As the Presidential campaign season heats up with Senator John McCain taking a commanding lead in the Republican primary delegate count and Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama remaining neck-and-neck, AeA is committed to make sure our next President is a “Tech President.”  The AeA Board of Directors met in mid-February to discuss how best we can do this and to set our 2008 public policy priorities.

AeA, as a non-partisan trade association, does not support or endorse any specific candidate.  Regardless of who wins, though, we do believe that our next President must understand our industry due to the interconnection between it and the United States’ competitiveness in a global economy.

In this election cycle we’ve seen the candidates—from both parties—adopt blogging, electronic fundraising, online organizing, social networking, SMS (text) messaging, and video streaming as part of their campaign messaging and fundraising strategies.  I’m pleased to have seen AeA members Google/YouTube and MySpace active in connecting Americans to the earlier primary debates in a new interactive online format. (To learn more about how the candidates have saturated Web 2.0 networks, visit www.techpresident.com.)

But no matter what media the candidates use to communicate their message, we need to be part of the discussion.  So the Board, after confirming the association’s 2008 policy priorities, agreed to work to get our major issues into the campaign talking points of the major candidates.  This will involve a variety of tactics, such as getting demographic information to the candidates when they prepare for campaign appearances in areas where technology has a strong presence.  And with 18 AeA offices across the U.S. in these major tech-hubs, we are the most well positioned high-tech trade association to get these messages out there.

We were pleased to see that during President Bush’s final State of the Union address, the largest round of bipartisan applause came in response to his appeal to fund the America COMPETES Act.  AeA worked closely with the Bush Administration in creating the American Competitiveness Initiative and with House Leadership, specifically Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in their Innovation Agenda.  We were pleased when the Act was passed last year by a non-partisan super-majority and Bush signed it into law.  However, as it has yet to be funded, our job is far from being done. AeA will continue to work with this Administration and Congress to fund the COMPETES Act, and we’re optimistic we can do this in 2008.  Should this Administration or Congress not fund the Act, we’ll continue the advocacy to the next “Tech President” to make sure that the COMPETES Act receives full funding.

As the largest high-tech trade association in the United States, AeA acts as the voice of the industry to lobby for this issue (and others) and will make sure our future President understands the need for a long-term investment strategy versus a single one-time appropriation.  We fully intend to partner with him or her to continue our mission in improving U.S. competitiveness through:

• H-1B Visa and Green Card Reform through increasing the numbers available to the high-tech industry.
• STEM Education by promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education from K-12 and in university programs.
• Workforce Compensation and Incentives by strengthening the ability of U.S. employers to recruit and retain a skilled workforce.

In addition to competitiveness, our other policy priorities can be found below in the Federal Government Affairs section or at http://www.aeanet.org/policypriorities.

Additionally at the meeting, we welcomed several guest speakers.

• Rep. David Dreier (R-CA), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, discussed the importance of trade to the American economy.
   
• Rob Valletta, of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, gave an analysis of the Bank’s perspective on the state of the U.S. economy.
   
• And Mark Epley, Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Dept. of Justice, discussed child online safety.

This was a productive meeting and I thank all of my fellow Board Members for their commitment to AeA.

Lastly, the Board would like to thank Bill Archey for his many years of service to AeA and the high-tech industry.  After joining AeA in 1994, Bill’s last day with the association was February 22, ending the transition from Bill Archey to Chris Hansen.  We wish Bill the best in his retirement and future endeavors, and we’re confident that we’ve placed the leadership of the association in great hands with Chris.

Sincerely,

Deirdre Hanford
Senior Vice President, Global Technical Services
Synopsys, Inc.

2008 AeA Chairperson of the Board