SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Louisiana, Ms. Landrieu, for those nice words and also for her leadership. We are all indebted to Senator Landrieu and Ranking Member Snowe for their leadership of the Small Business Committee and in bringing forward this legislation before us, the small business innovation research program.

They worked very hard in the last session of Congress to get this bill through the Senate, and it would have passed then except the House adjourned before taking it up. I am thrilled that we are getting back to it this early in this session.

I think most of us recognize that our future economic prosperity depends on whether this country continues to be a leader in science and innovation. We can't compete with India, China, and other Third World countries for low-wage manufacturing jobs. That is not our future. America's future is to be the global leader in science and technology. America makes the best, most innovative products and services. That ingenuity and excellence is our chief economic strength as a nation.

As a former small business owner, I understand it is the private sector and business, and not government, that is responsible for most of the job creation in this country. But I also understand that government has a critical role to play in fostering the positive business climate that we need in this country to remain competitive. I believe there are a few things we can do through policy to unleash the innovative spirit that is so alive and well throughout this

country, and particularly in my State of New Hampshire.

One of those policy initiatives that we can do that is essential in maintaining the creative dominance that has allowed us to lead the world in innovation is to enact a long-term reauthorization of the Small Business Innovation Research Program or the SBIR Program.

SBIR is not just a typical grant program. Under the SBIR Program, a small business is able to compete for research that Federal agencies need to accomplish their mission--agencies such as the Department of Defense. Small businesses employ about one-third of America's scientists and engineers and produce more patents than large businesses and universities. Yet small business receives only about 4 percent of Federal research and development dollars.

SBIR ensures that small business gets a tiny fraction of the existing Federal research dollars. Just in the last few weeks, I visited three New Hampshire companies that are doing cutting edge research because of the SBIR Program. Those three are Airex in Somersworth, Spire Semiconductor in Hudson, and Active Shock in Manchester. The research they have done under the SBIR Program has allowed them to develop new products, to add customers, and hire new workers--in other words, create jobs. All three have done essential research for the Department of Defense.

Airex, for example, has developed a state-of-the-art program to manufacture critical components for our Nation's strategic missiles. This SBIR award positioned them perfectly to compete and win a contract to manufacture motors for use in military programs and to commercialize their research. They have been able to expand from a workforce of 10 to, currently, 25 workers since they got that SBIR award, and they are continuing to grow.

In Hanover, we have a company called Creare that is a poster child for the economic benefit that can be reaped through the SBIR Program. Senator Landrieu has talked on the floor about Qualcomm in San Diego. We should put Creare in Hanover, NH, in the same category as Qualcomm.

Creare can trace more than $670 million of revenues they have earned because of the SBIR Program, its spinoffs, and technology licensees for the commercialization of its SBIR projects.

Many New Hampshire small businesses have successfully competed for SBIR funding in the 28 years since the program has been in existence. All across New Hampshire, small businesses that otherwise would not be able to compete for Federal R&D funding have won competitive SBIR grants that advance technology and science and create good jobs--what we all want to happen right now in this economy.

In just the last 2 years, New Hampshire firms have won 80 SBIR awards, and, in fact, despite its small size, New Hampshire is ranked 22nd in the country for the total grants awarded through the Department of Defense under the SBIR Program.

As a Senator from New Hampshire, I take particular pride in the SBIR Program because it was New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman who, back in 1982, sponsored the Small Business Innovation Development Act which established the SBIR Program.

SBIR has a proven track record and its cost, as Chair Landrieu has said so often on the floor, is minimal. CBO estimates that implementing this bill would cost only $150 million over the next 5 years, and most of that minimal cost would have zero impact on the budget. That is because what this bill does is establish a 3-year pilot program that authorizes participating agencies to use the same dollars they set aside anyway for SBIR research to pay for administrative costs. That means we will not be using general operating funds to pay for administrative costs, and this bill imposes no mandates on business and imposes no costs on State and local governments.

We need to address the long-term deficit and debt in this country. Our colleague from Oklahoma just spoke very eloquently to the need to do that and what it is going to take. We all know that. But the best way we can start dealing with the debt and deficit is through more robust economic growth. Objecting to the SBIR Program, as some have done, on the grounds that we should be focusing on the deficit alone makes no sense at all because the jobs created by the SBIR Program will lower the deficit.

Just like stopgap budgeting is bad for business, so are stopgap extensions of the SBIR Program. Unfortunately, SBIR has been operating under short-term extensions--10 of them--since 2008. Short-term extensions are a problem because, as I hear and I know we all hear regularly from businesses--they need certainty in planning. This bill reauthorizes the SBIR Program for 8 years. It is a reasonable period of time, and it will allow small businesses and Federal agencies to effectively plan their research.

I know we have heard from some quarters and it has become fashionable on the part of some people to say that this country's best days are behind us. But I do not believe that for one moment. As I have traveled around New Hampshire, I see cutting-edge innovators who are creating jobs. We in the Senate know what needs to be done. We just need the will to do it.

I urge all our colleagues to join Senator Landrieu, Ranking Member Snowe, and the Small Business Committee in voting to reauthorize and strengthen the SBIR Program.

I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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