Klobuchar calls for national innovation agenda

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At an “Innovation Summit” attended by hundreds at the University of Minnesota today, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar met with business leaders and policy experts to discuss public and private strategies that would revitalize America’s innovative edge and ability to compete in the global economy.

Klobuchar also outlined a comprehensive package of legislation she will introduce to strengthen America’s ability to innovate and compete for long-term economic growth and job creation.

Klobuchar is a leader in Congress on issues of economic innovation. She serves on the Senate Commerce Committee and chairs the Subcommittee on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Export Promotion.

“Innovation has always been a catalyzing force in the American economy,” Klobuchar said. “In recent years, however, the country has fallen behind in its efforts to research, develop, and compete in the global economy. We are resting on our laurels at a time when other countries, including China and India, are moving full-steam ahead.”

Klobuchar convened the Innovation Summit as an opportunity to share information about how the public and private sectors can team up to strengthen the economy by revitalizing American innovation and promoting products abroad. Klobuchar addressed the need to increase the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized businesses and to turn the research and new technologies created at universities into the products that will create the jobs of tomorrow.

In the short term, Klobuchar said, “we need to deliver a series of targeted tax breaks and regulatory reforms designed to galvanize the private sector and unleash a fresh wave of invention, entrepreneurship, and exports.”

In the long term, she added, “we need to help secure our standing in the global economy, lay the groundwork for future innovation by improving science, technology, engineering, and math education; cut red tape; and increase the ability of our businesses to attract and retain the world’s brightest scientists, engineers, and researchers.”

Klobuchar’s special guests for the Innovation Summit included U.S. Senator Mark Warner (Virginia), a cofounder of Nextel Communications; and Robert Atkinson, a leading expert on innovation policy and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Additional speakers included Alice Albright, executive vice president/COO of U.S. Export-Import Bank; Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chairman of Carlson Companies; John Geisler, corporate vice president at Cargill; William Hawkins, chairman/CEO of Medtronic; Joy Lindsay, president and co-founder of StarTec Investments; Tim Mulcahy, vice president of Research at the University of Minnesota; Ryan Kanne, director of commercial service in the Midwest for the Department of Commerce; Todd Wilkinson, president/CEO of Datacard; and Nadim Yared, president/CEO of CVRx, Inc.

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