Thursday, November 4, 2010

Let’s End “Huggem-Muggem”!

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An open letter to the Republican House Leadership:

Legendary SBIR advocate, Milt Stewart, said it best in observing how Congress treats small business, “In public they hug them, in private they mug them!” I call this the Huggem-Muggem syndrome.

As the House of Representatives changes leadership, and with Republicans once again controlling Committee Chairmanships, perhaps we can get the legislative agenda changed back to enabling free market growth. Crucial to this will be what policies are driving enacted legislation that truly enables small businesses to fulfill their historical position of driving the innovation economy and making major contributions to US economic growth. Unfortunately, small business currently gets Huggem-Muggem: lots of lip service but very little productive legislative action that facilitates their creation of non-government jobs.

The new Chairmanship of the House Small Business Committee will be key to successfully fulfilling that job-creation goal. The incumbent, Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), has steadfastly blocked all efforts to openly debate many SBA initiatives, including the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program before her committee. Instead she has openly demeaned the small businesses she is supposed to support in favor of advancing the agendas of larger special interests which fund her re-election campaigns. Unfortunately, the heir apparent to the SBC Chair, Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO), has, time and time again, supported her outrageous behavior. Lots of Muggem without any Huggem!

Regarding the very successful 28 year-old SBIR Program, which has languished with Continuing Resolutions for two years due to Velazquez’s refusal to consider the Senate’s reasonable compromise to the differences between Senate and House versions of a reauthorization bill, having a House SBC Chairman who will take small business interests into consideration is of extreme importance. Please exert whatever influence you can to ensure that this happens.

SBIR has enjoyed considerable bi-partisan support over the years, and frankly, some of its most faithful supporters have been Democrats. Passing an SBIR Reauthorization bill acceptable to all sides of the issues is certainly possible. Just think of the positive message this will send to the country. All it takes is the willingness of both sides to be reasonable.

As it stands at the moment under the current CR, the SBIR Program will expire at the end of January, 2011. While it’s not impossible that a compromise SBIR Reauthorization bill could be approved in the upcoming Lame Duck session, it’s very unlikely that will occur. What must be prevented is Lame Duck SBC Chair Velazquez getting her way, performing another Muggem, and sneaking the current House version into law against, among other things, the will of the Senate.

I would be pleased to fully brief any House Member and his or her legislative aides on the issues at play with SBIR. One source for information is the website www.SBIRreauthorization.com. Others are the Small Business Technology Council (www.SBTC.org), the SBIR Insider (www.zyn.com/sbir/insider/) and my SBIR Coach’s Playbook opinion column (www.SBIRplaybook.com).

Thanks for paying attention to this. With new leadership and the proper resolve, let’s make ending Small Business “Huggem-Muggem” syndrome a top priority for the 112th Congress! Please!
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2 comments:

Jeffrey Everson said...

Fred,

I am forwarding a letter that I sent to Senators Brown and Kerry, as well as Congressman Tierney on behalf of reauthorizing the SBIR program.
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Dear Senator Brown:

There is before the Congress a continuing resolution related to a program that should have been reauthorized nearly two years ago. That program is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program that was founded in 1982. It has since then enabled nearly18,000 small businesses to develop state-of-the art products and compete for Government research and development funds.

The SBIR program helps to sustain job creation with SBIR companies employing approximately 1.5 million employees with nearly a quarter holding advanced degrees in engineering and science. These companies have contributed greatly to the U.S. defense, transportation, environment, energy, information technology, healthcare, robotics, materials and electromagnetic systems. A total of $2 billion is awarded each year by eleven Government agencies participating in the SBIR program.

The SBIR program was intended to benefit small business where the term “small” did not imply companies owned by venture capitalists (VC). During the past two years, that group has been lobbying Congress to redefine the nature of ‘small’ to the point where their political influence has stalled the SBIR reauthorization process. Unless Congress acts by January 31, 2011 the SBIR program will expire or be held on “life support” by yet another continuing resolution (i.e., that would be the ninth one, a record setting number since 1982).

The source of this stalling has been Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Chair of the House Small Business Committee. She has consistently adopted a pro VC position regarding SBIR reauthorization. In the spirit of following the money, I checked www.opensecrets.org and noticed that Velazquez received $8K from the National Venture Capital Association during the 2010 campaign cycle. That was her fourth most significant contribution so far. If “cash register politics” prevails, there will be fewer truly small businesses that can compete with the “big guys” for those SBIR awards.

I would greatly appreciate your support in reauthorizing the SBIR program. Please contact me if want to discuss this matter. You might check my web site that summarizes my SBIR accomplishments (web site information is provided below).

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Dr. Jeffrey Everson
JHEverson Consulting LLC
21 Pine Ridge Circle
Reading, MA 01867
www.JHEversonConsulting.com
jeff@JHEversonConsulting.com
339-227-0585 (cell)
781-944-3632 (home)

Dr. Jeffrey Everson said...

Fred,

I am forwarding a letter that I sent to Senators Brown and Kerry, as well as Congressman Tierney on behalf of reauthorizing the SBIR program.
---------------------------------
Dear Senator Brown:

There is before the Congress a continuing resolution related to a program that should have been reauthorized nearly two years ago. That program is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program that was founded in 1982. It has since then enabled nearly18,000 small businesses to develop state-of-the art products and compete for Government research and development funds.

The SBIR program helps to sustain job creation with SBIR companies employing approximately 1.5 million employees with nearly a quarter holding advanced degrees in engineering and science. These companies have contributed greatly to the U.S. defense, transportation, environment, energy, information technology, healthcare, robotics, materials and electromagnetic systems. A total of $2 billion is awarded each year by eleven Government agencies participating in the SBIR program.

I would greatly appreciate your support in reauthorizing the SBIR program. Please contact me if want to discuss this matter.

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Dr. Jeffrey Everson
JHEverson Consulting LLC
21 Pine Ridge Circle
Reading, MA 01867
www.JHEversonConsulting.com
jeff@JHEversonConsulting.com
339-227-0585 (cell)
781-944-3632 (home)