Madam President, I would like to speak for the next few minutes as in morning business about the subject that has been before the Senate now for 5 weeks. In some ways, it is unprecedented that a bill…
Madam President, I would like to speak for the next few minutes as in morning business about the subject that has been before the Senate now for 5 weeks. In some ways, it is unprecedented that a bill of only 100 pages would actually take up 5 weeks of the Senate's time. And you know as a member of the Small Business Committee, Madam President, how important, although only 100 pages and although only in the law since 1982, this program is not just to the Federal Government but to the taxpayers who are relying on this to spend their money wisely on their behalf, and they are looking to us to promote and extend the life of programs that actually work and return a great investment to them, particularly in these challenging budget times and economic times.
This program, which was created by Senator Warren Rudman for the specific purpose of stimulating technological innovation, encouraging greater utilization of small businesses to meet Federal research and development needs, and to increase private sector commercialization of innovations derived from Federal research and development, is a law that we must find a way to reauthorize. We are well overdue. We have now passed the authorization point by 3 years.
We have been unable to reauthorize this important program. It looks as if we may be stuck again although the major arguments about this bill have been resolved. We are actually not arguing over the nuts and bolts of this bill. Is that not sad, that all of the arguments about what percentage venture capitalists should get, by what amount we should increase the allocation--we have worked through all of those because we have worked in good
faith. We have compromised, Democrats and Republicans.
The bill passed out of our committee I believe 18 to 1. Authoring this piece of legislation is myself, the chairperson, Senator Snowe, a strong supporter of the underlying bill--let me get the other cosponsors. Senator Levin is a cosponsor. Senator Brown of Massachusetts is a cosponsor. Senator Kerry, the former chair, is a cosponsor. The Presiding Officer is an original cosponsor. I thank you. The new Senator, your junior Senator from New Hampshire, is an original cosponsor. Senator Cardin. Senator Pryor. So we have a good number of Republican and Democratic Senators.
This is the bill. It is 100 pages. The sad thing is that in 5 weeks, we have had over 150 amendments filed on this bill. Very few of them have anything to do with this bill. That is more amendments than there are pages of the original bill. And you can understand why the majority leader, Senator Reid, cannot allow a vote on all 150 amendments. We might be here for another year, which is not fair to the Senate, it is not fair to Congress. There are other important issues we have to get to. So we are trying to compromise. Senator Reid has been extremely patient trying to work with Republicans and Democrats. And I think the last offer that was being considered would have made both sides even-- with 12 amendments, an equal amount, for both sides, most of which have nothing to do with this bill but that we will accept votes on.
Actually, one big amendment, significant amendment that had nothing to do with this bill has already been voted on, agreed to, detached from this bill, and sent to the President, and he has already signed it. And we are still on this bill. That was the repeal of 1099, which was almost unanimously supported to repeal a very onerous provision of paperwork and regulation that was not proper to put on the backs of small businesses. And I am proud that I led, with others, the effort to repeal that. That has been done. Yet we find ourselves still not in complete agreement that it is time to move on.
I just wish to say a few more things. No. 1, every State will benefit when this program is reauthorized. Most important, taxpayers will see significant results. Let me just tell you one that is quite startling but true and I want it to be in the Record.
One company that participated in this program and received a small grant many years ago and then received another grant to help them get started, Qualcomm, is now one of the most successful businesses in the world. That one company pays more taxes to the Federal Government every year than the entire budget of the Small Business Administration. Let me repeat: One company, started in large measure--not solely, but they testified on the record in large measure--because of this program, was created. It grew and grew and grew and now pays more in taxes annually to the Federal Government than the entire budget of the SBA.
You would ask yourself: So what is the problem? Why can't we get this bill passed? I can only say we have Members who think they need to have votes or discussion on 187 amendments that have nothing to do with this bill, and they think the majority leader is being unreasonable when he tries to bring this to an end.
As chair of this committee, I have to say again--and I am going to end with this--this recession we are in will never end--never end--and the budget deficit that is crushing the economic potential of this Nation will never be eliminated if we do not create jobs in America.
This program is a job-creating machine that is being shut down by this inability of us to come to terms over this debate. It is a shame because everyone is counting on us--not just my committee, but the Small Business Committee is one of the important committees here--to put this recession in the rearview mirror. I cannot do it if I cannot pass legislation.
If we want jobs, if we want innovation, if we want to create the kind of jobs the SBIR Program--you can see here: SBIR-awarded firms add five times as many employees. These are kind of our supercompanies. These are companies, the smartest. They are on the edge. They are the best. They have gotten the attention of many smart people in the government. Yes, we do have smart people who work for the Federal Government. These companies and their technology have become known, and they say: Gee, this is the kind of technology that could change this situation, save taxpayer money, and it has such commercial application. Let's give it an award. We might not be able to give it an award because we are stuck talking about 150 amendments that have nothing to do with this program, and the extension to operate this program expires on May 31st.
I am sorry I cannot solve all the problems of the world in the Small Business Committee. I am very sorry. I cannot solve all the health care problems. I cannot resolve the debt situations. I cannot talk about sunset commissions and the Gang of 6 and put every piece of legislation in this bill. We have to stay focused. We have been moving some very good legislation out of this committee, completely with bipartisan support, with a few little bumps here and there.
The small business lending program was not supported by the Republicans. We only had two Senators who crossed the aisle to give us the 60 votes to do it. I understand it is controversial. Not everything here is done in such perfect precision, but we still have high hopes for that program. Six hundred banks have applied. We believe billions of dollars will be lent out and that debate is still going on as the administrators come up. But other than that, everything we have passed in our committee has been with bipartisan support. The same with this bill: It comes out 18 to 1.
I will finally say for the record--and will submit this letter for the Record--I was asked by Senator Coburn, who has been cooperative actually--although he has had quite a few amendments, he has been very open to negotiation--but he sent me a letter on January 26, and it basically says: I would like to help you pass your SBIR bill, but would you please get it out of your committee clean because I do not want other extraneous things attached to it because there are ``lesser'' programs--he said--that I do not support. But I support this one.
He is not a member of the committee. He said: Senator, if you can get it out clean, then maybe I can support it on the floor.
So what do I do? I tell all my Members: I am sorry. You cannot have the amendments in committee. I am sorry. We cannot attach anything to this bill because I am trying to move a clean bill to the floor--only to get to the floor and have more than 150 amendments, most of which have nothing to do with this bill put on this bill under the guise of: Well, we have to do it. We need time on the floor to debate our issue.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter I referenced from Senator Coburn be printed in the Record.
I have tried to be patient. I understand that. But I am asking one last time--I am asking my ranking member, I am asking the other members of my committee, I am asking my Democratic colleagues and Republican colleagues--please, in the next few hours, please, let your voice be heard to your leaders--the minority leader and the majority leader--and please try to come to some reasonable agreement.
I think the cloture motion is quite reasonable, the cloture motion Senator Reid has put down. If we could agree to that, get 60 votes or more, we could move on and pass this reauthorization, which is so important for job creation in America.
We are 3 years behind schedule--not 6 months, not 8 months, but 3 years behind schedule. We have been operating this program--a very good program, one of the best--every 3 months, sometimes one month, sometimes a bit longer, but people have to guess whether we are going to extend it. That is no way to run an airline or a train or a bus or even a two-seated car, for that matter. You have to have a long runway here to get good things done and to stop wasting taxpayer money and their time.
So I am going to ask, please, let's try to get cloture.
Finally, the States that are most affected--the Senators who represent these States might want to be heads up--but Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, Texas and Alabama are among the States that benefit the most from this program. All our States benefit. Companies in my own State of Louisiana have received some of these awards and have gone on to hire hundreds, if not thousands, of people. But these other States have managed to actually get themselves to the front of the line.
I thank Senator Brown for his cosponsorship of this bill. I thank other Senators from these States. But the Texas and Florida and Alabama Senators, the New York Senators, the Senators from Ohio and Pennsylvania, particularly, Massachusetts and California--the top of the list--have a lot to lose if we cannot get this program reauthorized.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
