Comment on FR Doc # 2012-11586

Regarding the SBA’s Small Business Size Regulations for SBIR and STTR, 13 CFR Part 121 I would like to comment on the requirement that the ownership of qualifying businesses be mostly owned by US citizens or domestic organizations, or by other organizations that are more than 50 percent of the same qualifications. Since the goal here is to recruit and aid domestic businesses there is one factor that concerns me, and it is not that foreign interests are allowed to participate but that there may not be any restrictions on the amount of foreign involvement that may occur through compounding. I believe it would be a good idea to further regulate the amount of foreign involvement by restricting a certain percentage of involvement by the same foreign individual or organization, whether it be through one entity or through several, accompanying US citizens in partnerships. Without such a regulation, a foreign sponsor may be able to stake interests in several businesses and cumulatively gain as much or more from the awards available. Setting a certain percentage of interests or financial ceiling that any one foreign individual or organization is entitled to, overall through all involvements, would help to ensure the companies remain majority domestic, increase competitiveness within the US as businesses may be more likely to use domestic resources in an effort to stay in these guidelines, but would still allow for significant involvement from foreign resources and even perhaps increasing competitiveness in a global scale as well through the same devices.