“President Obama laid out an election-year agenda in
tonight’s State of the Union Address, and in several key areas, the President
advocated for policies that will advance the innovation economy and improve our
nation’s global competitiveness.

Most importantly, the President called for Congressional
passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the important free trade agreement
that TechNet endorsed just yesterday. We
believe that this trade agreement will grow jobs, increase economic growth,
open the door to opportunity for U.S. technology companies in the Pacific Rim,
and reduce trade barriers.

Additionally, the President said that our nation should
provide “every student the hands-on computer science and math classes that make
them job-ready on day one.” We couldn’t
agree more. Our economy demands that
students have technical skills, but we’re not doing nearly enough to prepare
them for the jobs of the future. Today,
only one in 10 schools across the nation offer programming classes. If we don’t address this shortfall, we will
put our nation at a strategic disadvantage for decades to come. By 2020, there will be at least 1 million jobs
in the U.S. that go unfilled because there are not enough graduates with the
necessary computing skills to fill them. That’s why we need to implement a
comprehensive strategy to encourage more young people to pursue careers and
opportunities in computer science and the other STEM fields.

Furthermore, the President asked, “Why would we want to pass
up the chance for American businesses to produce and sell the energy of the
future?” The United States is leading
the way when it comes to developing clean technologies and energy. Our nation should do more to accelerate the
adoption of solar, wind, fuel cells, and other clean technologies.

As we saw in the closing days of 2015, it is indeed possible
to find bipartisan agreement on issues of importance to our nation. TechNet will work over the next year to
advocate for these issues, and many more, which matter most to the innovation economy.”

About TechNet
TechNet is the
national, bipartisan network of CEOs and senior executives that promotes the
growth of the technology industry by building long-term relationships between
technology leaders and policymakers and by advocating a targeted policy agenda
at the federal and 50-state level. TechNet has offices in Washington, D.C.,
Silicon Valley, Sacramento, Seattle, Boston, and Austin.