Velazquez Amendment to STTR Threatens FAST

The House Small Business Committee approved H.R. 1860 this week, legislation that amends and reauthorizes the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program. STTR funds cooperative research and development projects between small companies and research institutions such as universities or federally funded R&D laboratories. H.R. 1860, as amended, increases the percentage of R&D funds earmarked for this program from 0.15 percent to 0.3 percent beginning in 2004, thus doubling the support for small high-tech firms. The Senate version of the STTR reauthorization would increase the program set-aside to 0.3 percent beginning in 2004 and 0.5 percent for fiscal year 2007 and each fiscal year thereafter.

An amendment offered by Representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), the ranking minority member of the committee, and approved by the full committee, reopens the design and intent of the Federal and State Technology Partnership (FAST), a new program to support state efforts to assist companies in developing and commercializing technologies through federal programs such as STTR and the much larger Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The Small Business Administration is currently reviewing the first round of proposals submitted by more than 40 states to receive matching grants of up to $150,000.

The Velazquez amendment, if included in the final STTR reauthorization act, would require FAST grants to focus on the needs of small business concerns in census tracts in which 50 percent or more of the households have income that is less than 60 percent of the area median gross income provided the population of all census tracts in an area that satisfy this criterion does not exceed 20 percent of the total population of the respective area. The number of technology firms located within these specific areas was not available at press time.

FAST, as passed with the SBIR Program’s reauthorization last December, allows each applicant state to develop and propose the strategy they feel is most appropriate for the needs of small technology businesses residing in their state.

Separately, the Committee also approved the Vocational and Technical Entrepreneurship Development Act of 2001 (H.R. 2666) to authorize the SBA to provide grants to Small Business Development Centers to offer technical assistance, curriculum development and implementation assistance to vocational education institutions to promote entrepreneurship among students. The new program would be authorized at $7 million a year for the next three fiscal years. No grant made under the new program is to be less than $200,000.

More information on each of these bills is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/