Senate Joint Resolution No. 9

Introduced by Senators Huff, Anderson, Berryhill, Cannella, Emmerson, Fuller, Gaines, Knight, Nielsen, Walters, and Wyland

March 21, 2013

Senate Joint Resolution No. 9—Relative to the Startup Act 3.0.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SJR 9, as introduced, Huff. Startup Act 3.0.

This measure would call on the United States Congress to pass and the President to sign the Startup Act 3.0, introduced as S. 310 in the 113th Congress of the United States that would, among other things, create an Entrepreneur’s Visa for legal immigrants, eliminate per-country caps for employment-based immigrant visas, and create a limited research tax credit in order to ensure the United States has the chance to build an innovation-based economy.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The United States is a nation of immigrants, with
a long history of welcoming indigents from other nations and
giving them a chance at achieving the American Dream; and

WHEREAS, Immigrants have formed the backbone of the
nation’s economy; and

WHEREAS, Open economies grow faster than closed ones, and
as a beacon of hope, America has historically had an unbeatable
advantage over societies that shut immigrants out, or stifled their
creative and innovative spirit; and

WHEREAS, The United States economy has been enriched by
the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants from around
the world; and

WHEREAS, According to the Kauffman Foundation on
Entrepreneurship, of the current Fortune 500 companies, including
Apple, Google, and eBay, more than 40 percent were founded by
first- or second-generation Americans, and these companies employ
more than 10 million people; and

WHEREAS, Foreign nationals residing in the United States
were named as inventors or coinventors in one-quarter of all patent
applications filed in 2006; and

WHEREAS, Fifty-two percent of Silicon Valley startups
between 1995 and 2005 were founded or cofounded by immigrants,
generating $52 billion in revenues and employing 450,000 workers;
and

WHEREAS, In the past seven years, the national rate of startups
by immigrants has dropped to 42 percent according to scholars at
Harvard and Duke Universities; and

WHEREAS, The number of foreign nationals with advanced
degrees awaiting permanent-resident status in the United States
has grown to over one million in the past several years; and

WHEREAS, Under current law, only around 120,000 visas are
available annually for skilled workers in key employment
categories and only 7 percent of these visas can be allocated to
immigrants from any one country. So immigrants from countries
with large populations, like India and China, which are the source
of the vast majority of startups in the United States, have access
to only 8,400 visas per year; and

WHEREAS, The result of this policy is that many of these highly
skilled immigrants must wait more than a decade for visas; and

WHEREAS, Many of these highly skilled innovators are
deciding instead to return home, or immigrate to other countries
that welcome them with open arms, such as Singapore, Canada,
Dubai, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Chile. As a result, these
innovators are founding companies in these other countries and
competing with American companies for market share; and

WHEREAS, The issue of illegal immigration has taken on
national prominence in recent years and the resolution of the
broader issue should be the result of bipartisan efforts; and

WHEREAS, The resolution of the broader issue should not get
in the way of resolving legal immigration issues as they relate to
highly skilled workers who are critical to the continued success
of the nation; and

WHEREAS, United States Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kansas),
Mark Warner (D-Virginia), Chris Coons (D-Delaware), and Roy
Blunt (R-Missouri) have introduced S. 310 in the 113th Congress
of the United States, known as the Startup Act 3.0, to ensure that
the United States has the chance to look forward and build the kind
of innovation-based economy that will help future generations
compete in the global marketplace; and

WHEREAS, The Startup Act 3.0 includes, among others, the
following important provisions to stem the reverse brain drain:

(1) Creates an Entrepreneur’s Visa for legal immigrants, so
they can remain in the United States and launch businesses to
create jobs.

(2) Provides authorization to adjust the status of not more than
50,000 aliens who have earned a master’s degree or a doctorate
degree at an institution of higher education in a STEM field
(science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) to that of aliens
conditionally admitted for permanent residence to remain in this
country where their talents and ideas can fuel growth and create
jobs.

(3) Eliminates the per-country caps for employment-based
immigrant visas, which hinder United States employers from
recruiting top-tier talent.

(4) Makes permanent the exemption of capital gains taxes on
the sale of startup stock held for at least five years, so investors
can provide financial stability at a critical juncture of firm growth.

(5) Creates a limited research tax credit for young startups less
than five years old and with less than $5 million in annual receipts
to allow these small companies to offset employee taxes and free
up resources to create jobs; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature memorialize the United
States Congress to pass and the President to sign the Startup Act
3.0 into law; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and
Representative from California in the Congress of the United
States.