WASHINGTON—The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) today released an open memo to President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team outlining actionable proposals that the new administration can accomplish in its first year to bolster America’s innovation economy. ITIF, the leading U.S. science and tech policy think tank, proposes 35 policies that can be achieved quickly through executive authority or discrete legislative measures—all aimed at fostering innovation, boosting productivity, and improving U.S. competitiveness.
“America’s greatness hinges on the strength of its innovation economy,” said ITIF President Robert D. Atkinson. “To ensure it thrives, the federal government needs to adopt new and more creative approaches to public policy. First and foremost, this means getting beyond outdated economic theories and focusing instead on what really drives industries and firms in today’s innovation-driven global economy. Second, it means addressing the scourge of ‘quarterly capitalism.’ It’s time to tilt incentives away from short-term returns and toward the kinds of investments required to generate sustainable, long-term growth. This memo offers the transition team a set of actionable ideas to kick start innovation, productivity, and competitiveness in 2017.”
ITIF’s transition memo for the incoming administration follows up on a June 2015 memo to all presidential candidates, which outlined an ambitious tech policy agenda to spur broad-based economic growth. “That was the poetry of campaigning,” said Atkinson. “Now that the election is over, it is time for the prose of governing.”
The transition memo outlines proposals in three categories: fostering innovation, boosting productivity, and improving competitiveness. Each proposal is addressed to a specific governmental body, from the National Economic Council to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and cabinet agencies such as the Department of Energy.
“From reforming the corporate tax system to investing in infrastructure, there are plenty of major policy actions the new administration should work on with Congress over the next four years,” concluded Atkinson. “But these 35 policy proposals should be relatively easy, bipartisan steps that the president can take in 2017 to kick the U.S. innovation economy into higher gear and send the right message at the outset of this administration that spurring innovation is an important priority.”
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