today the committee is going to mark up three good bipartisan pieces of legislation the first bill h r twenty five the enhanced small business research innovation is one of the most significant bills the committee will likely address in this national resource they provide large tracts of understory long term research environmental sciences climate change and for the development and testing of methods to clean up past pollution the parks are  natural gas powered vehicles and related infrastructure the vehicle fleet the future will include a diverse range of fuels and vehicle technologies and it is both cleaner than petroleum and domestically available natural gas will likely play an important role in a more sustained transportation sector i hope we can continue to improve in a bipartisan manner today and i look forward to moving to the floor for final passage i now recognize mr hall to present his opening pointed out h r twenty nine sixty five expands and makes important changes to the small business innovation research program and the small business technology transfer program which as their names indicate fund innovation and technology full house passed a bill very similar to this version last year a very pointed out and i am pleased that we are again able to advance this mail in a bipartisan fashion working closely with the majority as well as another small business committee this is allowed us to build a strong legislative record on this program which will serve us well and we aim to complete floor action and conference negotiation before the program expires on july thirty first h r twenty seven twenty nine will authorize and make permanent the existing seven national environmental research parks across the country the national environmental research parks or outdoor laboratories that provide opportunities for environmental studies on protected lands and the majority of staff to clarify that the parks and the sides they're located on shall continue to be run as they currently are h r sixteen twenty to reauthorize is a natural gas vehicle r and d program that was created in the one nine hundred ninety two energy policy act this builds introduced by representative john sullivan of oklahoma and is co sponsored co sponsored as does representative lucas on this committee on a wel on a well to wield basis natural gas vehicles produce twenty two percent less greenhouse gases in comparable diesel vehicles and twenty nine percent less gasoline vehicles in two thousand and seven natural gas vehicles displace two hundred  fifty million gallons of petroleum in the united states in the next seventeen years and astri's goal is to grow that dan baby and gallons over sixty percent of the petroleum use in america's imported much of it is from countries that are on stable and not have the best interests of the united states in mind meanwhile almost ninety eight percent of the natural gas used in america is produced in north america eighty five percent in the u s and the rest in canada just last thursday the report by  component of the federal r and d portfolio serving to facilitate increased private sector commercialization of promising ideas helping the government advance its r and eagles and needed technology this legislation makes important prudence to this program most notably by providing statutory clarity to what have been changing interpretations of the eligibility of majority venture capital back to small businesses as we know both this committee and the small business committee have considered this issue in detail in recent years and i think the growing consensus in support of the legislation proposed changes is a strong indication that they are on target maximizing eligibility of legitimate small businesses while minimizing inappropriate eligibility of large businesses i also want to know my strong support for title three of this bill which not less home to entrepreneurial and innovative small business owners who would benefit from increased outreach i think terman gordon ranking member hall and chairman lou for their leadership on this legislation and i look forward to working with them to ensure we expedite completion of this bill before these programs expire at the end of july thank you that members may now place statements in the record at this point and we will now consider h r twenty nine sixty five the enhanced small business research innovation act of two thousand and nine i recognize the gentleman where a lot of innovation happens in the science of technology committee and your leadership especially the technology innovation subcommittee which mr smith and i serve on intends to promote the science of technology research that will drive innovation based economy and create new high wage high value jobs which are not going to go away at more than two point three billion dollars per year the small business innovative research and small business technology transfer programs comprise the largest single source of federal support for technological innovation in the private sector given the current economic climate we need robust s d r and programs more than ever to create the next generation of companies that will provide high paying jobs and grow our economy these programs originated more than twenty years ago and given the changes that we have seen during the past two decades we need to update these programs to reflect the current economic realities of our increasingly competitive innovation economy the technology and innovation subcommittee has held numerous hearings on s t r and s t t r in the past several years including one as recently as  april our witnesses share many recommendations about how s p i are and can be strengthened recently h r twenty nine sixty five the enhancing small business research and innovation act was introduced this bill authorizes s v r n s t t r through two thousand and eleven the bill increases the phase one awards from one hundred thousand dollars to two hundred fifty thousand dollars and phase two awards from seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to two million dollars to better reflect the actual costs of doing business in high tech research and development today it also increases the flexibility of the f b i our program by allowing cross agency awards and allowing applicants to apply directly for face to finding and permits re competed repetitive face to awards h r two thousand and nine sixty five allows venture capital majority venture capital back small businesses to once again apply for awards and specifically define their eligibility requirements there has been much debate over the proper role of venture capital participation the national academies report released recently states clearly that venture capital back companies are important in technology development and do not crowd out other small businesses in addition the bill expands requirements agency databases of award recipients and improve accessibility between various agencies databases this will allow for improved future improvement s p r as we moved as we move to reauthorize in two thousand and eleven or two thousand and twelve and improved oversight by congress a try twenty nine sixty five also establishes an interagency committee co chaired by the director of the white house office of science technology policy and the director of the national institutes of standards and technology to report to congress on the best practices for commercialization of s p r and are funded research in closing this committee has been a leader in passing legislation that advances our innovation agenda today we continue that leadership by reauthorizing s v r and i want to thank the chairman for his leadership of this committee for speaker pelosi in pushing the innovation agenda and want to specifically recognize staff who have worked very very hard on this legislation over multiple congresses i'm fond of saying that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to serve on the house science committee but you do have to be a rocket scientist to be on staff and they ha e tremendous job i want to specifically recognize my queer who is one with this project through thick and thin and also dennis warden of my office staff for his fine work on this legislation and i w thank you mr chairman small business innovation and research program and small business technology transfer program provide critical financial support to the research and development initiatives of small companies small firms of course are important drivers of advanced technology innovations in a variety of fields are increasingly generated by small companies who will ultimately develop a partnership or have their idea purchased by a larger firm s v r an s t t are the lifeblood of these small companies and it is important that we continue to support these programs michigan companies compete favorably for f b i our wards particularly in the department of defense program over four hundred michigan companies have received s v r awards over the years and many new companies have been launched as a result for example j d i a company in my district that develops soldier tracking technology and navigation systems that can be used where g p s is not available i was able to form a partnership and launch a new company after a successful army phase two s b i r award the company now has a partnership with raytheon to provide this innovative technology to our military twenty nine sixty five extends the s b r s t t r program until two thousand and eleven and makes important improvements to the program my constituents often tell me that venture capital back companies should be allowed to participate in s p r and that doing so will help the best ideas with the greatest chances of commercialization i'm glad to see h r twenty nine sixty five takes this into consideration the legislation also promotes greater commercialization efforts and agency initiatives that encourage partnerships between our recipients and business many small companies in my district benefit from such partnerships with business incubator as like automation alley and it is important to continue to promote these partnerships at the federal level i want to thank chairman gordon ranking member hall and chairman  ranking member smith of the t n i subcommittee for their attention to this program and for bringing the important legislation up for consideration today and i urge my colleagues to report as favorably to the house floor as anyone else wish to be recognized to program specifically the council review concluded that quote insufficient data collection analytic capability and reporting requirements together with a decentralized nature of the program means limited ability to make connections between program outcomes and program management practices and quote this amendment is intended to address that concern and ultimately i would hope this process could lead to development of individual agency performance measures and more complete information upon which to base future policy changes reported that objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table members will have two subsequent counter days in which to submit supplemental minority or additional views on this measure we will now consider h r twenty r twenty seven twenty nine formally authorizes seven national environmental research park located at national laboratories within six major ecological regions of the united states in my district the research park at los alamos national laboratory include a landscape of canyons massive mountains and the rio grande providing a diverse range of ecosystems study the research park conducts ongoing environmental studies on everything from containment transport to woodland productivity to long term climate change effects and human impact on the land over one hundred twenty five publications related to the ecology interaction between lab operations and the environment have been written about the los alamos area and  research parks are one of our nation's most valuable environmental research assets and it's time that for them to be recognized into law explicitly provided the resources they need to continue their valuable work this legislation supports the research parks research and monitoring programs that authorizes corps funding that will ensure that they can continue to to work on the important work they already perform and provide opportunities to expand on your research and energy development initiatives as well  bill also encourages environmental science education and public outreach activities and it establishes a research park corner that will assist the parks in collaborating with each other i want to thank my republican colleagues for their support is bigger for co sponsorship and ranking member hall for his amendment today i want to thank members of the energy environment subcommittee for their valuable insight and input over the past several weeks as we worked on this bill and i also like to thank chairman gordon persuader ship and the committee staff for their hard work i'm excited to work on this important include two weeks from or learning institutes at the environmental research park it would also allow participants to interact with environmental scientists and enhance their understanding of the subject this committee has held hearings on the importance and formal hands on learning settings that are outside the classroom and there is no question that experience based learning is very important is a science education allowing students to come to the environmental schools and their classrooms as a comedian studies have found that minority students begin to underachieve in math and science as early as providing teachers with the exceptional opportunity to study at these research parks will help them to motivate and inspire their students early on in addition the lab setting will provide a unique educational opportunity for minority students and girls who are under represented in science technology engineering and math career they may also otherwise never be exposed to this type of research they will have the opportunity to learn how and why we study the logical and environmental service sciences no specific bonds or designated for this program management simply authorize the program at the discretion of the secretary in summary the amendment will set the stage for educational opportunity it will facilitate partnerships between research products teachers and students and it will help to ensure that we have a new generation of competitive scientists who are trained here in the us and who are prepared to excel in the ecological environmental scientists thank you for the consideration of th the program of research development and demonstration of natural gas to recognize mr howard remarks on the bill thank you mr chairman for natural gas vehicles to achieve their market safety codes and standards regularly as my county car and really was frustrated with the fact that maybe because there wasn't any real agenda being pushed or leadership in washington we didn't see that reflected and i think that i would ask all of you to remember that one of our challenges of going to alternative fuels as we call it is the infrastructure but in the suburban area the overwhelming majority of homes are plumbed with natural gas today and one of the things i want to make sure is clear in the record that when we talk about refueling we should not only not be talking about centralized gas station type of refueling but also the development of technology so that individuals can actually fuel up their vehicle while the car is parked in the garage which then gives the consumer the choice to be able to use that natural gas every morning rather than going off to another alternative fuel which may be gasoline or ethanol or some other and so there's a real excitement here that there is an infrastructure there that goes there is a technology that has the power to the greenhouse gases you'll be very impressed with how underestimated the benefits of natural gas so i just want to praise the authors of this bill and look forward to moving forward i make sure that when we talk about federal standards we also  building codes that are building inspectors in our community are not only allowing but encouraging people to go to this technology for their homes so that we don't have to rely on building alternative infrastructures so i yield back and i want to thank you very much for today does not mean that we did not have three very good bills that came in a little after the opening statement i want to remind you that our first bill was a two point three billion dollars authorization