Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Senate Colloquy: Senator Coons and colleagues urge the Senate to pass Startup Act 2.0
As delivered by Senator Coons on June 6, 2012
Well, thank you Senator Warner. Mr. President, I'm honored to join with the good senator from Kansas, the senator from Missouri, my friend from Virginia in speaking today in a colloquy, a bipartisan colloquy that is also part of a bicameral process that is trying to send a signal to the American people, to our markets, to our competitors that we understand that just because we happen to be in an election year, doesn't mean our competitors in China and India and Russia and Europe and in other parts of the world—in Africa and in other places where there are emerging markets or places where we have well-developed competitors—they don’t take this year off.
The American people expect that since we're still drawing a salary, we should be making progress, and we should still be trying to meet the needs of a growing economy that needs to grow faster. And so, as Senator Moran referenced previously, last November, Senator Rubio of Florida and I came together to put a package called the AGREE Act before this Senate.
We were pleased that a number of the provisions in that first AGREE Act actually have subsequently become law. One, to ease the path for IPO's, initial public offerings, for high-potential, high-growth companies, and another through executive order to strengthen intellectual property protection. And we're hopeful the Senate will consider another provision that dealt with bonus depreciation, which is another way to help make investments in equipment for small businesses.
And on top of that, Senators Rubio and I have now teamed up with Senator Moran and Senator Warner to take some of the remaining provisions of the AGREE Act and add them in with your Startup Act and now make an improved and broader and stronger Startup 2.0. The pieces that we brought to the party were eliminating the per country caps for employment-based immigrant visas and making permanent the exemption of certain capital gains so investors can provide financial stability to qualified startups.
There are a lot of good ideas in this bill. There’s a lot of different ways in which it tackles the issues that my colleagues have already spoken to. Immigration, retaining high-promise entrepreneurial folks who have come and learned in the United States; moving the inventions and innovations on American college campuses to the marketplace more predictably, more swiftly; providing tax incentives for startup businesses; putting things in the tax code that strengthen our welcoming environment for entrepreneurship; and regulatory relief. Senator Moran really took the lead in making possible a provision in this bill that provides some regulatory relief for startup businesses. In all, these provisions I think make for a terrific package. Thus the moniker 2.0—it’s already attracted some other folks to join us.
Before I hand the floor over to the senator from Missouri, I just want to comment on what I think that means. There are trillions of dollars of capital sitting on the sidelines. American corporations have more money sitting on their balance sheets, not invested in moving our economy forward, than at almost any time in modern history and that’s because they're not sure that this body, that the Congress of the United States, can tackle the very real financial and competitiveness challenges in front of us. And something about the symbolism of what's on the floor today—the agriculture bill, the farm bill—and the bill that we took up and passed just a few weeks ago, the transportation bill, I think is at times lost.
The average American sees in the news the fighting, the disagreement, the inability to come together, when in fact two fairly broad, strong, and important bills—the farm bill and the transportation bill—were passed through committee by strong folks, Senator Boxer of California and Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma, Senator Stabenow of Michigan and Senator Roberts of Kansas. These are folks from both parties with significant differences in their views, but they managed to hammer out these bills—the transportation bill and the farm bill.
And this Startup 2.0, I just want to thank Senators Moran and Warner and Rubio for joining with me and the four of us being able to put this together and put it on the floor today and to the good senator from Missouri, a freshman in the Senate, but a man of great seasoning and experience in the House and in public service, we're grateful you've joined us as a cosponsor of this bill. I welcome you, the senator from Missouri to speak for a few minutes about how you see this contributing to positive progress for our recovery.
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