WASHINGTON--The chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee has introduced legislation to renew and expand the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR), which links small businesses with federally funded research.

"The success of the STTR is one of the best-kept secrets in the country, when it should be front-page news," says Sen. Kit Bond, R-MO.

The program has proved especially effective in building high-tech economies in Silicon Valley and in the R oute 128 corridor in Massachusetts, says Bond. "With more nurturing by Congress, STTR can spawn similar growth in the hundreds more communities around the country that contain universities and federal laboratories," he says.

Bond has introduced the Small Business Technology Transfer Program Reauthorization of 2001 with Sen. John Kerry, D-MA.