As part of AeA’s continuing outreach to the campaigns of presidential candidates, senior staff to Sen. Barack Obama met with over 70 executives from the high-tech industry, US universities, and technology professional societies to discuss Sen. Obama’s positions on innovation and competitiveness. The meeting this week at AeA’s David Packard Conference Center in Washington, DC, included Pete Rouse, Chief of Staff, and Karen Kornbluh, Policy Director. The meeting was conducted in partnership with the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation, which is co-chaired by AeA and Intel Corporation.


After Mr. Rouse and Ms. Kornbluh outlined Sen. Obama’s competitiveness agenda, industry representatives stressed key competitiveness points including:

• The importance of improved math and science education at both elementary school and university levels
• The need to increase spending on government-funded basic research and development
• The urgency of reforming the county’s policies on H-1B visas and green cards
• The need to make permanent the R&D tax credit
• The importance of addressing increased health care costs for US companies, making them less competitive in the global market

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Obama advisors expressed a desire to follow-up on this meeting to get more specifics on the policy agenda “that will work to improve the US economy and our global competitiveness.”   Representatives from AeA in Washington, DC, are flying to Chicago next week to continue these discussions and AeA will host a smaller group of high-tech industry representatives for a meeting in Washington in early August to present a more detailed agenda to the campaign staff.

AeA President Chris Hansen offered his assistance to arrange meetings with company CEOs around the country and Obama advisors in order to gain a broader context for the high-tech policy agenda. AeA has made the same offer to Sen. McCain’s campaign.

More information on Sen. Obama’s Chief of Staff.

Read Sen. Obama's speech on US competitiveness.
 

This page was last updated on 07/17/08.  
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