"A six-month extension of the SBA and its programs – including the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs – ensures that the agency has the stability it needs to provide our innovators and job creators the assistance they need to remain successful. While we continue to make progress on all of our reauthorization measures – SBIR/STTR, SBA’s loans and venture capital programs, contracting assistance, and management counseling – this temporary reauthorization will help keep America’s 29 million small businesses running through the holiday season. "
The bill will now be sent to the House to be evaluated by the House Small Biz Committee and its chair Nydia Velazquez, who will make changes or approve the bill in its current form and send to the whole House for a vote. Her committee has been reluctant to extend SBIR for any reasonable length of time, so it will be interesting to see if she and the House will go along with the Senate's bill of 6 months. Calculating that Congress will be very busy through November (absent during Thanksgiving week), and generally off as early as possible in December, it would be unlikely that any reauthorization could be completed before the end of the calendar year.
For those of you DoD SBIR'ers, you can relax for a while. The President is expected to sign the DoD Authorization on Wednesday, and that includes extension of DOD SBIR/STTR/CPP for 1 year (ending Sept 30, 2011). There was a great controversy to this bill, not because of SBIR but due to the addition of the "Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill" being included in this authorization. It caused a backlash by the Republicans who usually support defense, and you can expect certain sections of the press to report on the signing of this defense authorization bill to be called the "Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill".
So regardless of the new media title, the defense bill will be signed into law on Wednesday and the DoD SBIR is good until at least September 30, 2010.
I'm sorry I can't answer each of your questions personally (although I try), we'll publish many of the most popular ones in the next issue which should follow as soon as we receive word of the extension, aka "CR".
10/12/09
There has been a lot of action this week on the Hill with regards to the SBIR program. There were a number of hearings in the House and Senate that dealt with issues related to the SBIR program.The House and Senate Armed Services Committee in their Conference Report on the Defense Authorization Bill of 2010 approved a one year extension of the DOD SBIR, STTR and CPP programs. We had hoped to get the 14-year reauthorization period that was originally included in the Defense Authorization bill, but a 1-year reauthorization for the DOD programs is still a minor victory. It shows that this is an important enough program that the Armed Services committee is willing to step in and preserve it, and also allows the DOD and Armed Services-related small businesses plan for the next year, at least.We are grateful for the leadership and hard work of Chairman Ike Skelton and Chairman and Ranking Member, Howard McKeon and Chairman Carl Levin and Ranking Member John McCain. We are especially thankful for the hard work of Arun Seraphin of the Senate Armed Services Committee and of Tim McClees of the House Armed Services Committee. This allows the DOD to make sure the SBIR and CPP programs will continue to help small businesses develop and transition new technology to the warfighter.On Tuesday, the Senate Small Business and entrepreneurship Committee held a hearing on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and small business. Witnesses at the hearing were from SBA, DOD, DOE and NIH. The witnesses at the hearing testified that President Obama had directed them to make the "maximum practicable opportunity for small business" and that they took the President's directive seriously. The SBA said that its lending program were working well and were back to the pre recession levels. A remarkable increase from the sever downturn in lending last year. DOD testified that to date 58% of all of its ARRA funds have gone to small business. DOE testified that 6.7% of its contracts under ARRA have gone to small business.The NIH was unable to explain who asked for the NIH exemption from the SBIR in the ARRA. Dr. Sally Rockey testified that she was concerned that a decline in SBIR proposals would have meant that there wouldn't be sufficient quality proposal to award the 2.8% or $230 million. NIH testified that it had created some programs for small business and that small business had been encouraged to submit to other NIH programs. NIH said that small business response to the ARRA resulted in "unprecedented submissions by small business" and that small business "response was impressive." Despite this NIH stated that NIH will only provide $200 million of the ARRA money to small business. This is substantially less than NIH would have awarded under the SBIR program alone if NIH had not received an exemption. One has to question whether NIH is complying with President Obama's directive to make maximum practicable opportunity for small business.& nbsp; A number of questions appear obvious: 1. Given the unprecedented submissions by small business to existing and other NIH programs, wouldn't there have been a tremendous interest in the ARRA SBIR solicitation? 2. Why other agencies can do between 6 and 96% of their ARRA funds and NIH can barely do 2%? 3. Why did NIH creat new small business solicitations instead of using the existing SBIR program?
10/11/09
House / Senate Conference Report For National Defense Authorization Bill Includes "DoD Only" SBIR/STTR Reauthorization
Wednesday, October 7, 2009. The House & Senate Armed Service Committees reached agreement on the conference report to H.R. 2647, the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In this conference report (agreement on the consolidation / compromises of both House & Senate defense bills) of more than 1,400 pages, there are 2 pages of language that in essence, reauthorize the DoD's SBIR and STTR programs for 1 year (ending September 30, 2010), and extending the Commercialization Pilot Program (CPP) for the same period. This has no effect on the other ten agency SBIR/STTR programs that will expire on October 31, 2009 unless extended by another CR or reauthorized. The NDAA should come to the floor of both bodies quickly for a vote, perhaps Thursday. There are some provisions that are controversial and a few that the President didn't want, so the bill's passage and the President's signing, although likely, will not be a slam dunk. We have a copy of the SBIR portion of the report at www.zyn.com/sbir/insider/SBIR-Armed_Services_Report-100709.pdf. In our last SBIR Insider we told you that staffers of the House Small Business Committee (HSBC), House Science & Technology Committee (HS&T), and Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (SBE) were being very tight lipped about progress of their conference negotiations to pass comprehensive SBIR/STTR reauthorization. Obviously the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) actions reflect a vote of "no confidence" in the ability or likelihood of the other committees to reach SBIR reauthorization in a timely manner. INSIDE STUFF: Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), chair of the SASC, who is also a member of the SBE, worked closely with SBE committee chair Mary Landrieu (D-LA) as did their staffers, to incorporate the entirety of the Senate's SBIR reauthorization bill (S.1233) into the NDAA. Some SBIR changes were made by the SASC including making the reauthorization for 14 years, making the CPP permanent (rather than its pilot program status), and expanding the CPP to the STTR program. The HASC worked for inclusion of SBIR reauthorization for DoD only and had some differences with the Senate's bill. Bottom line was that all systems (in HASC & SASC) were "go" to reauthorize SBIR in the NDAA. Once it came to light that this action was for real and was gaining traction, HSBC chair Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), and HS&T subcommittee chair David Wu (D-OR) fired off a strong letter of complaint to HASC chair Ike Skelton (D-MO) and ranking member Buck McKeon (R-CA), along with a CC to Nancy Pelosi. (see www.zyn.com/sbir/insider/HASC_letter-9-25-09.pdf) In the House, there was great pressure on Armed Services to stand down on the SBIR issue. Chairman Skelton would not cave but he would compromise. The 14 years were reduced to 1, CPP was also only 1 year and was not expanded to STTR. This compromise should serve notice the other House committees that SBIR must be reauthorized properly or the DoD may run with their own program next year. Although this action is unprecedented in SBIR history, the Armed Services Committees are showing us that the SBIR program is of extreme importance to the DoD and support for the war fighter. It is also vital to many of America's small high tech businesses. Almost everyone on the hill agrees that SBIR is a good program that accomplishes what it was created to do. That's rare for most government programs, yet the House Small Business and S&T committees want to uproot the program to serve a few of their special interests at the expense of the overall program. Is it possible that the House Small Business and S&T committees are ignoring the success of the program in order to morph the program to serve their own special interests? Even if you agree with the House Small Business and S&T's sweeping changes, can you explain why they insist on only a 2 year reauthorization? The agencies could hardly get everything changed and running within that time, let alone measuring the effectiveness of the changes. If this doesn't wreak of a fund raising mechanism from their lobbyists, I'd like you to enlighten me. The House Small Business Committee hearings concentrated mainly on NIH/BIO/NVCA issues with very little attention given to DoD, which is 50 % of the entire SBIR program! Is it any wonder that Armed Services has taken the matter into their own hands? The Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) has issued the following statement on this unique action by Armed Services: "The House and Senate Armed Services Committee in their Conference Report on the Defense Authorization Bill of 2010 just approved a one year extension of the DOD SBIR, STTR and CPP programs. We are grateful for the leadership and hard work of House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, Ranking Member Howard McKeon, Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, and Ranking Member John McCain. We are especially thankful for the hard work of Arun Seraphin of the Senate Armed Services Committee and of Tim McClees of the House Armed Services Committee. This allows the DOD to make sure the SBIR and CPP programs are going to continue developing and transitioning new technology to the warfighter." We will update you on the progress of the NDAA bill and its effect on the SBIR community. Stay tuned. Rick Shindell Copyright © 2009 Zyn Systems.
In this conference report (agreement on the consolidation / compromises of both House & Senate defense bills) of more than 1,400 pages, there are 2 pages of language that in essence, reauthorize the DoD's SBIR and STTR programs for 1 year (ending September 30, 2010), and extending the Commercialization Pilot Program (CPP) for the same period.
This has no effect on the other ten agency SBIR/STTR programs that will expire on October 31, 2009 unless extended by another CR or reauthorized.
The NDAA should come to the floor of both bodies quickly for a vote, perhaps Thursday. There are some provisions that are controversial and a few that the President didn't want, so the bill's passage and the President's signing, although likely, will not be a slam dunk. We have a copy of the SBIR portion of the report at www.zyn.com/sbir/insider/SBIR-Armed_Services_Report-100709.pdf.
In our last SBIR Insider we told you that staffers of the House Small Business Committee (HSBC), House Science & Technology Committee (HS&T), and Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (SBE) were being very tight lipped about progress of their conference negotiations to pass comprehensive SBIR/STTR reauthorization. Obviously the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) actions reflect a vote of "no confidence" in the ability or likelihood of the other committees to reach SBIR reauthorization in a timely manner.
INSIDE STUFF: Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), chair of the SASC, who is also a member of the SBE, worked closely with SBE committee chair Mary Landrieu (D-LA) as did their staffers, to incorporate the entirety of the Senate's SBIR reauthorization bill (S.1233) into the NDAA. Some SBIR changes were made by the SASC including making the reauthorization for 14 years, making the CPP permanent (rather than its pilot program status), and expanding the CPP to the STTR program.
The HASC worked for inclusion of SBIR reauthorization for DoD only and had some differences with the Senate's bill. Bottom line was that all systems (in HASC & SASC) were "go" to reauthorize SBIR in the NDAA.
Once it came to light that this action was for real and was gaining traction, HSBC chair Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), and HS&T subcommittee chair David Wu (D-OR) fired off a strong letter of complaint to HASC chair Ike Skelton (D-MO) and ranking member Buck McKeon (R-CA), along with a CC to Nancy Pelosi. (see www.zyn.com/sbir/insider/HASC_letter-9-25-09.pdf)
In the House, there was great pressure on Armed Services to stand down on the SBIR issue. Chairman Skelton would not cave but he would compromise. The 14 years were reduced to 1, CPP was also only 1 year and was not expanded to STTR.
This compromise should serve notice the other House committees that SBIR must be reauthorized properly or the DoD may run with their own program next year.
Although this action is unprecedented in SBIR history, the Armed Services Committees are showing us that the SBIR program is of extreme importance to the DoD and support for the war fighter. It is also vital to many of America's small high tech businesses.
Almost everyone on the hill agrees that SBIR is a good program that accomplishes what it was created to do. That's rare for most government programs, yet the House Small Business and S&T committees want to uproot the program to serve a few of their special interests at the expense of the overall program.
Is it possible that the House Small Business and S&T committees are ignoring the success of the program in order to morph the program to serve their own special interests? Even if you agree with the House Small Business and S&T's sweeping changes, can you explain why they insist on only a 2 year reauthorization? The agencies could hardly get everything changed and running within that time, let alone measuring the effectiveness of the changes. If this doesn't wreak of a fund raising mechanism from their lobbyists, I'd like you to enlighten me.
The House Small Business Committee hearings concentrated mainly on NIH/BIO/NVCA issues with very little attention given to DoD, which is 50 % of the entire SBIR program! Is it any wonder that Armed Services has taken the matter into their own hands?
The Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) has issued the following statement on this unique action by Armed Services:
"The House and Senate Armed Services Committee in their Conference Report on the Defense Authorization Bill of 2010 just approved a one year extension of the DOD SBIR, STTR and CPP programs. We are grateful for the leadership and hard work of House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, Ranking Member Howard McKeon, Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, and Ranking Member John McCain. We are especially thankful for the hard work of Arun Seraphin of the Senate Armed Services Committee and of Tim McClees of the House Armed Services Committee. This allows the DOD to make sure the SBIR and CPP programs are going to continue developing and transitioning new technology to the warfighter."
We will update you on the progress of the NDAA bill and its effect on the SBIR community. Stay tuned.
7/31/09 STATUS OF REAUTHORIZATIONFollowing yesterday morning’s call with SBTC, here is the latest on SBIR reauthorization with some action items for us all over the August recess to help ensure that the final bill coming out of conference is the best that we can get for the small biz community.
ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE OVER THE SUMMER:Over the coming weeks there will active negotiation within the House and Senate conference committee, into which we will have no insight. We must expect active lobbying by the Wall Street VC crowd, especially as their House champions are up for re-election this Fall. The best we can do is to make our House and Senate Representatives aware that we as small businesses are unhappy with the House bill and support the Senate bill. Become a burr under their saddles. In particular, express your support for limiting VC involvement, limiting the size of awards, and increasing the size of the program so that the number of awards does not drop as a result of VC involvement. Therefore, during August recess when your representatives are in their districts, please remain an active advocate for SBIR reauthorization. Here are some guidelines:
We still have our work cut out, but we have made amazing progress. Great work everyone.Have fun this summer.Les
The SBTC Sent out the following today:
The Senate passed a continuing resolution on Friday that would extend the SBIR program another two months. That would make the new expiration date for the SBIR program September 30th, 2009. This CR also needs to pass the House of Representatives to be enacted, and we expect it to pass the House on Tuesday.Currently, the staff from the House Small Business and Science Committees are in negotiations in conference with the staff from the Senate Small Business Committee to produce a compromise SBIR reauthorization bill that will incorporate elements from both the House and the Senate Reauthorization Bills. We have heard and have reason to believe that both sides are negotiating in good faith, and that no party is acting unreasonably or otherwise sabotaging the process. Because there is an agreement between the staffers in the conference, we won't know what's in the compromise bill until it is finished and released to the public.The SBTC will be hosting a conference call to discuss these developments.SBTC Conference CallThursday, July 30th, 200911:00am ESTFor the call in number and code, contact Alec Orban at the SBTCAlec@SBTC.org or (202) 662-9700 ext 337
Dear SBIR Advocates:Click HERE: (SBIR_Conferee_Letter.pdf) to see the letter that will be sent from House Representatives to Senator Landrieu, Chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, expressing their support for S. 1233, the Senate SBIR Reauthorization Bill. We need about fifty House Representatives to sign on in order to swing the SBIR House/Senate conference deliberations to support the Senate bill. They can do that by contacting Mitch Robinson (Rep. Markey) at 5-2836 or Mitchell.Robinson@mail.house.gov, or Kate Lynch (Rep. Tsongas) at 5-4311 or Kate.Lynch@mail.house.gov.As you know, the Senate SBIR reauthorization bill, unlike its House counterpart, H.R. 2965, preserves most of the SBIR program for genuinely small businesses like ours, while the House bill sells out the SBIR program to large venture capital-controlled businesses. You will recall that several House representatives, including those who have already signed on to this letter, proposed amendments to H.R. 2965 that would have made it less onerous to small businesses, but this amendment was shot down by the House Rules Committee. We believe the reason was that your prior outreach efforts to your House representatives caused widespread consternation in the House that the Markey/Tsongas/Hodes/Welch amendment would pass, much to the consternation of the VC-lobby that has taken over the House SBIR reauthorization process. By signing onto this letter, your representatives get a second bite of that apple. Their signature supporting the Senate bill gives much better insight into what most House representatives really felt about House bill H.R. 2965 and its bad consequences for true small businesses. It provides Senator Landrieu and the Senate conference committee delegates with much-needed leverage to achieve a compromise SBIR reauthorization bill that is more like S. 1233 than its House counterpart. We need SBIR to remain a program that works for innovative, independently-owned small businesses like ours, rather than becoming a bail-out fund for well-heeled venture-capitalists.You do need to take action today. These negotiations will be over early next week. Your representative has already received a copy of this letter. Please call your House representative’s small business staffer, email the letter and ask him or her to bring it to their boss’ attention and get them to sign on this week. Thank you for this last effort in support of the 2009 SBIR reauthorization.We will keep you posted as information emerges from conference.Best,Les________________Leslie J. BowenPresidentMaterials Systems Inc.
Dear SBIR Advocates:Click HERE: (SBIR_Conferee_Letter.pdf) to see the letter that will be sent from House Representatives to Senator Landrieu, Chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, expressing their support for S. 1233, the Senate SBIR Reauthorization Bill.
We need about fifty House Representatives to sign on in order to swing the SBIR House/Senate conference deliberations to support the Senate bill. They can do that by contacting Mitch Robinson (Rep. Markey) at 5-2836 or Mitchell.Robinson@mail.house.gov, or Kate Lynch (Rep. Tsongas) at 5-4311 or Kate.Lynch@mail.house.gov.As you know, the Senate SBIR reauthorization bill, unlike its House counterpart, H.R. 2965, preserves most of the SBIR program for genuinely small businesses like ours, while the House bill sells out the SBIR program to large venture capital-controlled businesses. You will recall that several House representatives, including those who have already signed on to this letter, proposed amendments to H.R. 2965 that would have made it less onerous to small businesses, but this amendment was shot down by the House Rules Committee. We believe the reason was that your prior outreach efforts to your House representatives caused widespread consternation in the House that the Markey/Tsongas/Hodes/Welch amendment would pass, much to the consternation of the VC-lobby that has taken over the House SBIR reauthorization process. By signing onto this letter, your representatives get a second bite of that apple. Their signature supporting the Senate bill gives much better insight into what most House representatives really felt about House bill H.R. 2965 and its bad consequences for true small businesses. It provides Senator Landrieu and the Senate conference committee delegates with much-needed leverage to achieve a compromise SBIR reauthorization bill that is more like S. 1233 than its House counterpart. We need SBIR to remain a program that works for innovative, independently-owned small businesses like ours, rather than becoming a bail-out fund for well-heeled venture-capitalists.You do need to take action today. These negotiations will be over early next week. Your representative has already received a copy of this letter. Please call your House representative’s small business staffer, email the letter and ask him or her to bring it to their boss’ attention and get them to sign on this week. Thank you for this last effort in support of the 2009 SBIR reauthorization.We will keep you posted as information emerges from conference.Best,Les________________Leslie J. BowenPresidentMaterials Systems Inc.
Here's a Dear Colleague letter sent to all Members of the House of Representatives by Rep. Niki Tsongas and others: Tsongas Dear Colleague Letter.pdf
Get your Representatives to sign onto this letter! They can do that by contacting Mitch Robinson (Rep. Markey) at 5-2836 or Mitchell.Robinson@mail.house.gov, or Kate Lynch (Rep. Tsongas) at 5-4311 or Kate.Lynch@mail.house.gov.
Here's a letter from the SBTC to Senator Landrieu: SBTC Letter to Sen Landrieu.doc
Use this a basis for your own letters! The Primary Message to Legislators Regarding Eligibility: If companies with VC majority funding wind up getting SBIR awards, then more Federal R&D money will flow to States where companies with VC seed investment are located. The states with virtually no VC seed deal flow will lose Federal R&D money flow. Who wants to vote for fewer Federal R&D dollars coming to their State?
The Primary Message to Legislators Regarding Eligibility:
If companies with VC majority funding wind up getting SBIR awards, then more Federal R&D money will flow to States where companies with VC seed investment are located. The states with virtually no VC seed deal flow will lose Federal R&D money flow.
Here's a Data Sheet with the details of this information: PDF: 2005_VC_Seed_Investment_vs_SBIR_Awards_report.pdfExcel: 2005_VC_Seed_Investment_vs_SBIR_Awards_spreadsheet.xls
Here's a Data Sheet with the details of this information:
PDF: 2005_VC_Seed_Investment_vs_SBIR_Awards_report.pdfExcel: 2005_VC_Seed_Investment_vs_SBIR_Awards_spreadsheet.xls
When you fax a letter, address it to the Legislator, but send it to the attention of the "Legislative Policy Advisior for Small Business Issues".
SBIR on the Web
Here are links to some of the related articles that are appearing:
As SBIR Bill Passes To Senate, Venture Industry Not Pleased
Small Business Committee Votes to Reauthorize SBIR/STTR and ...
Should the Government Focus Resources on High-Potential Start-Ups?
The Daily Start-Up: It's Time To Mark Up The SBIR Bill
Battle Rages Over Venture Capital's Role in Federal Small Business ...SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONTRACTING AND TECHNOLOGY MARKS UP LEGISLATION TO ...
GRAVES & COMMITTEE EXAMINE SMALL BUSINESS ACCESS TO CAPITAL
House Ready to Steam Roll Venture Capital BillSlicing and dicing SBIR award dataLandrieu wants SBA programs extended
SBIR REAUTHORIZATION BEGINS JOURNEY IN THE HOUSELandrieu, Snowe Look to Strengthen Small Business Research and Development OpportunitiesCongress looking at modernizing SBIR & STTR programsWill SBA Be Kinder to VC Industy?Does biotech win if VCs get a better chance at SBIR?Obama's SBA Nomination Nods In Favor Of VC IndustryLandrieu, Snowe Comment on NAS SBIR StudyThe Study: NAS_Study-Venture_Funding_and_the_NIH_SBIR_Program.pdf(Know of any other good ones? Send me the link!)
SBIR ADVOCACY MAILING LIST SIGNUP
You'll be prompted: 1. Sign in to Google Groups; 2. Sign in and apply for membership; or 3. Contact the owner (select this option if you don't wish to create a Google login; you can still be added, but your control of group options will be restricted)
The primary contact at the SBTC is Alec Orban (202-662-9700 x337, Alec@SBTC.org)
You are urged to join the SBTC and help us in this campaign.
SBIR Advocacy - Ann Eskesen Ann's Call to Action Web-Section
Roland Tibbetts - An Important Voice to HeedRoland Tibbetts is universally acknowledged as the father of the SBIR Program with his design and development of the pilot program in the National Science Foundation in the mid-seventies. Retired from NSF since 1996, Roland continues to be a strong SBIR advocate. His insights and opinions are worthy of note and are provided here:The Importance of SBIR: Roland_Tibbetts_on_SBIR.pdfPreparing for Reauthorization - some facts to ponder:Roland Tibbetts on SBIR_Reauthorization - 2006 letter.pdfWhy the provisions in H.R.5819 would damage the SBIR Program:Roland Tibbetts on SBIR Reauthorization - 2008 critique.pdf
Past R&D 100 Awards:
Background
The SBIR Program, created by the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982, comes up for reauthorization periodically. SBIR Reauthorization was enacted in 1986, 1992, and 2000. The program was slated for reauthorization again by September 30, 2008, but was extended by continuing resolutions to March 20, 2009, and again to July 31, 2009.
The STTR Program was created by the Small Business Research and Development Act of 1992 as an additional element of the SBIR Program, and was reauthorized in 1996 and 2001. It is scheduled for further reauthorization by September 30, 2009.
The Coach's Position (updated with the current bills)
