Pelosi likely to speak up for tech industry
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 Pelosi reached out to Cisco Systems Inc. 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 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 -- 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 Bush have common ground and the plan was crafted to reach consensus, said Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider.
Still, it didn’t make it through Congress in this session because of election-year political maneuvering, observers say. Even the widely popular research and development tax credit was allowed to expire, angering many in the tech industry.
House Republicans’ failure to make the issue a priority created an opening for Pelosi, who has had an up-and-down relationship with the tech industry.
She led the charge against trade agreements with China and Central America, top priorities of export-dependent tech companies. Through 2004, Pelosi had a 63% lifetime rating on industry issues, according to the Information Technology Industry Council. But Silicon Valley’s proximity to her district and the money that flows there made it hard to ignore.
In 2000, Pelosi encouraged House Democrats to stop in Silicon Valley on their way to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, hosting about 40 of them and a group of tech executives at San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation. Pelosi backed the Valley’s push to change new stock option accounting rules and this year lent her support to “network neutrality” regulations for Internet traffic backed by Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other leading tech companies.
“She’s lived in California all her adult life and she has seen what happened in Silicon Valley,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). “She understands how that innovation and entrepreneurship created tremendous opportunity and success.”
But a high-tech lobbyist, who requested anonymity for fear of alienating Pelosi, said she’d been less interested in the industry’s issues than its influence.
“Whether it’s cash or cachet, she gravitates to the people who can have impact on the majority,” the lobbyist said. “But she has every opportunity now that she has the gavel to show that she’s an innovation leader.”
After seeing reports bemoaning America’s struggles to remain the world’s technology leader, Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Atherton) suggested to Pelosi last spring that House Democrats take the issue on. She jumped on the idea, Eshoo said.
Within months, Pelosi had organized a private meeting at Stanford University with some key House Democrats and top technology figures, including longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr, Genentech Inc. Chief Executive Arthur Levinson and Chambers, a Republican and strong supporter of President Bush.
“It acted as a tutorial,” said William T. Archey, president of the tech trade group AeA, who attended the meeting. “At the same time she became very supportive.”
Similar sessions followed in Boston, Raleigh, N.C., and other tech hubs before Pelosi unveiled the innovation agenda last November.
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.
“There will be those who say we can’t afford to make these investments.... Democrats believe we can’t afford not to make them,” Pelosi said in unveiling the plan last November. The plan had no price tag, but Bush’s similar American Competitiveness Initiative would cost $136 billion over 10 years.
Eshoo said Pelosi was deeply involved in the creation of the Democratic plan and made it a top priority. “This isn’t something that was simply printed for a campaign brochure,” she said.
But the 12-page plan, printed on glossy paper, became a centerpiece of the Democrats’ campaign. Pelosi continued to tout it this year, criticizing House Republicans for failing to turn apparent bipartisan support into action.
The plan also helped lure high-tech money to House Democrats as they appeared poised to take control of the chamber. Computer, software and Internet companies and their employees gave the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $1.3 million in the 2006 election cycle, a 50%-plus increase over 2004, the Center for Responsive Politics said.
And some tech companies increased their donations to Pelosi. Microsoft’s political action committee gave her $10,000 in this election cycle, compared to $6,000 in 2004; Cisco’s PAC gave Pelosi $3,500, up from $2,000, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. Pelosi’s PAC increased its contributions from the communications and technology industries from $54,720 in 2004 to $86,500 in 2006.
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. But industry lobbyists said Pelosi will gain a lot of credit if she can push her innovation package into law.
“The feedback I’ve had from a lot of tech folks, many of whom aren’t even Democrats, is they think we’re finally going to make progress on some of these things,” Lofgren said.
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