Who Cares about the Money?

The Small Business Innovation Research program that supports research by small, high-tech startups is up for renewal by the US Congress. The research budgets of 11 federal agencies are taxed in order to fund the program, currently at 2.5 percent. The small business Senate committee passed a version of the bill that would increase that to 3.5 percent by 2020. The House version of the bill, which is to be before the science committee tomorrow and the small business committee on Thursday contains no increase. That's not the big issue, says Science Insider. "The real battle is likely to be over how to ease a controversial restriction on participation by venture capital firms imposed by the Small Business Administration in 2002. That change blocked companies receiving a majority of their funding from venture capital firms from applying for grants on the grounds that the program was designed to help the proverbial entrepreneur in his garage," the article says.