Kauffman Foundation unveils Startup Act, aims to spur economy

Days after releasing findings from a study that showed lagging job creation from new businesses, the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation today outlined a new initiative aimed at jump-starting startups and, in turn, the economy as a whole. (Image, left, from kauffman.org.) Kauffman president and CEO Carl Schramm and vice president of research…

Days after releasing findings from a study that showed lagging job creation from new businesses, the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation today outlined a new initiative aimed at jump-starting startups and, in turn, the economy as a whole. (Image, left, from kauffman.org.)

Kauffman president and CEO Carl Schramm and vice president of research and policy Robert Litan presented a proposal to spur the ailing U.S. economy and increase job creation by accelerating the growth of startups and young businesses. The “Startup Act” proposal was unveiled by Schramm and Litan at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., followed by videotaped remarks from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.). 

“We hope that by outlining this idea for comprehensive startup legislation, we can stimulate a long-overdue, bipartisan conversation in this country about how to maintain and reinvigorate the entrepreneurial energy that has made our economy the most innovative in the world,” said Schramm (photo, below, from kauffman.org), who emphasized more than once during his portion of the announcement that the Kauffman Foundation is not partisan and does not lobby.

The Startup Act aims to focus the attention of citizens and policymakers on the central role that high-growth startups must play to assure continued U.S. economic strength. Its unveiling follows last week’s release of data that found that while more firms than ever have been created each year since the last recession began, the numbers of new firms with employees continues to drop.

Specific changes in government policy that the Startup Act proposes include:

  • Welcoming immigrants capable of building high-growth companies to the United States by providing “Entrepreneurs’ visas” and green cards for those with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.
  • Providing new firms with better access to early-stage financing, creating capital gains tax exemptions for long-held startup investments, providing tax incentives for startup operating capital, facilitating access to public markets, and allowing shareholders of companies with market cap below $1 billion to opt-in under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
  • Accelerating the formation and commercialization of new ideas by creating differential patent fees to reduce the patent backlog and providing licensing freedom for academic innovators.
  • Removing barriers to the formation and growth of businesses through the introduction of automatic 10-year sunsets for all major rules, establishing common-sense and cost-effective standards for regulations, and making assessments of state and local startup and business policies.

For more on the Startup Act, see the video below, of Schramm and Litan’s address today.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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