Sen. Mary L. Landrieu [D-La., pictured], chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, made the following statement after this morning’s cloture vote on the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011:"Today was our last chance to reauthorize these important programs and provide some continuity to the small businesses that depend on them," Sen. Landrieu said. "I have to thank the many groups that went out of their way to support this bill, and who offered concessions during our negotiations to ensure a long-term reauthorization was possible.
"This bill, which reauthorizes the federal government’s largest research-and-development programs for small businesses, passed out of our committee with nearly unanimous support, but wound up hitting a brick wall when it reached the Senate floor.
"Unfortunately, some senators chose to stonewall in a self-serving effort to get their way on unrelated issues instead of letting every U.S. Senate committee do their due diligence with regulatory reform.
"Despite having so much bipartisan support going into this debate, not one Republican voted for this job-creating small-business bill -- even those senators in states like Massachusetts, Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida, where almost 23,000 small businesses have gotten billions in SBIR and STTR projects.
"The door may have shut today for reauthorization of programs that have given us companies that are the envy of the world -- like Qualcomm, Sonicare and iRobot. But rest assured, at some point, we will find a way get this done."
SOURCES: GovTrack.us, U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
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