People with a business idea and a need to fund it usually turn first to the Three F’s.

Gary Clapp defines that as: friends, families and fools.

But the next phase of funding, says the president of the Institute for Industrial and Applied Life Sciences at Missouri Western State University, proves critical in research and development. A grant from the Small Business Administration can provide capital that can mean the difference between success and failure.

The U.S. House took a step Wednesday to potentially help, passing by a 386 to 41 vote a measure that removes obstacles and strengthens oversight in the Small Business Innovation Research program.

The bill goes now to the Senate for consideration.

Northwest Missouri Congressman Sam Graves, the top Republican on the House Small Business Committee, championed the bill and praised the bipartisan reauthorization of the program. He said the measure reverses eligibility roadblocks that restricted some small businesses, especially in capital-intensive technology fields, from competing for federal funding.

It also puts in place safeguards that ensure participating companies have only a limited ownership by large venture capital firms, he said.

“This bill is just going to ensure that small businesses that rely on capital investments to fund their research and development are not going to be discriminated against in the SBIR program,” the Missouri lawmaker said.

Joining Mr. Graves in a Wednesday afternoon conference call was Rep. Aaron Schock, an Illinois Republican and bill co-sponsor who lauded the increase in size of SBIR awards. For Phase I grants, normally dealing with business start-ups, the maximum rose from $100,000 to $250,000. For Phase II, meant to help bring a product to market, the top end went from $750,000 to $2 million.

“These levels, because they haven’t been changed in 20 years, have become insufficient,” Mr. Schock said, conceding the result would be fewer, if more worthy, grant awards.

Dr. Clapp, who heads Western’s Christopher S. “Kit” Bond Science and Technology Incubator, said the SBIR funding can make a difference in the first 18 to 24 months of a new company fighting to meet expenses.

“One of the people I talked to said you’re really not an entrepreneur until you’ve forgone your own pay in order to pay somebody else,” he said.

Ken Newton can be reached

at kenn@npgco.com.