SBIR and NDAA Conference Votes

Thank you to all of you that signed onto the letter for SBIR. It made a difference. There were over 1,000 signatures and small business organizations around the country including Small Business California made it happen. A special thanks to our own Jackie Speier for her support and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi with Nydia Velazquez and her work with Senate Small Business Committee Chair Landrieu.It is not a done deal yet but we are close.

FYI To my knowledge Small Business California working with the National Small Business Association was the only statewide California organization that worked on this. See below

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA 94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188

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Hi, Everyone.

As you know, we made the window to get a deal submitted for inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act conference. We filed the deal on Saturday but were asked by SASC to stay silent until it was officially locked down with signatures and SASC and HASC had a chance to make their own statements Tuesday. Obviously, we wanted to respect that because we’d be nowhere without their help.

It was a crazy week getting the deal filed on Saturday, literally down to the wire. And Senator Landrieu’s success in getting a deal was mostly due to the work from the groups and businesses and members who put together letters, met with members and their staff, made concessions in reaching a compromise, and had the courage to go public with opposition to controversial provisions. So many deserve credit for getting us this far. Thank you.

There are many members who helped get us to this point, but I really think Landrieu earned the most credit. She got out there early on NDAA and got one of only about eight votes (out of about 375 amdts filed), and she worked the phones and knocked on House doors to keep NDAA in the bill and reach a deal with Graves and Hall. More specifically, she went to the House side Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week to meet with key members (Ms. Johnson, Mr. Graves and Mr. Hall), and she had calls with Mr. Levin, Mr. McCain, Mr. Smith, Ms. Pelosi, etc.

Among the highlights, Landrieu was able to negotiate for six years, more than the four or five expected, and she was able to get more in allocation than was expected (SBIR to 3.2% and STTR to .45% instead of 3% and nothing for STTR). The House also moderated some of their more controversial provisions (this was due to the group work and letters). I’m happy to do a call with you all if that would help to talk about the provisions in more detail.

Until then, we wait for the votes in the House and the Senate and keep our fingers crossed that there is no veto. As of now, the House is expected to vote on National Defense Conference Report around 3:30pm. The Senate is trying to get agreement to have its vote today.