On May 23, 2008, President George Bush signed the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) bill into Public Law 10-235. The Temporary Extension of Programs under the Small Business Act and The Small Business Investment Act of 1958 is intended to temporarily extended the SBIR program authorities of the Small Business Administration through Mar. 20, 2009. The SBIR program authorities were due to expire at the end of 2008.

The last time the SBIR program was scheduled to be reauthorized was in fiscal year 2000. Due to a wide range of circumstances, however, this did not occur until December 21, 2000, months after the program’s authorization expired on September 30, 2000. This lapse in the program’s authorization created confusion at the SBIR agencies and resulted in awards to small businesses being delayed until the reauthorization legislation was signed into law.

The Committee wanted to make certain that this situation would not reoccur this Fall. To accomplish this, Congress passed legislation that became P.L. 110-235 on May 23,2008. This legislation extends the authorization through March 20, 2009 of any program, authority, or provision of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 631 et seq.) or the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 (15 U.S.C. 661 et seq.). This clearly includes the SBIR program, which is contained in Section 9 of the Small Business Act, and will allow the program to continue to operate into next year.