Back in February, both Republicans and Democrats were knocking each other over to prove that it was their respective party that was the Party of Innovation. We said at the time that the tech industry would trade all the Valentines from Congressional leaders for action on key competitiveness issues like the R&D tax credit and funding, enhancing math and science education and making it easier for the best and brightest in the world to work for companies in the United States.
Unfortunately, as the pre-election congressional session ends, all the industry has is a bunch of fleeting memories of air kisses, winks and promises to "get something done."
Thus, a paradox. The tech industry and tech issues are influential and important enough for the President and most every high-ranking congressional leader to make a big effort to show that they understand and support them. Both parties created their own innovation agendas this year. The President had an American Competitiveness Initiative that he highlighted in this year's State of the Union address.
However, why aren't actual bills getting passed? Why is it that all of the big innovation priorities got hung up in Congress so far this session?
Bill Archey at the American Electronics Association (AeA) gives the grim news in a guest post at VentureBeat....
Despite true bipartisan agreement, the lack of any decisive legislation was in part because of that agreement: The issue lacked the “partisan juice,” or benefit to either party and especially to the Republicans, for use as a wedge issue against the other party.
Not only is the high-tech agenda tied up in the virulent partisanship in Washington, it is also suffering now and will in the future from the fact that most members of the Congress do not understand high-tech, either the technology or the issues.
The LA Times did a piece on this very issue last month called "Competitiveness Can't Compete With Politics". It notes...
Tech executives thought the whole package would be wrapped up in months, not years, and warned that the United States risked falling behind in the global economy unless Congress acted quickly.
"We appreciate the broad bipartisan, bicameral commitment … but we believe the time for words has passed," the CEO Council — which includes Mark Hurd of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Paul Otellini of Intel Corp. — wrote to congressional leaders last week. "It's time to act."
And, some realpolitik....
Lobbyists said the initiative was hindered because its varied components required approval from several congressional committees, a tall task in a shortened election-year session.
"It was a multifaceted approach that had so many pieces it was hard to manage, and it was hard to put one person in charge of managing it," said Ralph Hellmann, senior vice president for government relations at the Information Technology Industry Council.
Although Bush has given at least seven speeches on the competitiveness initiative since unveiling it Jan. 31, "it just didn't get the highest-level oomph" behind the scenes at the White House and in Congress, Hellmann said.
Bottom line is that as long the collective congressional mind thinks that it can get the benefits from talking pretty about innovation but feel no pain from voters, industry or the media when it actually does little to enhance our country's competitiveness standing, than things will be slow going.
There's oh so much more to do, but here's one strategy for how tech can change it's message to be more successful next year.
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