Politics & Government

Warner: 'Broken' Immigration Bad For Economy

Startup 3.0 legislation will enable brightest minds to stay and do business in U.S.

Investing in talent through bipartisan immigration reform is a key to growing the economy in general and nurturing Northern Virginia startups in particular.

That was the message U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) conveyed to a roomful of tech entrepreneurs and business leaders at Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce event at the Wolf Trap Center for Education in Vienna on Friday.

While Warner says he thinks the access to capital, which dried up in the economic downturn of the last several years, is poised to make a comeback, he mostly spoke about the access to talent that he said would expand greatly under the Startup 3.0 bill.

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"If you look around this room, and I have seen data that supports this, 35 to 40 percent of tech-related companies in Northern Virginia have at least one founder that is a first-generation American," said Warner. "If we had Post-9/11 immigration policies in place in the 1980s and 90s, I am not sure we would ever have had companies like Intel or Google. We have immigration policies now that are insane."

Warner is a co-sponsor of the Startup Act 3.0, along with Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Roy Blunt (R-MO). Startup 3.0 builds upon Startup 2.0, introduced in the last Congress.

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Startup Act 3.0 creates both Entrepreneur Visas and STEM Visas for highly-educated and entrepreneurial immigrants to stay in the United States, where their talents and new ideas will fuel economic growth and create American jobs, says Warner.

The legislation also modifies the tax code to encourage investment in new businesses, helps to accelerate university research that can lead to new ventures, and seeks to improve the regulatory process by requiring a cost-benefit analysis of new regulations, he says.

Warner spoke Friday about how some of the world's best and brightest STEM (Sceince, Technology, Engineering and Math) students come to the U.S. to earn advanced degrees, yet under current immigration rules they cannot stay here to work.

"We train these people, then say you have to go home, while the rest of the world has dramatically changed the rules," Warner said. "I think the country recognizes that our currently broken immigration system does not do anything to advance our economic interests."

Warner told the crowd "when the immigration bill comes up, it may not have every component you want - it is going to be part of a comprehensive package. The legislation will strengthen our borders while also taking care if the issues around STEM."

"There is no Democratic or Republican solution to most problems we face in this country," he added. 

The Fairfax Chamber also announced the launch of a new Entrepreneurship Initiative, which will focus on identifying and nurturing area entrepreneurs.

The Chamber is partnering with Herndon's Center for Innovative Technology and the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority to provide resources as part of the initiative.

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