On Tuesday, President Obama sent his final budget request to Congress and it amounted to a whopping $4.1 trillion. In reality, the President’s budget request is typically little more than legally mandated political theater. It’s an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to rally their bases and duke it out over fiscal strategy and funding priorities. This year’s budget request will likely go largely unfulfilled by the Republican-led Congress. In fact, it was declared “dead on arrival” by Republican lawmakers, and, in an unprecedented move, House and Senate Budget Committee leadership have elected to forgo hearings on the request entirely.
Still, if nothing more than a wish list, the President’s budget lays the groundwork for future policies and, this year in particular, represents a roadmap for the next Administration to espouse or eschew. There are a number of proposals in the President’s request worth highlighting—policies and programs that, if championed by Congress, would support innovation and entrepreneurship.
Investing in Tomorrow’s Workforce
One of the startup community’s most persistent challenges is accessing a pipeline of skilled talent in order to both help startups grow and create news ones. While the Obama Administration has been an unwavering champion of immigration reform to bolster the country’s pool of high-skilled workers, immigration represents only part of the solution (and unfortunately, neither high-skilled immigration reform nor comprehensive reform appears to be going anywhere for the time being). The other piece is ensuring that we are training tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and tech workers here in America.
The President’s budget request includes $4 billion for improved computer science education through its recently announced Computer Science for All initiative. The funding would support states’ efforts to expand CS programming and focuses largely on training teachers and expanding access to quality instructional materials. The Administration has also called on local leaders, educators, and the tech industry to get involved in expanding CS education.
The budget also proposes creating two new funds: a $75 million American Technical Training Fund, which would provide competitive grants to support evidence-based, tuition-free job training programs in high-demand fields, and a $2 billion Apprenticeship Fund, which would build on the Administration’s successful American Apprenticeship Initiative strategy and aim to spur new innovations in apprenticeship.
Finally, the budget proposes creating more than 50 new “Talent Hot Spots” that would “prioritize a sector and make a commitment to recruit and train the workforce to help local businesses grow and thrive, attract more jobs from overseas, and fuel the talent needs of entrepreneurs.” The Administration estimates that this program could create a pipeline of more than half a million skilled workers in just five years, talent that could feed entrepreneurial growth.
Expanding Broadband Access
Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission reported that there are still 34 million Americans (or about 10 percent of the country) who lack access to broadband at sufficient speeds. Startups depend on a healthy and competitive broadband market, and it is essential that federal policies encourage connectivity. The President’s budget request includes continued investments in existing federal programs that support the expansion of high-speed broadband to all Americans. Additionally, the budget request calls for future spectrum auctioning, which will allow for more internet service providers to participate in the mobile broadband market.
Promoting Innovation
Federal investments in research and development can help spur innovation in the private sector and the creation of new companies. The President’s budget includes $152 billion in funding for research and development, an increase over last year’s request. Much of this investment is targeted for innovative technologies such as Big Data services, supercomputing, robotics, and nanotechnology. The budget also includes $4 billion for autonomous vehicle R&D, representing an unprecedented level of investment by the federal government in this new market and a huge win for proponents of this growing technology.
Making the Tax Code Work for Startups
Finally, the budget request includes a number of proposals that would streamline and improve tax benefits for startups and entrepreneurs. The President proposes simplifying the existing Research and Experimentation (R&E) tax credit. Last year, the R&E credit was modified to allow small companies to claim it against payroll taxes, instead of income taxes. This made it available to startups, many of which could not claim the credit previously due to a lack of taxable revenue. Still, the process of applying for the credit remains complex and difficult to navigate for startups. The President’s budget proposes simplifying the credit’s formula, making it easier for startups to take advantage of.
The Administration also proposes quadrupling the amount of startup expenses (things like legal fees, office supplies, or recruiting costs) that entrepreneurs can deduct from their federal income taxes, increasing the deduction from $5,000 to $20,000. This will make it less costly to start a business and allow innovators to put more money back into their startup more quickly.
Looking Forward
The frustrating truth is that most of the President’s budget proposal won’t receive Congressional consideration. However, we hope that future policymakers can coalesce around some of the proposals outlined above, which represent reasonable policies that would encourage the growth of startups that drive our economic success and are responsible for all net new job growth in the United States. Finding common ground in today’s political climate is difficult, but it is essential to ensuring that America remains a place where the ideas of the future can grow and thrive.
