The 2014 Congress can take action to spur growth

There’s room for progress on immigration reform, energy efficiency and investment in research

As the new year begins, our region continues to see slow but steady economic growth. The national unemployment rate has hit a five-year low, and throughout New England, employers are beginning to add to their workforces.

But 2013 was a frustrating year in many ways, as we saw our leaders in Washington struggle to reach compromise on critical fiscal issues. The year ended, however, with an encouraging show of bipartisanship as Congress reached a budget compromise that will give businesses a degree of certainty in the year ahead.

We are hopeful that we will see more of this willingness to compromise in the year ahead. There are several areas where congressional action could lead to tremendous economic growth.

 • Immigration reform: One of the biggest challenges for many New England employers is a shortage of skilled workers in the STEM fields: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Yet these are the fields where we expect to see the most growth in the years ahead. It is estimated that by 2018, there will be some 43,000 open STEM jobs in New Hampshire. Efforts to reform our nation’s immigration system present our leaders in Congress with the opportunity to address this problem.

The Senate took significant strides last year in passing a comprehensive immigration reform package that includes measures to address the STEM skills gap, including increasing the cap on H-1B visas and allowing more foreign-born STEM workers to remain in the U.S. Unfortunately, immigration reform efforts stalled in the House. We urge the House to take action on this important issue in 2014.

 • Energy efficiency: One of the most significant challenges for New England businesses is the high cost of energy. While we cannot change our region’s harsh winter weather and limited native fuel sources, one thing we can do is increase efficiency, which will bring down our costs in the long term.

Last year, New Hampshire’s Sen. Jeanne Shaheen partnered with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman to introduce the bipartisan, deficit-neutral Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act, which creates a national strategy to increase the use of energy-efficiency technologies through a national model building energy code as well as a financing program for commercial building efficiency projects.

The bill was introduced on the Senate floor in 2013 but was not put to a vote. We are hopeful that it will return to this important legislation and that Congress will take action to increase on it in 2014.

 • Investment in research: New England's prestigious research universities and teaching hospitals are home to cutting-edge initiatives that produce many transformative innovations in energy, medicine, defense and technology. These institutions rely heavily on funding from a variety of federal agencies to conduct this research, so federal spending cuts in recent years — and in particular last year’s harsh sequestration cuts — have had a devastating effect.

An investment in research is truly an investment in job creation and economic growth. The recent budget compromise was a step in the right direction, restoring a significant portion of the sequestration cuts. We are hopeful that in 2014 Congress will choose to invest more of those federal funds in research. It’s an investment that will yield tremendous returns.

There are many important issues before Congress in the year ahead, not the least of which are ongoing efforts to address our fiscal challenges. However, these are three areas where the New England Council believes compromise is possible and where action will result in economic growth here in New England and throughout the nation.

James T. Brett is president & CEO of The New England Council.