House Small Business leaders eye short-term fix to fund tech programs
A pair of tech-focused small business programs set to lapse at the end of this month would get another year of funding under a bipartisan House bill introduced this week.
The legislation to extend the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for one year is a temporary measure as Congress works toward long-term reauthorization, per a press release announcing the bill.
House Small Business Committee Chair Roger Williams, R-Texas, said in a statement that the SBIR and STTR programs “have empowered small businesses to transform bold ideas into technologies that fuel our economy and support our national defense” for more than 40 years.
“As we reach the expiration date for these programs, Congress cannot allow for any lapse in resources to the small businesses that drive American innovation,” Williams added. “Extending the authorization allows both the House and the Senate more time to determine how to best serve small businesses nationwide.”
Williams’ bill is co-sponsored by House Small Business Committee ranking member Nydia Velázquez of New York and Reps. Brian Babin, R-Texas and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.
Launched in 1982 under the Reagan administration, the SBIR program was created to foster innovation in small businesses and grow federal research and development funding for technology-minded enterprises.
A decade later, STTR was born, with the aim of bolstering collaboration between small businesses and nonprofit research organizations, strengthening those bonds to accelerate lab-to-market innovations.
According to Small Business Administration data, SBIR and STTR — through America’s Seed Fund — support 4,000 companies per year, pumping $4 billion into the ventures annually. The federal government takes no equity or IP ownership in the companies that it funds through SBIR or STTR.
The upper chamber has also shown interest this year in re-upping funding for the programs. A bill from Senate Small Business Committee Chair Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in March called for the reauthorization of SBIR and STTR until 2028.
The legislation, per summary text from Ernst’s office, aimed to “DOGE-ify” the “bloated” SBIR and STTR programs by eliminating underperforming pilots and paring back the number of award proposals a single company could submit per year, among other measures. Ernst’s bill hasn’t moved out of committee yet.
This story was updated Sept. 4 to correct the spelling of some references to STTR.
