BILL NUMBER: SJR 9INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Senators Huff, Anderson, Berryhill, Cannella, Emmerson, Fuller, Gaines, Knight, Nielsen, Walters, and Wyland MARCH 21, 2013 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.