To
quote one of my favorite presidents: "Well, there you go again".
We all knew it would happen.There is too much in the news about Afghanistan,
Health Insurance Reform, the Recession, the Economy, etc. for Congress to pay
attention to the SBIR reauthorization bill this month. So they did what they have done so many times
in the past, they extended the deadline!This occurred in two separate legislations.H.R. 2647, otherwise known as the” FY-2010
National Defense Conference Report”, was passed by both the House and Senate
and signed by the President yesterday (10/28/09).This
included extension of funding of DoD SBIR/STTR’s until 9/30/10.Originally this bill had language to extend
the DoD program for 14 years but it was revised down to only one year prior to
passage.The other 10 SBIR agencies
have to depend upon a new bill introduced in the Senate (S.1929) that extends
the funding deadline for 6 more months to April 30, 2010.This is to allow small businesses to get “thru
the holiday season”.The bill now goes
to the House but approval is not guaranteed since the Small Biz Committee has
been reluctant in the past to extend the SBIR program for any length of time. What?It all makes sense when you look back to the original expiration date of
Sept. 30, 2008 and what has happened since then.There are a number of politicians with
individual agendas that are preventing the reauthorization of this important
program.Never mind that it affects over
29 million small businesses and that small businesses represent about half of
all employment in the United States.Judging by what is going on with Health Care Reform, it could be
extended again next April.Stay tuned…..
