Jay Rockefeller: “I do not want people to be swayed by his personal generosity in terms of their votes, Madam President. But it is just a…”

“I do not want people to be swayed by his personal generosity in terms of their votes, Madam President. But it is just a very generous thing. Dr. John Carruthers, the head of Intel, testifying on behalf of the American Electronics Association, said: The early and mid-1980's were the age of startup, a period when investments in high technology flourished. * * * But then he said: But for more than 5 years now, our Nation has failed to produce a new generation of such companies. The reasons for this precipitous decline are many, but chief among them has been the alarming and growing inability of American entrepreneurs to obtain seed and venture funding. The Civilian Technology Investment Program, which the Senator from Missouri wants to strike from this bill, which I hope will fail, is based upon the SBA's small investment program. It was created in 1958. It has worked. This program, if we are to defeat the amendment of the Senator from Missouri, would give us, for every $1 of Federal money put in, $6 of private sector money. We cannot under any conditions spend more than $50 million, if that is the final amount that is in the bill. Private venture capitalists have focused up to this point on what is called mezzanine financing, which is second stage--not startup, that the Intel focused on--types of money. Exactly what this program is designed to fill is that early funding when people have a good idea, small, medium businesses, but they cannot get the venture capital.”