Sbir and Sttr Extension Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 4900, the SBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022. This is an exciting and thrilling day, and we couldn't push with more urgency to pass this legislation.

The Small Business Innovation Research Program, the SBIR, is well- known for its tagline of ``America's seed fund,'' as it inspires small businesses across the country to transform their ideas into marketable products and services.

On behalf of Chairwoman Johnson, I thank the Chairwoman for the Small Business Committee for bringing us here to this moment and, of course, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, for joining us in a bipartisan action to improve America's competitiveness.

The National Science Foundation piloted the SBIR program in the 1970s, at the urging of Members who recognized that investments in small business innovation benefits our Nation as a whole and creates jobs. Due to its success, Congress made it a governmentwide program. Decades later, SBIR has given back to the taxpayer in immeasurable ways. It has been so successful that the SBIR model has been replicated in 17 countries.

Since coming to Congress myself, I devote Mondays to visiting manufacturers or businesses in my district, in what I call Manufacturing Mondays, which showcases southeastern Michigan's innovation economy and our workforce. I have seen the powerful impact of the SBIR program firsthand in these visits; and previous to coming to Congress, I helped companies and small business innovators apply for these grants.

Last December, I had the privilege of visiting the team at Geofabrica, an Additive Manufacturing Technology Development company in Auburn Hills, Michigan, to hear about their exciting, DOD-funded SBIR work. Their CEO shared something that struck a chord. He said: ``Geofabrica would not have undertaken a fraction of its technology development if it were not for the SBIR and STTR programs.''

Think about that, my friends. These programs make discovery possible for small businesses; some beginning at the university level, and some that are small businesses in their infancy stage.

Over the past 5 years, the SBIR program has awarded small businesses in Michigan more than $348 million in funding for R&D. This has led to incredibly exciting discoveries and inventions in Michigan, from the development of a handheld technology that enables farmers to accurately detect nitrates in their own fields to save farmers money, while also protecting our freshwater systems from toxic algal blooms; to the testing of new ligand for PET imaging of the brain during clinical trials for new memory disorder drugs. This is all coming from this program we are going to reauthorize today.

The last comprehensive reauthorization for the SBIR program was 11 years ago. We have opted or just continued to extend the program, like we did in 2016, leaving powerful opportunities to strengthen SBIR out of the conversation. My, how the times have changed.

I began this Congress ready to work on updating SBIR in order to support our entrepreneurs, our job creators, and the place that I am so privileged to call home and represent, Oakland County, Michigan, the home of automation alley.

Congressman and Dr. Jim Baird and myself ushered in H.R. 4033, a smart and effective way to make improvements to SBIR. Unfortunately, our bill was not passed by the Senate, and it is not the complete legislation before us today. So even as we provide much- needed stability to the program with today's vote, we still have work to do.

One of my own priorities is to expand program outreach to enable agencies to reach more first-time entrepreneurs, particularly those who are Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and female entrepreneurs, people innovating in their home and alongside their family, particularly during these disruptive times of the COVID-19 pandemic. All of these individuals have innovations and businesses that have been long underfunded.

I also hope to see enhanced support for technology commercialization within the program, including through additional technical support to businesses and by providing agencies a wider range of funding tools to meet our unique needs.

Mr. Speaker, I call on my colleagues to join me in passing S. 4900 today for SBIR reauthorization.

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