Mr. WU. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr. Speaker. As President Obama said recently, ``small businesses are the heart of the American [Page: H3469] economy.'' They are responsible for half of all private-sector jobs, and they've created about 70 percent of all new jobs in the past 10 years.
We need to build our economy from the ground up, create stable jobs, and foster innovation that will lead to long-term growth. To do this, we need to support the small high-tech companies that grow our economy.
The Federal Government supports these innovative small businesses through the Small Business Innovative Research program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program, which help companies commercialize Federally funded research. The programs now distribute more than $2.5 billion each year and constitute the largest tech-transfer commercialization programs that we have in the Federal Government.
However, these programs must be updated to reflect the current innovation environment. Award sizes should be increased to reflect inflation and the growth of operating costs; the issue of venture capital participation needs to be resolved; flexibility must be instilled between phase one and phase two grants; and data collection needs to be improved so that we can better target the program and determine its effectiveness.
Last year, the House overwhelmingly passed H.R. 5819, which made these necessary changes based on suggestions from hearings in my Technology and Innovation Subcommittee and in conjunction with our work with Chairwoman Velazquez and Ranking Member Graves. However, good legislation, once again, died in the other Chamber.
Today, we find the House needing to pass an extension to keep these programs alive. This extension is necessary because the SBA and SBIR serve important purposes. But, moving forward, if we are to continue realizing the full value of programs like SBIR, we must reauthorize them with changes that reflect the evolving innovation environment, rather than simply extending the current authorization. It must be an innovation program as well as a jobs and small business program.
At a time when credit is tight and jobs are scarce, SBIR and STTR can have a significant role in jump-starting our economy. The House and Senate need to pass legislation this year that will reauthorize these programs, innovate new products and services, support small businesses, and create well-paying jobs for decades to come.
