On the recordMay 4, 2011
I urge my colleagues to vote for cloture on this important bill. It is the Federal Government's largest research program for new technologies and innovation. It is a job creator. It is widely supported by many business organizations in this country. It is a bill that should have passed 6 years ago. It is a bill, a statute, that will expire in less than 30 days from now. If we don't vote favorably on this bill today, there will be virtually no chance of this program being extended under law, and we will either have to eliminate the program entirely or we will revert back to no way to do business, which is a 3-month or 6-month rolling extension. I wish to answer a few of the charges made by my colleague. First of all, I have the greatest respect for my ranking member, and I can understand her frustration as being the ranking member of the Small Business Committee and not getting her amendment on the Senate floor. I would respectfully remind her that we could have had a vote on her amendment in committee except that her side demanded--and I wish to submit a letter to the effect--that the bill come out of our committee clean; that the SBIR bill not be attached to anything else so we could have an open debate on it because it has been going on for 6 years. No.…
