Bill would help secure visas for foreign-born entrepreneurs, international students with advanced U.S. STEM degrees.
The National Metropolitan Business Alliance, a coalition of 19 regional business organizations that includes the CEO Council for Growth, declared its endorsement of Startup Act 3.0 in a letter sent to U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) on Friday. Senator Moran, the bill’s prime sponsor, notes that this legislation would be an important step forward in encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation.
The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), seeks to establish an Entrepreneur Visa program, a new visa specifically for international students with advanced degrees from U.S. universities in science, technology, math, engineering (STEM) subjects and will eliminate per-country caps for employment-based visas.
The letter notes that ” Startup Act 3.0 would strengthen America’s innovation ecosystem by addressing three critical pieces of the startup ecosystem – capital, talent and commercialization of research – while also while also strengthening our regulatory structures to better facilitate startup formation and growth. It would help catalyze new ideas and develop our immigration and higher education systems as engines of job creation, while ensuring that any significant new regulatory costs startups would incur would be subject to rigorous cost/benefit analysis.”
Advancing high-skilled immigration reform is one of the CEO Council’s key federal policy priorities. Along with an ongoing focus on domestic education priorities and skills training, attracting and retaining highly-skilled immigrants and foreign-workers and entrepreneurs will help ensure that the U.S. and Greater Philadelphia remain competitive.
