Final Obama State of the Union Highly Anticipated Among Tech, Telecom Interests

President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union speech, to be delivered Tuesday night, is “a marker for his last year in office and... a reference point (and foil) for candidates on both sides of the 2016 presidential race,” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President Robert Atkinson said in a blog post Monday. He flagged ITIF’s policy wish list for 2016 contenders, a set of priorities “to foster innovation, boost productivity, and make the United States more competitive in the global economy,” and hoped to hear those same issues raised Tuesday: “So the State of the Union speech that ITIF would hope to hear the president deliver and the campaign stump speech we would hope to hear his would-be successors deliver are one and the same.” CTA President Gary Shapiro wrote a Monday blog post stressing his own policy goals for Obama’s speech -- the president should “set his sights” on the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal awaiting congressional approval; “renew his call for congressional passage of patent reform legislation to stop patent trolls”; and “push for regulations that help promote disruptive innovation,” including a repeal of Department of Labor rules on overtime-pay thresholds. The Software & Information Industry Association sent Obama an open letter advocating its own priorities. The administration must recognize the value of IoT and the “new U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework must be finalized and new trade agreements should build upon the data flow provisions in the Transpacific Partnership Agreement,” SIIA said. It also urged patent litigation overhaul and “support for strong encryption.”