Rep. Ken Calvert, D-Calif., has renewed his push to strengthen how emerging small business technologies are identified and invested in by the Department of Defense (DOD) – which the Trump Administration has rebranded as the Department of War.
The DOD Entrepreneurial Innovation Act – which Calvert reintroduced on Oct.10 – would require the department to identify promising Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for inclusion in future budgets and plans.
SBIR and STTR are competitive federal programs that encourage small businesses to engage in research and development (R&D) with commercial potential.
In a press release announcing the reintroduction, Calvert said the measure will increase transparency and awareness of entrepreneurial innovation projects within the military.
“To support America’s national security mission, we need to leverage America’s technological superiority into an advantage on the battlefield,” Calvert said, emphasizing that the bill would help the DOD “nurture and realize the potential of our technological innovations.”
The legislation directs each service secretary to select five SBIR or STTR programs that demonstrate the potential to deliver new technologies or processes, yield future cost savings, or strengthen national security capabilities.
The bill comes as Congress grapples with the fallout from the recent lapse in funding for the SBIR and STTR programs, which expired at midnight on Sept. 30 after lawmakers failed to pass a reauthorization measure.
Lawmakers from both parties have voiced their concerns that allowing the programs to expire could “erode America’s innovation edge amid intensifying global competition.”
“We are disappointed that the Senate failed to extend the SBIR and STTR programs,” said House Committee on Small Business Chairman Roger Williams, R-Texas, Ranking Member Nydia M. Velázquez, D-N.Y., House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Brian Babin, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., in a statement.
“For more than forty years, these initiatives have kept small businesses at the forefront of innovation, strengthened our national defense, and delivered immense returns for taxpayers. A lapse creates uncertainty for innovators and risks slowing progress at a time when global competition is intensifying,” they said, adding, “Research could be delayed, innovation diminished, and America’s competitive edge on the world stage eroded.”
Before the programs’ expiration, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who had introduced separate legislation to permanently authorize them before the Sept. 30 deadline, warned that the lapse would carry serious economic and security consequences.
His office estimated that for the DOD alone, more than $1.6 billion in warfighter technology investments could be lost or postponed.
Calvert said his renewed legislation underscores the need for the DOD to “rapidly capitalize on advanced technologies generated in the private sector” to stay ahead of rivals like China.
“The SBIR and STTR programs are vital to our innovation ecosystem,” Calvert said. “We can’t afford to let promising technologies fall through the cracks.”