Ben Cardin actually said...

"I want to talk about the current economic climate and how urgent it is for us to try to get some relief to innovative small companies."

"My point is, do you see any special effort by NIH today to reach out to small, innovative companies to try to make sure that they are included in the Recovery funds?"

"We need to make sure that NIH continues its extremely important mission, that the universities can do the work that they are doing, and the small, innovative companies have the capital they need."

"Believe me, those of us on the Small Business Committee were livid at the fact that this was included without consultation with the Small Business Committee."