Washington,
D.C. — TechNet, the national, bipartisan network of innovation
economy CEOs and senior executives, today expressed its concerns regarding the
RAISE Act, an immigration bill sponsored by U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and
David Perdue (R-GA) and backed by the White House. The following statement is attributable to
TechNet President and CEO Linda Moore:

“At
this very moment, half a million jobs in the U.S. that require computer science
training are unfilled. That’s indicative
of the investments we need to make in STEM education as well as the need for
high-skilled immigration reform that allows American companies to fill these
critical labor shortages immediately.
The RAISE Act solves neither of these problems and instead cuts green
cards by half at a time when the demand for more high-skilled worker green
cards and H-1B visas is holding back job creation in the tech industry.

“Arbitrarily
and drastically cutting legal immigration is not the answer to fixing our
immigration system, and neither is a government-dictated immigration approach
to determining what kind of high-skilled worker U.S. companies need. Congress should instead prioritize efforts to
reform our high-skilled immigration system to curb abuses and ensure that more
green cards and visas are available to address the high-skilled labor shortage
now facing the U.S. economy.

“America’s
technology industry is proof positive of how highly skilled immigrants drive
innovation, economic growth, and job creation in the United States. A study released last month showed that immigrant
entrepreneurs ‘have started more than half (44 of 87) of America’s startup
companies that are valued at $1 billion or more.’ At TechNet, we represent iconic American companies
that have been founded or led by immigrants, all of whom have benefitted by
having high-skilled immigrants innovating alongside native-born Americans to
create millions of jobs and trillions of dollars worth of economic activity. The RAISE Act is not the right policy to
enable us to continue doing this.”

About TechNet

TechNet is the national, bipartisan
network of technology CEOs and senior executives that promotes the growth of the
innovation economy by advocating a targeted policy agenda at the federal and 50-state
level. TechNet’s diverse membership
includes dynamic startups and the most iconic companies on the planet and
represents more than 2.5 million employees in the fields of
information technology, e-commerce, the sharing and gig economies, advanced
energy, biotechnology, venture capital, and finance. TechNet has offices in Washington, D.C., Silicon Valley, San Francisco,
Sacramento, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Albany, and Tallahassee.