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THE NCE QUARTERLY REPORT
September, 2008 Issue
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Dear valued member,
If you would like more information on
our organization, the benefits of membership, or
are interested in joining to assist in our
political and educational campaigns please use the
links listed above. Thank you and we look forward
to working with you toward our shared goals in the
future.
Sincerely,
Robert J.
DiCarlo
Senator Emeritus
NCE Executive
Director |
| SBA Warns Small Buisnesses of Bank Scam |
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| SBA Warns Small Businesses of Bank Scam
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is warning small businesses not to respond to letters or faxes falsely claiming to have been sent by the SBA asking for bank account information related to federal tax rebates.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is warning small businesses not to respond to letters or faxes falsely claiming to have been sent by the SBA asking for bank account information related to federal tax rebates.
The SBA said the fraudulent letters were sent on what appears to be SBA letterhead to small businesses across the country. The letters state that the SBA needs a business’s bank name and account number in order to determine whether the business qualifies for a tax rebate under the Economic Stimulus Act.
“These letters have not been sent by or authorized by the SBA, and all small businesses are strongly advised not to respond to them,” the SBA said.
The SBA is working with the SBA Office of Inspector General to investigate this matter. The Office of Inspector General asks that anyone who receives such a letter report it to the OIG Fraud Line at 800-767-0385, or e-mail at OIGHotline@sba.gov.
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| When 97 percent of $9 Billion isn't enough |
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When 97 Percent of $9 Billion Isn’t Enough
Shortly before the U.S. Senate voted on final passage of the massive 1,000-page stimulus bill, a change affecting small business and health care innovation was quietly added to the bill. (Link)
Shortly before the U.S. Senate voted on final passage of the massive 1,000-page stimulus bill, a change affecting small business and health care innovation was quietly added to the bill. The bill provides $9.2 billion to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for new health care research and development. Under existing law, 2.5 percent of that amount would have been set aside for small business.
Apparently getting 97.5 percent of $9.2 billion wasn’t enough for the universities and big businesses that NIH typically supports, and requiring NIH to allocate that 2.5 percent to small business was too much for some in Congress.
A stealthy, midnight change in the wording of the stimulus bill eliminated the small business funding from the portion given to NIH. The sudden bonanza of NIH research money was simply excluded from the law requiring the small business participation.
As is often the case in situations like these, no one stepped forward to accept responsibility for the change. After all, every politician claims to be in favor of small business. According to a number of Congressional staffers, however, the elimination of the small business share was done at the behest of Sen. Arlen Spector (R-PA).
The last-minute change that Sen. Spector appears to have backed exempts the health research funding in the stimulus bill from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)Act. The SBIR Act is a 25-year-old statute requiring major federal research agencies to allocate 2.5 percent of their external R&D to small business.
SBIR has a long history of Congressional support because most in Congress believe that the 2.5 percent allocation is the absolute minimum amount necessary to properly utilize the nation’s scientists and engineers--more than 38 percent of whom work for small companies. By contrast, 27 percent of U.S. scientists and engineers work for large companies and 16 percent for universities. Yet the small business share of federal R&D has never risen above 5 percent, and SBIR is only half of that.
Small business has performed some great feats on its 2.5 percent allocation. SBIR recipients have generated more than 60,000 patents and today receive an average of 7 patents a day. That is far more than all U.S. universities combined. According to a major recent study by the National Academy of Sciences, the SBIR Program has been a signal success.
So why would anyone want to deprive Americans of the health care innovations that small technology companies have proven themselves capable of delivering?
A clue might be found in a recent controversy. Companies that are large businesses by federal standards have been trying to access the 2.5 percent small business share of federal R&D. Leading the charge has been a group of biotechnology companies and some venture capital companies that invest in these companies. |
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| The NCE
Spotlight |
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At least 20 percent of regularly healthy children in the United States benefit from alternative health care according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can cover anything from chamomile tea to yoga, and it has been practiced on children to help treat a variety of conditions. |
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The N.C.E. has created a completely
portable package of benefits.
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