Landrieu, Snowe Push to Foster Small Business Innovation

Introduce bill to reauthorize SBIR/STTR programs

WASHINGTON, June 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- United States Senate Committee
on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Ranking
Member Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, today introduced legislation to reauthorize
the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Small Business Innovation Research
program and Small Business Technology Transfer program. SBIR is scheduled to
sunset on July 31, 2009, and STTR is scheduled to sunset on September 30,
2009.

"SBIR and STTR are essential programs that level the playing field for
America's 27 million small businesses," Chair Landrieu said. "They have been
extremely successful for so many small businesses from Louisiana and across
the nation. Recipients of SBIR and STTR awards have produced more than 85,000
patents and have generated millions of well-paying jobs across all 50 states.
This bill strikes a fair compromise on the question of eligibility
requirements, allowing some new firms to participate while not changing the
nature of these successful programs. We must make sure these remain programs
for truly small businesses. Today is a very important first step toward
getting a bill to President Obama's desk before the July 31st expiration of
SBIR."

"Reauthorizing the SBIR and STTR programs will unleash the ground-breaking
innovation potential of our nation's small businesses, particularly given that
these critical initiatives direct more than $2 billion in Federal research and
development funding annually to small-tech firms across the nation," said
Ranking Member Snowe. "At a time when the nation is struggling to dig out of
the deepest recession since the Great Depression, we must ensure that our
country once again brings to bear the kind of ingenuity, creativity, and
innovation that made America and our free-market economy the greatest and most
powerful on earth. By assisting thousands of pioneering small businesses with
the development and promotion of scientific breakthroughs, the SBIR and STTR
programs keep America ahead of the curve. And by increasing the percentage of
Federal research and development dollars they receive, we will pump another $1
billion into our small business economy."

The SBIR program was established by Congress in 1982, and the STTR program in
1992, to, among other things, help meet the government's research and
development needs through small businesses. Federal agencies with an annual
external R&D budget of more than $100 million must allocate 2.5 percent of
their extramural R&D dollars to the SBIR program. Agencies with an annual
external R&D budget of more than $1 billion must allocate an additional 0.3
percent to the STTR program. While departments and agencies make awards and
manage their own programs, the SBA has government-wide oversight.

The last comprehensive reauthorization of the SBIR program occurred in 2000,
when the program was reauthorized for eight years, scheduled to sunset on
September 30, 2008. The program has since received two temporary extensions --
first to March 20, 2009 and now to July 31, 2009. The STTR was last
reauthorized in 2001, also for eight years.

A similar bill received unanimous support from the Committee last year. The
legislation will reauthorize the programs for 14 years, giving small
businesses and the government the stability they need to plan for and
transition important technologies for our country. It amends the eligibility
requirements to allow businesses owned and controlled by multiple venture
capital firms to compete for a certain percentage of SBIR projects while
making sure that there's a fair playing field for the small businesses that
are independently owned and operated. It also adjusts the amount of SBIR and
STTR awards to reflect inflation costs while taking a measured approach to
increasing the allocation dedicated to these important small business research
and development programs.

SOURCE U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Scott Schneider (Landrieu), +1-202-224-4030,
scott_schneider@small-bus.senate.gov; or Matthew Berger (Snowe),
+1-202-224-8493, matthew_berger@small-bus.senate.gov; both of the U.S. Senate
Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship