NORTH SHORE – (Radio & Videos) Details (below) on post on small business hearing at Lynn City Hall yesterday.
North Shore Today Radio 3/9/2016
Congressmen Moulton and Hanna Hear Testimony from Area Businesses, Attend Small Business Innovation Research Expo
Salem, MA – Today, Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) hosted a bipartisan U.S. House Small Business Committee field hearing with Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY) at the Lynn City Hall. The hearing titled “Commercializing on Innovation,” focused on the success of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant program and featured testimony from four regional small business owners and SBIR grant recipients who spoke in support of reauthorizing the $2 billion dollar federal grant program.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and today we heard directly from them about how the SBIR program stimulates economic development,” said Moulton. “Each witness made it clear just how vital these federal grants are to promoting small business and high-tech innovation. I was proud to host Congressman Hanna here in the district for a bipartisan hearing to showcase our small businesses, and I look forward to bringing what we learned about the SBIR program back to Washington.”
“In the rapidly growing and ever-changing field of technology, it is often small firms that develop innovative technologies that become staples in the marketplace years later,” Chairman Hanna said. “Congress must act to reauthorize SBIR and STTR to provide small businesses with access to the funding and research opportunities that magnify their entrepreneurial spirit and enable them to compete with major technology and research companies. I am grateful we could host this hearing today in Lynn with Rep. Moulton and hear directly from witnesses who know firsthand what is happening in the industry.”
The SBIR program is a competitive awards-based program that seeks to foster entrepreneurship and technological advancement for small businesses. Moulton and Hanna serve on the House Small Business Committee, and this public field hearing in Lynn is one of just five throughout the country that the Small Business Committee has scheduled for this session of Congress.
Walter Bird, President of MassVentures in Boston, was one of four witnesses who testified. “The SBIR/STTR programs have played a vital role in harnessing the immense human capital of Massachusetts’ higher education, medical and research institutions,” said Bird. “The SBIR and STTR programs provide opportunities to small firms to create great ideas but are unable to attract traditional venture capital funding or need seed funding to pursue those projects that the private sector has decided are too high-risk or not lucrative enough. However, it’s exactly these high-risk, high-reward projects that truly drive innovation in Massachusetts.”
Area businesses joined Congressmen Moulton and Hanna for a reception and SBIR expo after the hearing to demonstrate their products and share SBIR success stories. Bob Treiber, President and Co-Founder of Boston Engineering, showcased the company’s robotic fish, “BIOSwimmer.” Boston Engineering developed the fish for the U.S. Office of Naval Research for inspection and security missions. Boston Engineering’s robotic fish is just one example of the type of high-tech innovation spurred by SBIR and STTR funding.
