I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 3239
To improve commercialization activities in the SBIR and STTR programs,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY7, 2025
Ms. H
OULAHAN(for herself and Mr. BALDERSON) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small Business, and in addi-
tion to the Committees on Science, Space, and Technology, and the Judi-
ciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned
A BILL
To improve commercialization activities in the SBIR and
STTR programs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Research Advancing 4
to Market Production for Innovators Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. IMPROVEMENTS TO COMMERCIALIZATION SELEC-1
TION. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 9 of the Small Business 3
Act (15 U.S.C. 638) is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (g)— 5
(A) in paragraph (4)(B)(i), by striking ‘‘1 6
year’’ and inserting ‘‘180 days’’; 7
(B) in paragraph (16), by striking ‘‘and’’ 8
at the end; 9
(C) in paragraph (17), by striking the pe-10
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 11
(D) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(18) with respect to peer review carried out 13
under the SBIR program, to the extent practicable, 14
include in the peer review— 15
‘‘(A) the likelihood of commercialization in 16
addition to scientific and technical merit and 17
feasibility; and 18
‘‘(B) not less than 1 reviewer with com-19
mercialization expertise who is capable of as-20
sessing the likelihood of commercialization.’’; 21
and 22
(2) in subsection (o)— 23
(A) in paragraph (4)(B)(i), by striking ‘‘1 24
year’’ and inserting ‘‘180 days’’; 25
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(B) in paragraph (20), by striking ‘‘and’’ 1
at the end; 2
(C) in paragraph (21), by striking the pe-3
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 4
(D) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(22) with respect to peer review carried out 6
under the STTR program, to the extent practicable, 7
include in the peer review— 8
‘‘(A) the likelihood of commercialization in 9
addition to scientific and technical merit and 10
feasibility; and 11
‘‘(B) not less than 1 reviewer with com-12
mercialization expertise who is capable of as-13
sessing the likelihood of commercialization.’’. 14
SEC. 3. IMPROVEMENTS TO PHASE FLEXIBILITY. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 9(cc) of the Small Busi-16
ness Act (15 U.S.C. 638(cc)) is amended— 17
(1) by striking ‘‘During fiscal years 2012 18
through 2025, the National Institutes of Health, the 19
Department of Defense, and the Department of 20
Education may each’’ and inserting the following: 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—During fiscal years 2025, 22
2026, and 2027, each Federal agency with an SBIR 23
or STTR program may’’; and 24
(2) by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—The total value of awards 1
provided by a Federal agency under this subsection 2
in a fiscal year shall be— 3
‘‘(A) except as provided in subparagraph 4
(B) and (C), not more than 10 percent of the 5
total funds allocated to the SBIR and STTR 6
programs of the Federal agency during that fis-7
cal year; 8
‘‘(B) with respect to the National Insti-9
tutes of Health, not more than 30 percent of 10
the total funds allocated to the SBIR and 11
STTR programs of the National Institutes of 12
Health during that fiscal year; and 13
‘‘(C) The limitation under subparagraph 14
(A) shall not apply with respect to the Depart-15
ment of Defense.’’. 16
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 17
of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Small 18
Business Administration shall provide a briefing to the 19
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship of 20
the Senate and the Committee on Small Business of the 21
House of Representatives regarding the authority provided 22
under section 9(cc) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 23
638(cc)), as amended by paragraph (1). 24
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SEC. 4. TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION OFFICIAL. 1
Section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638) 2
is amended by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(aaa) T
ECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION OFFI-4
CIAL.—Each Federal agency participating in the SBIR or 5
STTR program shall— 6
‘‘(1) designate an existing official within the 7
Federal agency as the Technology Commercialization 8
Official of the Federal agency, who shall— 9
‘‘(A) have sufficient commercialization ex-10
perience; 11
‘‘(B) provide guidance to SBIR and STTR 12
program awardees in commercializing and 13
transitioning technologies; 14
‘‘(C) identify and advocate for SBIR and 15
STTR program technologies with sufficient 16
technology and commercialization readiness to 17
advance to Phase III awards or other non- 18
SBIR or STTR program contracts; 19
‘‘(D) coordinate with the Administration 20
and Technology Commercialization Officials of 21
other Federal agencies to identify additional 22
markets and commercialization pathways for 23
promising SBIR and STTR program tech-24
nologies; 25
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‘‘(E) submit to the Administration an an-1
nual report on the number of technologies from 2
the SBIR or STTR program that have ad-3
vanced commercialization activities, including 4
information required in the commercialization 5
impact assessment under subsection (ccc); 6
‘‘(F) submit to the Administration an an-7
nual report on actions taken by the Federal 8
agency, and the results of those actions, to sim-9
plify, standardize, and expedite the application 10
process and requirements, procedures, and con-11
tracts as required under subsection (hh); and 12
‘‘(G) carry out such other duties as the 13
Federal agency determines necessary; or 14
‘‘(2) identify an official carrying out substan-15
tially similar responsibilities as those described in 16
paragraph (1).’’. 17
SEC. 5. IMPROVEMENTS TO TECHNICAL AND BUSINESS AS-18
SISTANCE. 19
Section 9(q) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 20
638(q)) is amended— 21
(1) in paragraph (1), in the matter preceding 22
subparagraph (A)— 23
(A) by striking ‘‘may enter into an agree-24
ment with 1 or more vendors selected under 25
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paragraph (2)(A) to provide small business con-1
cerns engaged in SBIR or STTR projects with 2
technical and business assistance services’’ and 3
inserting ‘‘shall authorize recipients of awards 4
under the SBIR or STTR program to select, if 5
desired, technical and business assistance pro-6
vided under subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of 7
paragraph (2) with respect to SBIR or STTR 8
projects’’; 9
(B) by inserting ‘‘cybersecurity assist-10
ance,’’ after ‘‘intellectual property protections,’’; 11
and 12
(C) by striking ‘‘such concerns’’ and in-13
serting ‘‘such recipients’’; 14
(2) in paragraph (2), by adding at the end the 15
following: 16
‘‘(C) S
TAFF.—A small business concern 17
may, by contract or otherwise, use funding pro-18
vided under this section to hire new staff, aug-19
ment staff, or direct staff to conduct or partici-20
pate in training activities consistent with the 21
goals listed in paragraph (1).’’; 22
(3) in paragraph (3), by striking subparagraphs 23
(A) and (B) and inserting the following: 24
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‘‘(A) PHASE I.—A Federal agency de-1
scribed in paragraph (1) shall authorize a re-2
cipient of a Phase I SBIR or STTR award to 3
utilize not more than $6,500 per project, in-4
cluded as part of the award of the recipient or 5
in addition to the amount of the award of the 6
recipient as determined appropriate by the head 7
of the Federal agency, for the services described 8
in paragraph (1)— 9
‘‘(i) provided through a vendor se-10
lected under paragraph (2)(A); 11
‘‘(ii) provided through a vendor other 12
than a vendor selected under paragraph 13
(2)(A); 14
‘‘(iii) achieved through the activities 15
described in paragraph (2)(C); or 16
‘‘(iv) provided or achieved through 17
any combination of clauses (i), (ii), and 18
(iii). 19
‘‘(B) P
HASE II.—A Federal agency de-20
scribed in paragraph (1) shall authorize a re-21
cipient of a Phase II SBIR or STTR award to 22
utilize not more than $50,000 per project, in-23
cluded as part of the award of the recipient or 24
in addition to the amount of the award of the 25
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recipient as determined appropriate by the head 1
of the Federal agency, for the services described 2
in paragraph (1)— 3
‘‘(i) provided through a vendor se-4
lected under paragraph (2)(A); 5
‘‘(ii) provided through a vendor other 6
than a vendor selected under paragraph 7
(2)(A); 8
‘‘(iii) achieved through the activities 9
described in paragraph (2)(C); or 10
‘‘(iv) provided or achieved through 11
any combination of clauses (i), (ii), and 12
(iii).’’; and 13
(4) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(5) T
ARGETED REVIEW .—A Federal agency 15
may perform targeted reviews of technical and busi-16
ness assistance funding as described in subsection 17
(mm)(1)(F).’’. 18
SEC. 6. I-CORPS PARTICIPATION. 19
Section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638), 20
as amended by section 4, is amended by adding at the 21
end the following: 22
‘‘(bbb) I-C
ORPSPARTICIPATION.— 23
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Each Federal agency that 24
is required to conduct an SBIR or STTR program 25
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with an Innovation Corps (commonly known as ‘I- 1
Corps’) program shall— 2
‘‘(A) provide an option for participation in 3
an I-Corps teams course by recipients of an 4
award under the SBIR or STTR program; and 5
‘‘(B) authorize the recipients described in 6
subparagraph (A) to use an award provided 7
under subsection (q) to provide additional tech-8
nical assistance for participation in the I-Corps 9
teams course. 10
‘‘(2) C
OST OF PARTICIPATION .—The cost of 11
participation by a recipient described in paragraph 12
(1)(A) in an I-Corps course may be provided by— 13
‘‘(A) an I-Corps team grant; 14
‘‘(B) funds awarded to the recipient under 15
subsection (q); 16
‘‘(C) the participating teams or other 17
sources as appropriate; or 18
‘‘(D) any combination of sources described 19
in subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C).’’. 20
SEC. 7. COMMERCIALIZATION IMPACT ASSESSMENT. 21
Section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638), 22
as amended by sections 4 and 6, is amended by adding 23
at the end the following: 24
‘‘(ccc) C
OMMERCIALIZATION IMPACTASSESSMENT.— 25
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall co-1
ordinate with each Federal agency with an SBIR or 2
STTR program to develop an annual commercializa-3
tion impact assessment report, which shall measure, 4
for each small business concern that has received 5
not less than 50 Phase II awards on or after Octo-6
ber 1 of the ninth fiscal year before the fiscal year 7
in which the report is submitted— 8
‘‘(A) total dollar value of Federal awards, 9
contracts, and subcontracts, other than SBIR 10
or STTR awards, received by the small business 11
concern over the preceding 9 fiscal years; 12
‘‘(B) the total dollar value of all SBIR and 13
STTR Phase I and Phase II awards received by 14
the small business concern over the preceding 9 15
fiscal years; 16
‘‘(C) the average annual gross revenue of 17
the small business concern over the preceding 9 18
fiscal years; 19
‘‘(D) total revenue from the sale or licens-20
ing of new products and services resulting from 21
the research conducted under the awards re-22
ceived in the preceding 9 fiscal years; 23
‘‘(E) additional investment from any 24
source other than Phase I or Phase II SBIR or 25
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STTR awards, to further the research and de-1
velopment conducted under the awards received 2
in the preceding 9 fiscal years; 3
‘‘(F) mergers and acquisitions of award re-4
cipients during or after the completion of a 5
Phase II award; 6
‘‘(G) new, unique spin-out companies re-7
sulting from research conducted under the 8
awards received in the preceding 9 fiscal years; 9
‘‘(H) patents acquired as a result of re-10
search conducted under the awards received in 11
the preceding 9 fiscal years; 12
‘‘(I) the year of first Phase II award and 13
the total number of employees at the time of 14
first Phase II award; 15
‘‘(J) the number of employees, as of the 16
end of the most recent fiscal year; and 17
‘‘(K) the total number and value of Phase 18
III awards received. 19
‘‘(2) P
UBLICATION.—The commercialization im-20
pact assessment report described in paragraph (1) 21
shall be— 22
‘‘(A) included in the annual report sub-23
mitted under subsection (b)(7); and 24
‘‘(B) submitted to— 25
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‘‘(i) the Committee on Small Business 1
and Entrepreneurship of the Senate; and 2
‘‘(ii) the Committee on Science, 3
Space, and Technology and the Committee 4
on Small Business of the House of Rep-5
resentatives.’’. 6
SEC. 8. PATENT ASSISTANCE. 7
Section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638), 8
as amended by sections 4, 6, and 7, is amended by adding 9
at the end the following: 10
‘‘(ddd) P
ATENTASSISTANCE.— 11
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 12
‘‘(A) the term ‘Director’ means the Under 13
Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property 14
and Director of the USPTO; and 15
‘‘(B) the term ‘USPTO’ means the United 16
States Patent and Trademark Office. 17
‘‘(2) A
SSISTANCE.—The Administrator shall 18
enter into an interagency agreement with the Direc-19
tor under which the Director shall assist recipients 20
of an award under the SBIR or STTR program (in 21
this paragraph referred to as ‘SBIR and STTR re-22
cipients’) relating to intellectual property protection 23
by establishing a prioritized patent examination pro-24
gram for SBIR and STTR recipients. 25
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‘‘(3) OUTREACH.—The Administrator shall co-1
ordinate with the Director to provide outreach re-2
garding the Pro Se Assistance Program of, and 3
scam prevention services provided by, the USPTO.’’. 4
Æ
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