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Accomplishments
By giving senior executives a voice in national politics, TechNet has given a tremendous boost to the high technology industry's political influence on politics and national policy. The results speak for themselves. TechNet's members have:
- Created a bipartisan, national consensus to achieve excellence in math and science education and innovation, demonstrated by President Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative as well as bipartisan legislation to foster innovation and U.S. competitiveness. As the only organization mentioned in the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative, TechNet was noted for its leadership in partnering with the U.S. Department of Education to strengthen the resources available to our nation’s math and science teachers.
- Achieved comprehensive federal and state education reform, including support for the No Child Left Behind Act and national standards in reading and math, development and enactment of the Tech Talent Act, challenging colleges and universities to increase the number of American students obtaining degrees in science, mathematics, engineering or technology; enactment of the California Digital High Schools Act, providing funding and accountability for California charter schools; and creation of the Texas Engineering and Technical Consortium, a partnership among companies, higher education and the State of Texas to increase the state’s engineering and computer science graduates.
- Achieved significant reform of federal tort laws, including enactment of the Class Action Fairness Act, legislation that boots shareholder class action lawsuits out of state courts; the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act; the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act; and Y2K liability reform legislation.
- Strengthened the nation's investment in research and development by achieving increases in federal funding for basic research over a sustained period, and enacting an unprecedented long-term extension of the Research and Development Tax Credit.
- Supported a skilled workforce through increases in the number of H-1B visas for foreign skilled workers and highly skilled immigration reforms.
- Promoted free trade initiatives through enactment of the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Act, Trade Promotion Authority and Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China.
- Spurred national, bipartisan support for an ambitious national broadband goal and enactment of policies that encourage investment in a next-generation broadband infrastructure, applications and services.
- Taken a leadership role in promoting voluntary, private sector initiatives to improve enterprise security including the TechNet Corporate Information Security Initiative and Cyber Security Resource Center.
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