Sen. Jerry Moran (from left), Sen. Mark Warner and Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and a member of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, were on hand in Washington, D.C. last week to unveil the Startup Act. Photo from moran.senate.gov.
U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) late last week introduced The Startup Act, a piece of bipartisan legislation aimed at jump-starting the economy through the creation and growth of new businesses.The act outlines a five-prong approach to job creation based on the proven track record of entrepreneurs. (Image, left, from moran.senate.gov)
Those five pro-growth principles are:
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- Reducing regulatory burdens
- Attracting business investment
- Accelerating the commercialization of university research
- Attracting and retaining entrepreneurial talent
- Encouraging pro-growth state and local policies
- Require a cost-benefit analysis of proposed regulations with an economic impact of $100 million or more to determine the efficacy of the rule and its potential effects on the formation and growth of new businesses
- Make permanent the capital gains tax exemption for investments held for five years in Qualified Small Businesses (QSB), giving investors an incentive to partner with entrepreneurs and helping provide financial stability for the first few years of a new business’ life
- Provide a corporate tax credit of up to $5 million for QSBs in the first taxable year of profit, followed by a 50 percent corporate income tax exclusion in the two succeeding taxable years, to help startups finance growth;
- Open the door for reforms to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
- Use existing federal research and development funding to support innovative projects at American universities in order to accelerate and improve the commercialization of cutting-edge technologies developed through faculty research
- Create a STEM Visa for up to 50,000 immigrants per year who graduate with a Masters of Ph.D. in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, giving them the opportunity to stay in the United States and put their skills to work
- Create an Entrepreneur’s Visa for up to 75,000 immigrant entrepreneurs who register a business and employ at least two non-family member employees, and invest in their business within one year of obtaining the visa. Current H-1B Visa holders or those who have completed graduate level work in a STEM field would qualify; and
- Encourage successful pro-growth state and local policies by studying state laws that affect new business formation and economic growth
Fore more on the Startup Act, check out the full version (PDF). For more from Moran and Warner, watch the video below (video from Moran’s channel on YouTube). After brief discussion of other issues, the senators address the Startup Act beginning at the 1:39 mark.
