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Time and again, news reports remind us that the U.S. has lost its competitive edge and faces an uphill climb in the 21st century to regain and maintain its innovative leadership. We're constantly told that America is a country that doesn’t produce anything anymore, is on the decline, or lacks ingenuity. While these arguments make for convenient headlines, ITI member Microsoft did a lot to dispel [...]
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At his confirmation hearing today to become the next U.S. Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., was asked about cybersecurity. Here’s what he had to say in his question-and-answer round with Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Senator Durbin: I think you may have attended the briefing, the classified briefing for members of the Senate, Democrats [...]
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Today’s Wall Street Journal looks at a reality facing major U.S.-headquartered multinationals and our economy -- namely, the U.S. tax system is a barrier to new jobs and investments here at home. Given the significant attention Congress will give to tax reform, it’s important to give context to the Journal article. The article focused on the fact that many U.S.-based global companies keep a significant [...]
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In his Inaugural Address today, President Obama combined poetry and prose as he spoke about the priorities that he will bring to his second term in office. For many of these issues, the technology sector has put forward ideas with backing from both Democratic and Republican Members of Congress. The challenge consistently has been building broader support to move policies from good proposals to new [...]
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ITI today hosted Ambassador Terry Kramer for his final media event in his position as the lead of the U.S. delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). We've talked about WCIT many times before on this blog. At that meeting, held in Dubai in early December, nations struggled over treaty language that carried the potential of allowing the UN to regulate the Internet. [...]
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ITI's John Neuffer has spent the week in Geneva as global trade negotiators focus on how best to expand the Information Technology Agreement (ITA). He sent this update on the discussions. Despite some heavy snow in Geneva this week, WTO negotiators have been busy here with another round of technical talks to expand the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), an initiative aimed at completely eliminating [...]
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Politico Pro and ITI member Cognizant co-hosted a great conversation this morning focused on immigration, technology, and the 113th Congress. ITI's Dean Garfield was a panelist, and made the case that there is bipartisan support in Congress for high-skilled immigration reform, and, if done right, such an approach can lead to a stronger economy and greater job creation across the country. In his remarks, [...]
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Living in the nation’s capital, it is easy to be caught up on the wonkiest aspects of the tax reform debate. Terms like “transfer pricing” and “tax deferral,” which would generate understandable looks of confusion from most people, are parts of the everyday lexicon for those of us making the case for tax reform. That said, even in a sea of policy complexity, the case for policy solutions can be quite [...]
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Sparky Anderson, who managed World Series-winning teams in Cincinnati and Detroit, once remarked, “We’re getting close to opening day. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.” January 3rd, 2013 marked American policymaking’s opening day: the start of the 113th Congress. We in the tech industry see the start of a new season of policymaking as a good thing because ours is an industry rooted [...]
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In what was certainly a tortured process, the Congress and the White House have completed work on legislation to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” and what economists predicted could have been a relapse into a national, if not global, recession. Importantly, this bill goes beyond recession avoidance and takes an important step toward stronger economic growth and job creation by renewing three key [...]
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