Pelosi likely to speak up for tech industry

PELOSI LIKELY TO SPEAK UP FOR TECH INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera]
Although her San Francisco district sits on the outskirts of the country's technology capital, Rep. Nancy Pelosi has never been considered a high-tech champion or, for that matter, very friendly to business. So why is Silicon Valley's massive industry so hopeful about the liberal Democrat's likely tenure as speaker of the House? Tech's enthusiasm started in the fall of last year, when Rep Pelosi reached out to Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers and others to develop a wide-ranging "innovation agenda" that included calls for more federal funding for research and education. Then Rep Pelosi and her fellow Democrats took the plan on the campaign trail, trumpeting it to raise money, show their governing vision and counter charges that the party was anti-business. "I'm ecstatic for the tech industry," said Josh Ackil, vice president of government relations for the Information Technology Industry Council, a leading trade group. "I think she strongly believes that she can show business that she can get things done." Pelosi, the House minority leader, continues to press her innovation agenda and raised it in a meeting with President Bush on Thursday. Because it has wide bipartisan support -- President Bush rolled out a similar plan in January -- Democrats and tech lobbyists hope to pass it in early 2007. High-tech innovation is an area where Democrats and President Bush have common ground and the plan was crafted to reach consensus, said Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. It called for doubling funding for the National Science Foundation and for broadband Internet access over five years, producing 100,000 scientists, engineers and mathematicians over four years and permanently extending and expanding the research and development tax credit. The Democrats' tech agenda doesn't deal with trade, a volatile issue that tends to divide the party and could cause discord with the tech industry.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-pelosi13nov13,1,4466036.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
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** See the Innovation Agenda at http://www.housedemocrats.gov/news/librarydetail.cfm?library_content_id=557