Spring 2014 Federal Policy Priorities Summary

Grow U.S. Economy & Jobs by Passing Comprehensive Immigration Reform

For decades, the best and brightest from around the world came to Silicon Valley to innovate. U.S. immigration policies, along with growing opportunities in other countries, are keeping them out. Reform is urgently needed now so that U.S. companies can compete for talent in the global marketplace.

The Leadership Group supports an immigration package which includes:

Making Green Card and H-1B Programs Work For America:

  • Establish a market-based H-1B cap and increase the employment-based green card cap.
  • Streamline and improve the visa and green card application processes.
  • Recapture unused green cards from previous years to reduce and prevent future backlogs.
  • Reduce length of time and uncertainty in process.
  • Clear current backlog.
  • Exempt spouses and children of green card recipients from green card cap.
  • Eliminate the employment-based per-country visa cap entirely by 2015 and raise the family sponsored per-country visa cap from 7 to 15 percent.
  • Use new company-paid visa and green card fees to help fund STEM programs in U.S. schools to train the next generation American workforce.

Recruiting And Retaining The Best And Brightest

  • Provide visas and green cards to startup entrepreneurs and advanced STEM degree holders from U.S. universities.
  • Exempt U.S. advanced degree graduates, as well as foreign advanced STEM degree graduates with U.S. work experience, from the green card cap.

Modernizing the U.S. Business Tax Code

The global economy has evolved dramatically since the U.S. Tax Code’s last update in 1986. The U.S. now needs a modernized tax system that will facilitate U.S. economic growth and encourage America’s global companies to create jobs and opportunities at home.

With a statutory tax rate at 39.2 percent, U.S. businesses operating in global markets are shouldered with the highest rate among the world’s largest economies which impedes economic and job growth in the U.S.

A stronger U.S. economy can be built on the following three pillars:

  • A lower business tax rate to help level the playing field in global markets.
  • A competitive territorial system to end the practice of double taxing U.S. companies’ foreign earnings – which virtually no other countries practice.
  • A permanent and strengthened R&D tax credit to revitalize the U.S. as the world’s innovation and R&D jobs leader.

Protect and Promote American Innovation by Limiting Patent Troll Abuse

Patent trolls’ sole activity is to obtain patents in order to file infringement claims against businesses and inventors. Despite winning fewer than 25 percent of cases, trolls earn their revenue through the settlement of frivolous claims. The overall cost to the economy has been estimated at $80 billion a year. These billions of dollars spent fighting patent trolls, diverted from research and development, are a massive and unseen cost to innovation.

We support the following legislative solutions to discourage patent trolls:

  • Litigation Reform: Require heightened pleading standards, fee shifting and limits on discovery to deter abusive tactics in patent litigation.
  • Transparency: Require transparent and up-to-date information on patent ownership, ultimate parent entity and parties with a financial interest in the patent.
  • Customer Stay Protections: Allow manufacturers and companies to protect their end users from frivolous claims by intervening in suits against customers.

Support Clean Energy Jobs, Stimulate Economic Growth and Advance National Energy Independence

America's clean economy expanded jobs at a rate of 8.3 percent during the recession. The U.S. is well-positioned to create jobs, stimulate economic growth and advance national energy independence by supporting:

  • Data Center Efficiency: Support H.R. 540 (Eshoo and Rogers) to reduce the energy footprint of government data centers and coordinate workforce training for energy auditors.
  • Energy Efficiency: Support legislation (Shaheen and Portman) to establish a national energy efficiency strategy to help residents and businesses save money.
  • Clean Energy: Support access to capital for wind, solar, fuel cells, energy storage and other clean energy technologies by preserving existing tax incentives and by passing a Master Limited Partnership Parity Act (Coons).

Increase U.S. Scientific Research Investments

Technological innovation, often based on federally funded research, has driven more than half of the U.S. economic growth post-WWII. The federal government plays a critical role, providing some 60 percent of funding for scientific research that might not otherwise happen because companies are more interested in later-stage research. While we recognize deficit concerns, we urge Congress to prioritize long term and stable funding for scientific research as an investment to ensure future U.S. economic and job growth.

Investments in Transportation Infrastructure

Federal partnerships have made the difference in getting our region and country moving, from the Interstate Highway System decades ago to the first phase of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Silicon Valley extension now under construction. However, the Transportation Trust Fund which supports projects like these is going broke. The Leadership Group wants to see a robust federal partnership continue to maintain and modernize our national transportation infrastructure.

We should address the insolvency of the Transportation Trust Fund by:

  • Increasing and indexing the gas tax to inflation.
  • Requiring new user fees to eventually replace the gas tax to support and improve alternatives to driving, and help develop new technologies.

Free Trade is Key to Growing the U.S. Economy

For America to continue creating jobs at home, companies depend on the ability to export goods and services throughout the world. Free trade encourages increased investments and economic growth. Passage of modernized Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) would empower the U.S. to expedite pending trade agreements with strategic markets throughout the world.

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, founded in 1978 by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, represents nearly 400 of Silicon Valley's most respected employers on issues, programs and campaigns that affect the economic health and quality of life in Silicon Valley, including energy, transportation, education, housing, health care, tax policies, economic vitality and the environment. Leadership Group members collectively provide nearly one of every three private sector jobs in Silicon Valley. Members operate in all 50 states and almost every Congressional District, directly providing employment opportunities for your constituents.