Senate Small Business Committee Chair Mary Landrieu says the committee’s “first priority” is reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research program. The Senate passed an overhaul of SBIR last year, but the House never acted.

The committee’s ranking Republican, Olympia Snowe of Maine, said the bill she and Landrieu sponsored was a compromise that would allow SBIR grants on a limited basis to companies controlled by large venture capital firms. The bill would also increase the maximum amount of SBIR awards.

At a Feb. 17 committee hearing, Charles Wessner, who studied the program for the National Research Council of the National Academies, said, “It is a myth” that companies get multiple SBIR grants but never bring their technologies into the commercial market.

Small businesses facing maturing commercial mortgages or balloon payments may be eligible to refinance their debt with an SBA-guaranteed loan.

Borrowers will be able to refinance up to 90% of the current appraised property value or 100% of the outstanding mortgages, whichever is lower, plus eligible refinancing costs.

Borrowers must apply through third-party lenders who offer Section 504 loans. Applications are now being accepted. The program was authorized under the Small Business Jobs Act passed by Congress last year.

SBA is investigating whether a consultant to an Alaska Native 8(a) firm falsified documents relating to his employment by the company, the Washington Post reported.

In a Feb. 18 letter to H. James Nunes, SBA said the agency had recommended that he be considered for debarment from federal contracting because he allegedly “submitted false or misleading documents.”

According to an investigation by the newspaper, a subsidiary of Sitnasuak Native Corp. paid more than $15 million to Nunes, a consultant who worked from his home in Bethesda, MD. His contract gave him up to 36% of the company’s profit from federal contracts.

However, in 2007 Nunes filed a disclosure document on behalf of the company, saying that it employed no consultants. He signed the SBA form on the line for “”President, Partner, or Proprietor.”

Nunes’ attorney told the Post the answers were not misleading and that SBA’s investigation is in the early stages.

SBA rules require 8(a) companies to disclose whether they have used any consultants or representatives in pursuit of federal contracts.

An SBA spokeswoman said the agency would have no comment on the matter.