Great Expectations
Industry leaders hope Bush attends to their special needs
Where the techies most long for change is in Washington's marble corridors, including those of the Justice Department's antitrust division, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been pushing new financial reporting and disclosure requirements. Executives see Bush's installation of Michael Powell as FCC chief last week as a good start. "We have too much regulation in everything we do," says Sol Trujillo, former CEO of US West who now heads a La Jolla, Calif., start-up called graviton. "It all requires truckloads of papers and armies of people."
The execs would love to see Bush re-create on a national scale the kind of relationship he had with tech leaders in Texas. One of those Austin power brokers is Steve Papermaster, CEO of software maker Agillion. He argues that Bush, far from being a tech Neanderthal, knows how to go to bat for these companies. He notes that Bush blocked an effort by state legislators to tax Internet E-commerce sales. "He used his bully pulpit as governor," says Papermaster.
Education is also shaping up as a tech sector top priority. To fill nearly 850,000 job openings, the industry has fought to raise the number of trained immigrants brought into the United States on H-1B visas. But every executive worth his Palm knows that the best solution lies in giving America's youngsters a high-tech boost, and the sooner the better. Traditionally, corporate interest has focused on universities, but now executives are seeking changes in earlier years. "The education system in this country is, candidly, broken in K through 12," says Chambers.
High-tech leaders do have some policy concerns. For example, some worry that conservatives in Congress might seek to block sales of advanced computer and communications gear to China. Elsewhere, a crucial debate over federal standards for Internet privacy is shaping up. But if the new president replicates the Austin model at the national level, the Bush Era Take 2 should be good news for tech. - William J. Holstein
Oil and gas execs see friends, and friction
It's hard to imagine an industry with brighter prospects at the Washington well than oil and gas. With friends in the highest places and California's energy crisis grabbing headlines, why then are there still frowns in the Oil Patch?
The industry, just emerging from a devastating late 1990s downturn, knows that a major change in U.S. energy policy is more easily promised than delivered. Bruising political battles lie ahead in the effort to open up federal land to drilling or roll back environmental regulations. Even then, it could take a decade to ramp up domestic production. "The last bust wiped out our labor force, no one wants to invest in equipment, and it's hard to find outside investors," says John Bell, president of Bell Energy of Kermit, Texas.
The lag time is long enough that some observers believe Bush may be forced to add a new word to his energy vocabulary: conservation. Until now, the Bush watchword has been production: "We must work in concert to increase the amount of supply available for American consumers." While U.S. reserves are far more costly to tap than Persian Gulf oil, exploiting them fully could reduce vulnerability to OPEC, which announced production cuts to bolster sagging oil prices days before Bush's inauguration.
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