I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2767 

To amend the Small Business Act to extend and improve the Small Business 

Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 9, 2009 

Mr. GRAVES introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small Business, and in addition to the Committee on Science 

and Technology, 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 amend the Small Business Act to extend and improve 

the Small Business Innovation Research Program and 

the Small Business Technology Transfer Program, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Investing in Tomor5 row’s Technology Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF TERMINATION DATES. 

2 (a) SBIR.—Section 9(m) of the Small Business Act 

3 (15 U.S.C. 638(m)) is amended by striking ‘‘2008’’ and 

4 inserting ‘‘2011’’. 

5 (b) STTR.—Section 9(n)(1)(A) of the Small Busi6 ness Act (15 U.S.C. 638(n)(1)(A)) is amended by striking 

7 ‘‘2009’’ and inserting ‘‘2011’’. 

8 SEC. 3. ENSURING THAT INNOVATIVE SMALL BUSINESSES 

9 WITH SUBSTANTIAL INVESTMENT FROM VEN10 TURE CAPITAL OPERATING COMPANIES ARE 

11 ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SBIR AND 

12 STTR PROGRAMS. 

13 Section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638) 

14 is amended by adding at the end the following: 

15 ‘‘(aa) VENTURE CAPITAL OPERATING COMPANIES.— 

16 Effective only for the SBIR and STTR programs the fol17 lowing shall apply: 

18 ‘‘(1) A business concern that has more than 

19 500 employees shall not qualify as a small business 

20 concern. 

21 ‘‘(2) In determining whether a small business 

22 concern is independently owned and operated under 

23 section 3(a)(1) or meets the small business size 

24 standards instituted under section 3(a)(2), the Ad25 ministrator shall not consider a business concern to 

26 be affiliated with a venture capital operating comVerDate Nov 24 2008 05:30 Jun 10, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2767.IH H2767

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1 pany (or with any other business that the venture 

2 capital operating company has financed) if— 

3 ‘‘(A) the venture capital operating com4 pany does not own 50 percent or more of the 

5 business concern; and 

6 ‘‘(B) employees of the venture capital oper7 ating company do not constitute a majority of 

8 the board of directors of the business concern. 

9 ‘‘(3) A business concern shall be deemed to be 

10 ‘independently owned and operated’ if— 

11 ‘‘(A) it is owned in majority part by one or 

12 more natural persons or venture capital oper13 ating companies; 

14 ‘‘(B) there is no single venture capital op15 erating company that owns 50 percent or more 

16 of the business concern; and 

17 ‘‘(C) there is no single venture capital op18 erating company the employees of which con19 stitute a majority of the board of directors of 

20 the business concern. 

21 ‘‘(4) If a venture capital operating company 

22 controlled by a business with more than 500 employ23 ees (in this paragraph referred to as a ‘VCOC under 

24 large business control’) has an ownership interest in 

25 a small business concern that is owned in majority 


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1 part by venture capital operating companies, the 

2 small business concern is eligible to receive an award 

3 under the SBIR or STTR program only if— 

4 ‘‘(A) not more than two VCOCs under 

5 large business control have an ownership inter6 est in the small business concern; 

7 ‘‘(B) the VCOCs under large business con8 trol do not collectively own more than 20 per9 cent of the small business concern; and 

10 ‘‘(C) the VCOCs under large business con11 trol do not collaborate with each other to exer12 cise more control over the small business con13 cern than they could otherwise exercise individ14 ually. 

15 ‘‘(5) The term ‘venture capital operating com16 pany’ means a business concern— 

17 ‘‘(A) that— 

18 ‘‘(i) is a Venture Capital Operating 

19 Company, as that term is defined in regu20 lations promulgated by the Secretary of 

21 Labor; or 

22 ‘‘(ii) is an entity that— 

23 ‘‘(I) is registered under the In24 vestment Company Act of 1940 (15 

25 U.S.C. 80a–51 et seq.); or 


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1 ‘‘(II) is an investment company, 

2 as defined in section 3(c)(14) of such 

3 Act (15 U.S.C. 80a–3(c)(14)), which 

4 is not registered under such Act be5 cause it is beneficially owned by less 

6 than 100 persons; and 

7 ‘‘(B) that is itself organized or incor8 porated and domiciled in the United States, or 

9 is controlled by a business concern that is incor10 porated and domiciled in the United States.’’. 

Æ 


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