New England Innovation Alliance Statement on the Failure of Congress to Reauthorize the SBIR and STTR Programs
September 2025
The New England Innovation Alliance (NEIA), an organization of entrepreneurial companies focused on transitioning innovative technologies to government and commercial use, applauds the effort made by Senator Edward Markey, Ranking Member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, to reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs for one year through Senate passage of HR 5100.
Senator Markey has long been a steadfast champion for America’s small business innovators. His leadership in taking to the Senator floor to defend the SBIR and STTR programs from lapsing is a testament to his commitment to support innovators, economic growth, and national security.
The SBIR and STTR programs are vital to maintaining U.S. technological leadership and national security. Every day, these programs help deliver innovations that enhance our competitive edge, bolster competitiveness, and safeguard our long-term leadership in global technology. It is deeply concerning that some would rather see the SBIR/STTR programs expire than collaborate to find common ground. This approach risks undermining thousands of small businesses that drive U.S. innovation and support the warfighter.
We urge Congress to act swiftly to prevent any lapse that would jeopardize our nation’s security and innovation ecosystem.
Ranking Member Markey Hosts Listening Session with Massachusetts Small Businesses on Harmful Impacts of the Trump Administration’s Innovation Funding Cuts, Reckless Tariff Policies
August 2025
(Boston, August 19) - Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today hosted a listening session to hear directly from Massachusetts research and innovation small businesses about how the Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies and research, attacks on universities, and reckless tariff policies are harming small businesses and the innovation economy. During the session, Ranking Member Markey and the small business representatives also discussed the importance of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs to the small business innovation ecosystem. The discussion took place at The Engine at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Key Objections to INNOVATE Act
August 2025
The INNOVATE Act (S. 853), introduced by Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Roger Williams (R-TX), significantly undermines the merit-based approach in SBIR and STTR that have been so successful in developing critical technologies for the warfighter, space exploration, and the healthcare professional. If enacted without critical modifications, SBIR funding would be nearly exclusively captured by established, well-funded, VC-backed companies that will exploit the SBIR program for taxpayer money to leverage VC investments.
New England Innovation Alliance Opposes Ernst/Williams INNOVATE Act
August 2025
The New England Innovation Alliance (NEIA), an organization of entrepreneurial companies focused on transitioning innovative technologies to government and commercial use, strongly opposes the INNOVATE Act. The legislation, introduced by Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Representative Roger Williams (R-TX), Chairs of the Senate and House Small Business Committees, would reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs. The INNOVATE Act is a direct attack on the longstanding competitive, merit-based approach to the program and a give-away of hundreds of millions of dollars annually in non-dilutive capital to venture capital interests.
The SBIR and STTR Reauthorization Act of 2025
August 2025
The New England Innovation Alliance, a coalition of small, disruptive innovation businesses located in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, strongly supports The SBIR and STTR Reauthorization Act of 2025 introduced by Senator Edward Markey, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Representative Nydia Velázquez, Ranking Member of the House Small Business Committee.
Defense tech firms to Congress: Don’t ruin SBIR
April 2025
The New England Innovation Alliance is sounding the alarm that legislation to reform the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs would erode the federal government’s ability to meet its unique technology needs and make it easier for China and other adversaries to steal sensitive U.S. technology.
In a statement for the record following a Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing on SBIR/STTR reauthorization held on March 5, the coalition of two dozen small high-tech companies also raised concerns that draft legislation from Sen. Joni Ernst calls for providing up to $30 million awards to venture-funded defense startups by substantially reducing research institution funding to universities under the STTR program.
A member of NEIA testified before the March 5 hearing, while two others appeared as witnesses at a hearing on SBIR/STTR reauthorization held by House Committee on Small Business on Feb. 26.
The alliance argued that the proposed INNOVATE Act would severely undermine the research goals of “mission agencies” with unique technology needs like the Department of Defense. The provisions include capping awards for proven innovators who regularly partner with leading research universities and requiring SBIR recipients to achieve large-scale commercialization – even though the military and law enforcement often have requirements that lack widespread commercial applications.
“NEIA members are not typically single-technology companies on a linear venture-capital driven trajectory,” the alliance stated. “They focus on innovating technologies that federal agencies, like the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and its service branches, need to meet critical mission objectives, for which no other stakeholders are positioned to deliver.”
Failing to recognize the SBIR-derived technologies that are regularly sold to other government contractors and integrated into more complicated systems and weapons platforms “devalues an important role played by small businesses” in the SBIR/STTR programs, they said.
“SBIR topics are also not exclusively about heroic entrepreneurs building a large new spacecraft, aircraft, or ship,” the alliance added. “They are much more often about creating significant innovative improvements to component capabilities that maintain the technological dominance of those platforms or reducing the cost of sustaining those platforms.”
Meanwhile, NEIA told the Senate committee that a variety of proposed measures intended to reward less mature startups, while penalizing experienced firms with a long track record of supporting national security, could exacerbate growing concerns about foreign adversaries pilfering national security secrets.
“New companies, with staff fresh from universities and with limited funding, do not have the resources to train employees in security procedures and develop information systems well protected against cyber-attacks. They need additional development funds and are thus vulnerable to foreign influence,” the companies asserted.
They cited a Navy study demonstrating that SBIR technology stolen by foreign entities were nearly entirely from very small companies. “This is a reality, and a risk factor, that could be exacerbated during the upcoming reauthorization process,” the alliance warned.
The collection of experienced SBIR firms outlined a series of principles to guide the reauthorization process:
- Merit-based Awards: “Congress should maintain the competitive, merit-based fundamentals of the program to ensure the best technology is developed to keep America as the world leader.”
- Application Simplification: “The largest barrier to participation in the program for new entrants is the increased administrative burden and complexity of proposal submission
- Improved Communication: “Agencies should be required to improve the communication of their needs and opportunities to small businesses across all topic types.”
- Agency Discretion: “Agencies should have discretion to shape the program and define merit consistent with their missions”; and
- Permanent Authorization: “Companies make investments based on an assessment of their ability to grow and recover that investment…Program permanency reduces the perception that those investments will be stranded at the next reauthorization without limiting the ability of Congress to make further adjustments to the program.”
“A goal during this program reauthorization,” the alliance concluded, “should be to reduce barriers to entry and broaden, not restrict, participation in the program.”
Read the full statement here.