54 



Good ::orning, Chairinan Torkildsen and members of the Committee: 

 It is a particular pleasure for me to appear before the Sub- 

 Commi-tee on Government Programs to discuss the Small Business 

 Innovation Research program (SBIR)." The subject of small 

 business innovation is one about vmich I learned a good deal 

 early in my career in Washington working with this very Committee 

 when I staffed Joint House and Senate Hearings on Small Business 

 Innovation in 1978. The issue before the Committee then was that 

 the federal government was excluding small business innovators 

 from nany federal research programs. The Committee asked every 

 government agency to explain why it wasn't fully utilizing the 

 small business community in its research activities. The most 

 extrer.e example at that time was NIH, which had no research 

 contracts v/ith small business. The Committee was not satisfied 

 with the answers then, and neither was I. 



When I moved to the Office of Advocacy as Deputy Chief Counsel 

 repor-ing to Milt Stewart, we conducted a series of focus groups 

 and studies that led to the 1978 report by Advocacy on Small 

 Business Innovation. The efforts of this Committee as well as the 

 Office of Advocacy led to legislation that established the SBIR 

 program (H.R.5607 and S.1360 {Small Business Innovation Act of 

 1979}). Enactment of this legislation was one of the top 

 recommendations of the 1980 White House Conference on Small 



- My testimony this r.orning reflects the independent views 

 of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy and may or may not reflect the 

 viev;s of the Administration. 



