Defense Department Will Fully Fund Key Research & Development Program For Small Businesses; Bond Praises Decision

4/10/2002

From: Craig Orfield of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 202-224-4086 Web site: http://sbc.senate.gov/republican

WASHINGTON, April 10 -- Senator Kit Bond said today the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has agreed to honor its commitment to reserve about $150 million in research and development funds for contracts with small businesses under the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR), reversing a plan to cut SBIR funding in half.

He praised the agency, formerly known as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, saying "The Defense Department's decision to fund SBIR fully maintains one of the federal government's most efficient investments in the small business sector. SBIR not only acts as a catalyst to groundbreaking research and development, it also promotes the commercialization of new technologies that contribute to the nation's defense readiness."

In late January, Bond, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Senator John Kerry, Chairman, sent a joint letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, criticizing a provision in the Fiscal 2002 Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 3338), which was signed by President Bush on Jan. 10, 2002.

The bill overrode a mandate in the "Small Business Act" requiring the Department of Defense to reserve a minimum of 2.5 percent of its extramural research and development funds for contracts with small businesses through SBIR.