Why Silicon Valley Must Remind Washington D.C. to Focus on the Important, Not merely the Urgent

The following op-ed appears in this morning’s edition of the Mercury News:

By Sam Liccardo and Carl Guardino

Our focus on The Important cannot succumb to the tyranny of The Urgent.

For the next several weeks, Congress and the White House will become consumed by The Urgent: a self-inflicted wound known as the “Fiscal Cliff.”  While critical, we cannot allow our leaders to lose focus through the haze of budgetary battles on their most important task: Helping 19 million unemployed Americans—and thousands of our neighbors–get back to work.

Regrettably, despite persistently high unemployment, the issues most critical to creating jobs in Silicon Valley and America’s innovation economy – workforce development, tax reform, cybersecurity, energy policy and infrastructure – received scant attention from either Presidential candidate in November’s election.

It is these important issues, so vital for job creation, that should command Congressional attention.

First, Silicon Valley relies on an exceptionally skilled workforce.  This requires raising the bar on reading, science and math education, with greater federal support for teacher recruitment and retention, and for better technical training and curriculum tools.  Since Silicon Valley does not have a monopoly on innovation, we also need an immigration system that welcomes the world’s best talent.  Sadly, when brilliant foreign students graduate from American universities, we kick them out, and send them home to create foreign companies to compete against us.  Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren’s IDEA Act provides a catalyst for long overdue-immigration reform, and to enable young innovators to remain in America.

Second, since 95 percent of the world’s consumers reside outside the U.S. Congress must recognize that American companies have to compete abroad in fast-growing overseas markets. Current tax policy creates uniquely large disincentives for U.S. companies to bring home the revenue they earn overseas, leaving $1.4 trillion in corporate cash locked outside of the American economy.   Changes in the tax code could propel hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in U.S. factories, laboratories, and jobs, without adverse budgetary impact.

Third, America’s competitiveness and security requires improvements to cybersecurity laws and enforcement, along with stronger public-private partnerships to mitigate the risks of private companies sharing information with the government.

Fourth, we need a national energy policy that facilitates a transition from fossil to renewable fuels. Even through the Great Recession, jobs in clean tech grew more than eight percent. We can boost that growth with tax credits for home energy efficiency improvements and green-tech manufacturing, and by empowering homeowners and businesses with real-time energy efficiency information through the smart grid.

Fifth, America’s infrastructure is crumbling. We praise Senator Barbara Boxer’s bi-partisan leadership in passing the two-year transportation bill, but longer-term priorities remain. Leading the list: securing funding to complete BART’s construction through downtown San José to Santa Clara. We’re already putting federal dollars to good use for the first 10 miles of our BART extension to Berryessa, a project slated to finish 18 months ahead of schedule and $77 million under budget. Job-boosting infrastructure investment must also include flood protection, broadband, water supply, and port expansion.

To press for The Important, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, in partnership with other local leaders like San José Mayor Chuck Reed, will visit Washington D.C. next week (Nov. 27-29) with dozens of Silicon Valley executives. We’ll seek to build on the Leadership Group’s successful advocacy of several recent job-boosting initiatives, including landing a Regional Patent Office, securing $900 million in federal matching funds for the BART extension to Silicon Valley, and launching Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Panama and Columbia.

Each day, Silicon Valley CEOs sift through the routinely urgent, to focus on the important decisions that will drive innovation and job growth. To persuade Congress to do the same, join us as we build a bridge between the world’s Innovation Capital and the nation’s Capital.

You can read the full piece here.

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