LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe-Document

LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic

July 02, 1999, Friday 3 STAR EDITION

SECTION: A; Pg. 8

LENGTH: 1019 words

HEADLINE: Bush woos high-tech leaders with vows to protect industry

SOURCE: Staff

BYLINE: R.G. RATCLIFFE

DATELINE: PALO ALTO, Calif.

BODY:
PALO ALTO, Calif. - Gov. George W. Bush, making some of his most specific promises so far in his Republican presidential bid, told Silicon Valley's high-technology leaders Thursday that he would protect and promote their industry.

"Wealth is created by Americans, by creativity and enterprise and risk-taking. These are the hallmarks of Silicon Valley, where the great engine of wealth has become the human mind," Bush told about 400 high-tech executives at a Palo Alto breakfast. "The role of government is to create an environment in which entrepreneurship can flourish."

Bush said he will fight to reduce lawsuits against high-tech companies, expand trade and raise caps on the numbers of skilled workers allowed to immigrate to the United States.

Bush also took aim at Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic front-runner who has promoted the use of high-technology to improve lives, by portraying the current Democratic administration as a roadblock to technology expansion.

The governor's promise of a positive business environment appealed to many of the executives almost as much as the specifics Bush proposed.

"When you look at issues like the Internet, we should be very apprehensive about doing things that constrain us," said Robert Herbold, chief operating officer of Microsoft Corp.

Ray Lane, president of Oracle Corp., said Gore "has certainly been friendly to the Internet." But Lane said the Clinton administration in general has not promoted the high-tech industry aggressively enough.

Lane said Bush's high-tech support is based in disappointment in the Clinton administration. He said Bush is not well known in Silicon Valley, "but now there is hope."

"Because he comes from the Republican side of the aisle and being pro-business, we will see him taking stands important to us, such as immigration caps and foreign tax credits," Lane said.

Floyd Kvamme, a high-technology venture investor who supported Sen. Bob Dole in the 1996 elections, said most people in Silicon Valley, a high-tech corridor that stretches from San Francisco's southern suburbs to San Jose, shun politics.

But he said Bush has drawn out guests to fund-raisers who have never been involved in politics before.

"The valley is about 15 percent Democrat and 10 percent Republican and 75 percent who wish it would go away, more Libertarian," Kvamme said.

"But a lot of those folks are recognizing that government is involved with us. There are 67 some bills before the House and Senate right now regulating the Internet," he said.

Kvamme said high-technology businessmen are busy enough developing their industry, and do not want to waste time explaining every issue to a less-than-enthusiastic presidential administration.

Sam Colella, another venture capitalist, added in regard to Bush: "This guy relates to the new economy better than Gore does."

Brian Halla, chief executive officer of National Semiconductor, said many high-technology executives already have gotten to know Bush through their dealings with the Texas Legislature. Halla said Bush regularly met with executives and was willing to listen to their concerns.

"It's easier for some of us who already have campuses in Texas," Halla said.

Bush got one of his best responses in Palo Alto when he poked fun at Gore for saying he invented the Internet.

"They (the Clinton administration) no more invented prosperity than they invented the Internet," Bush said to a round of applause.

Bush's fund-raising events in Palo Alto and San Jose were expected to add more than $ 800,000 to the $ 36.2 million that Bush announced Wednesday he has raised since he launched his campaign March 7.

That unprecedented monetary haul apparently has affected Bush's thinking. He told his Palo Alto audience that this was not his first trip to Silicon Valley, but "it's my first visit as president of the United States - soon to be president of the United States."

Buttons were handed out in Palo Alto that said "W2K," a play on Bush's middle initial and the computer glitch that may not allow some software to correctly understand dates after the Jan. 1, 2000.

Bush told the crowd that as president he would fight for "meaningful tort reform" to slow down lawsuits against high-technology companies.

He also noted that recently Texas became one of the first states to enact a law restricting lawsuits based on the so-called Y2K problem, which Bush described as "the biggest potential ambulance chase in a millennium."

Bush gave faint praise to President Clinton for saying he will sign federal Y2K legislation that has been opposed by trial lawyers who are major Democratic political donors.

"With this administration, wisdom comes so rarely that we should not complain even when it comes too late," Bush said.

Bush's high-technology initiatives also included:

Making the Internet duty and tariff-free worldwide and promote international standards of electronic commerce. Also, he wants to step up efforts to stop piracy of American intellectual property such as software.

Develop an export control system to protect military secrets while promoting the export of computers and software, including encryption software. There have been questions about whether the Clinton administration's policies have allowed missile guidance technology to be transferred to the Chinese.

Raise the cap on immigration of high-skilled workers under H-1B visas. Bush's campaign said the current cap of 115,000 such visas a year is creating a shortage of highly skilled workers from other countries. However, Bush did not say how high he would raise the cap.

Improve education in the United States. Bush said the need for skilled foreign labor could be lessened by improving the education of all children in the United States.

Make federal tax credits for research and development permanent. Bush said temporary tax credits disrupt corporate planning.

After Bush's speech, John Chambers, chief executive officer of Cisco Systems, said Bush is transcending partisan politics.

"I don't think it's Republican or Democrat. It's a leadership sale," Chambers said.

LOAD-DATE: July 3, 1999