In this issue: Background for our new readers: Back in
July of 2009 the House & Senate passed their own vastly different
SBIR reauthorization bills H.R. 2965 and S.1233. Technically the Senate
took the House's H.R. 2965 and substituted the House's language with
Senate's S.1233. At this point in the legislative process, the House
& Senate were to form a "conference committee" to resolve any
differences, compromise and reconcile the language into a final bill
that can be passed by both and sent to the President. In this case the
conferencing was to be done by senior staff members of both small
business committees. The House refused to negotiate, and in October of
2009 the Senate sent the House a very generous (some say overly
generous) compromise offer. The House would not even acknowledge the
offer, and the SBIR program has been kept alive by a series of short
term extenders sometimes referred to as continuing resolutions (CR).
Dear SBIR Gateway Insider,
As many of you know, without reauthorization or another continuing resolution (CR) to extend the SBIR & STTR programs, these programs will expire for all agencies EXCEPT the DoD, on August 1, 2010. The DoD SBIR & STTR are safe until they expire on October 1, 2010.
There are some hopeful signs on the near horizon, but significant danger as well. We also have several other positive areas of SBIR news to report. However, at the risk of sounding like "Poor Johnny One Note" we will start with reauthorization.
To read the full, original article click on this link: SBIR Insider 7-15-10 Issue
Author: Rick Shindell
