Sweeping Agenda Affirmed at Semi-annual EIA Board Meeting

Taxes, trade, workforce needs and research funding emerged as the technology sector's biggest priorities at the winter Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) Board of Governors meeting, attended by executives representing a wide array of industry leaders. The Alliance and its members have long championed the issues as critical to the United States' competitiveness in today's global economy.

"This is a critical time for our industry," said Mike Kennedy, EIA's Chairman of the Board and Motorola Senior Vice President. "Consolidation and global competition are at unprecedented levels in the private sector and there's new leadership in Washington.

"EIA's board members include a diverse group of electronics companies and we all agree that these are the key issues facing us. With the right policies at the federal and state levels, we'll see more economic growth and American jobs. If government leaders make the wrong decisions, high-tech companies and their employees will suffer."

EIA's 2007 policy agenda, affirmed by its Board of Governors at this weekend's winter meeting, includes the following issues:

• A reinvigorated international trade agenda, a U.S. policy that ensures reasonable balance of security and commercial trade, and improved intellectual property rights protection worldwide
• Comprehensive skilled worker immigration reform
• Tax incentives for U.S.-based business investment, including a permanent and effective research and development (R&D) tax credit, and other provisions to make the U.S. tax code more globally competitive
• Industry consensus on financing for electronics recycling, and harmonization of existing energy efficiency and materials content regulations
• Expanded government use of streamlined commercial-style acquisition procedures, and prevention of protectionist industrial base policy
• Increased U.S federal basic research funding for the physical sciences and engineering, through the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), the Department of Energy Office of Science, the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA)
• Financial incentives to strengthen the skills of K-12 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers and attract new ones
• Incentives for and the removal of barriers to ubiquitous, affordable broadband deployment; and continued spectrum reform

EIA, headquartered in Arlington, Va., comprises nearly 1,300 member companies whose products and services range from the smallest electronic components to the most complex systems used by defense, space and industry, including the full range of consumer electronic products. The Alliance is composed of four sector organizations: the Electronic Components, Assemblies and Materials Association; the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association; the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association; and the Telecommunications Industry Association.