Uphill path

BIOhas checked some key boxes - bipartisan sponsorship, support from a broad coalition - in its effort to get the Start-up Jobs and Innovation Act enacted, but the path forward is uphill. Getting anything through Congress is a daunting task, and it is going to get much harder next year as Washington goes into campaign mode.

The Start-up Jobs and Innovation Act would revive a discarded section of the tax code that allowed R&D limited partnerships in which investors could use a company's losses and tax credits to offset taxable income. Passive activity loss rules enacted in 1986 made it impossible for losses and credits to flow through to investors...