Stephen Knight

Mr. Speaker, as a police officer and a street cop in L.A., I have seen the problems that the opioid epidemic has done to our communities. It has literally destroyed families and hurt our communities to no end. H.R. 6 is a much-needed display of bipartisanship to address the ongoing opioid crisis and epidemic.

Many of the issues that have come out of this bill spur development of national best practices for substance abuse recovery housing and incorporates my bill, the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act, to establish meaningful penalties for profiteering off other people's pain and addiction through illicit referrals.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my chairman for his support on this and many other issues that we see in our Small Business Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6330, the Small Business Runway Extension Act of 2018.

This bill is simple. It is commonsense. It is a measure designed to promote the sustainability, growth, and development of small Federal contractors into the open marketplace.

Under existing law, the Small Business Administration calculates the size of a company by taking the average of the past 3 years of gross receipts. A company's average must be within established industry parameters set by the SBA in order to be considered a small business and be eligible to receive access to SBA's small business programs, resources, and assistance.

My bill is very simple. It extends that time period out to 5 years. This additional time allows all small businesses an opportunity to mature before graduating out of the SBA's small business programs.

Over the course of this Congress, we have conducted hearings, held roundtables, and heard stories of the overwhelming mid-market challenges forcing many successful small contractors to close their doors or stall their growth. Prospects for a newly graduated firm successfully integrating into the open marketplace are rapidly declining due to the widening gap between small and large contractors.

Small firms are opting out--either voluntarily or, in many cases, involuntarily--from joining the Federal marketplace because of this rift. This outcome depletes our industrial base, reduces competition, and inhibits economic growth.

Mr. Speaker, do we really want our small businesses to look at their ability to expand and their ability to be a larger and more prosperous business and say: I can't do this because I am going to move out of the SBA, so what I should do is maybe close my doors or just restrict our growth.

That is not what America is all about. That is not what we want out of our small businesses. We want them to expand. We want them to bring new and innovative things to the marketplace. And we want them to expand and have jobs for our kids and for the next generation.

Mr. Speaker, I think that this is a reasonable look at what we are trying to do, and I urge support of H.R. 6330.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Department of Energy Research and Innovation Act. This bill makes important investments in science and technology research to ensure the United States protects its edge in novel, efficient, and commercially viable energy production.

H.R. 589 makes needed reforms to the national laboratories' relationship with the private sector to streamline the transfer of commercially ready technologies to American businesses.

This will allow the benefits of public investment and critical research to be passed on to American entrepreneurs with greater speed and reinforced economic growth and job creation.

In addition, this bill directs the Department of Energy to establish energy innovation hubs to pull together and create efficiencies in key scientific areas across basic and applied research programs. This bill also includes authorization of the solar fuels initiative, incorporating the text of my bill last Congress, the Solar Fuels Innovation Act.

This provision builds on research that is now being undertaken up and down the coast of California, from Berkeley to Caltech, to produce fuels from sunlight. The solar fuel process, also known as artificial photosynthesis, converts sunlight into energy to create a range of storable chemical fuels, overcoming the biggest obstacle to maximizing the benefits of renewable technologies.

Basic research and artificial photosynthesis and related efforts could lead to a solar fuel system that consolidates solar power and energy storage in a cohesive process. This would transform the economy in California and the rest of the Nation. The solar fuels initiative would solve the critical challenge posed by wasted renewable energy and enlarge incentives to invest in new solar businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Smith and my colleagues who have helped me advance this bill for their foresight in identifying research initiatives that promise new approaches to energy technology that will be good for our economy and our environment.