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BILLS, BILLS, BILLS
S.3778, A Senate Bill to Reauthorize the
Small Business Innovation Research Program:
On August 2, 2006, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME),
Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business
and Entrepreneurship, introduced S.3778, “to
reauthorize and improve the Small Business Act
and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958”.
There are currently no co-sponsors, nor is there
a companion bill in the House. The bill has been
added to the Senate legislative calendar. Of the
182 pages of bill text, 14 pages are explicitly
directed to the Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology
Transfer (STTR) Programs.
Federal agencies with extramural budgets for
research or research and development in excess
of $100 million per fiscal year were directed to
establish SBIR programs under the provisions of
the original Small Business Act, and have been
mandated to spend at least 2.5% of their
extramural funds on SBIR programs since 1997.
For STTR programs, federal agencies with
extramural budgets in excess of $1 billion have
been mandated to allocate at least 0.3% on STTR
programs since 2004.
While the bill provides for a larger ceiling for
individual SBIR and STTR awards, the most
sweeping changes proposed will double the
mandated SBIR and STTR set asides from agency
extramural budgets.
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FASEB MEETINGS
FASEB Meets with OMB Officials regarding
FY2008 Budget
On Thursday, July 25, representatives from the
Executive Committee of the Ad Hoc Group for
Medical Research Funding met with the NIH
examiners from the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB). The purpose of the meeting was to
discuss the current budget situation at NIH and
look forward to what we can expect in FY2008.
The OMB officials, Mr. Marc Garufi and Ms.
Crystal Roach, explained that the President’s
budget in FY2008 is going to be extremely tight
for non-defense, non-homeland security
discretionary spending. They remarked that NIH
has a lot of money, which is problematic from
the standpoint that even a small percentage
increase adds up to a substantial dollar
increase for the agency. The OMB staff noted
that NIH has grown over time with no particular
direction, and expressed concern that NIH’s
current structure may be working against the
advancement of science.
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CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE
The House and Senate will be in recess until
September 5, 2006.
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