Altmire, Velazquez Keep Crosshairs on SBIR
April 1, 2010
 
There wasn't much movement on the reauthorization front this month, but a couple of attacks on the SBIR program by members of the House Small Business Committee have served as a reminder of the need to stay vigilant in efforts to protect the SBIR program, even during this stalemate in the reauthorization process.

Early in March, Rep. Jason Altmire (PA-4) attempted to get H.R. 2965 added to the Health Care package that was being debated in the House. This was the same reauthorization bill that passed the House last year, and is currently stuck in conference committee with the Senate SBIR reauthorization bill, S. 1233. By getting HR 2965 attached to the Health Care bill, Rep Altmire hoped that, after the Health Care bill passed the House, it would quickly pass the Senate during the reconciliation process, and H.R. 2965 would be enacted as law, bypassing the current negotiations between the Senate and House and thereby nullifying S.1233.

After an influx of negative feedback and pressure from people who saw this as an attempt to subvert the negotiation process, Altmire slightly changed his stance, and asked for a compromise bill to be included in the Health Care package. Fortunately, there wasn't enough mainstream support for his proposal, and the House leadership did not include H.R. 2965 in the Health Care package.

After that controversy died down, the SBIR community received another surprise when House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) included in her recommendations for the Small Business Administration budget for fiscal year 2011 comments that characterized the SBIR as “corporate welfare” and SBIR recipients as “marginal companies”. The SBTC responded to her comments in a letter you can view by clicking here.

She later removed the comments from her budget recommendations before they were officially sent to the House Budget Committee, but the fact that they were included to begin with does not reflect well on the Chairwoman.

These minor controversies, even during a lull in action on the reauthorization front, show the importance of remaining active in our efforts to preserve the SBIR program, and make sure it is reauthorized fairly, and without being radically changed.

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