This article originally appeared in CompTIAWorld magazine’s fourth issue. Click here to view the full issue.
Keeping policy makers informed and educated keeps the technology industry agile. So, we sat down with Elizabeth Hyman, executive vice president of public advocacy at CompTIA, to learn what the advocacy arm at CompTIA is doing to support the business of technology – specifically promoting an environment that supports free and open competition, advocating for a highly skilled and technical workforce, and encouraging collaboration and cooperation.
CompTIA: From the viewpoint of someone in Washington, D.C., who regularly engages in policy debates across the nation, what is the business of technology?
Elizabeth Hyman: At CompTIA, when we talk about the business of technology, it is generally with an eye toward how technology can transform business operations, overcome challenges to establish new routes to market, and ultimately create new business products, services and opportunities.
Twenty-five years ago, when we were entering the digital age – the advancements of personal computing, growth of broadband, the arrival of the smart phone and migration to the cloud –were met with awe and admiration. Policy makers were focused on a light touch in terms of regulations because they understood the potential for tech to revolutionize society and that in order for nations to remain competitive, the business of technology, or, simply put, innovation, had to be nurtured and supported.
Today, as we see technology take a new turn into emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, autonomous vehicles and the like, the view is more complex. Advancements come at an unprecedented pace and we are witnessing this merger of the physical and digital. It used to be a badge of honor to say that your technology was disruptive. Now, disruption is viewed with a bit of unease. It is the same with policy makers, many of whom are unfamiliar with the fundamentals of technology and are struggling to find the right way to juggle their obligations of serving the public good and ensuring our nation has a strong and vibrant economic base.
CompTIA: What are the main goals of CompTIA’s advocacy arm?
Hyman: CompTIA Advocacy is working to create an environment that allows tech businesses and businesses that rely on technology to flourish. The challenge comes with explaining how technology works to those outside the tech industry such as elected officials. Our number one job is to educate policy makers so that they have a certain comfort level with technologies and can make wise decisions about the balance between the free market and useful policies.
We do this because our mission is to support free and open competition, advocate for a highly educated and technical workforce, and encourage collaboration and cooperation in ideas and technology. At the end of the day, we want every one of our member companies to be able to research, develop, integrate, manufacture, service and freely sell solutions in the global marketplace.
CompTIA: What are some of the most important legislative issues that your policy team is watching right now?
Hyman: We work on a broad array of issues covering tax policy, workforce, environment, privacy, cybersecurity, broadband and telecommunications, government procurement and issues that are popping up around emerging technologies. But let me highlight a few:
- Workforce: We remain laser-focused on ensuring the tech workforce is a priority. We support smart, high-skilled immigration policies so we can continue to keep the best and the brightest in the U.S. innovating and developing new products and services, and we are passionate about workforce policies such as internships, apprenticeships, career and technical education, that get more Americans into good paying tech jobs and careers.
- Cybersecurity: Cybersecurity remains at the forefront of our agenda. We want to ensure the government is structured appropriately so that our critical infrastructure is protected and that we are providing appropriate resources to ensure our cyber-workforce is up to the challenge.
- Broadband: We want to make sure that the highway for technology – broadband buildout and access – keeps up with demand. We are focused on policies that will accelerate the availability of 5G and the availability of spectrum, and ensure that rural and urban communities have access to broadband. This will support growth in emerging technologies like IoT, AI, robotics and more.
- Privacy: We understand consumer privacy can be challenging. We want to make sure lawmakers understand the tools that already exist to ensure privacy across physical and virtual platforms; as well as to ensure privacy around new technologies like block chain or AI to help detect cybersecurity anomalies and breaches.
- International Trade and Compliance: We are very engaged in international trade policy and regulatory compliance. Ninety-five percent of the world lives outside of the United States and the tech industry exports $300 billion dollars in goods and services in a given year. Maintaining an open trading system that runs fairly and effectively is vital to our future. Current negotiations on NAFTA and our challenges with China are front and center for our team.
CompTIA: It seems that more legislative issues are being taken up at the state level due to lack of policy movement in Washington. Are you seeing increased activity at the state level?
Hyman: It is no secret that the federal government moves at a slow pace when it comes to policy. However, we are seeing state level policy makers willing to address issues. Most elected officials at the state level deal with hundreds of topics during a short session and may not be fully up to speed on the intricacies of what they seek to regulate. The emphasis on doing something sometimes leads to unintended consequences. It is CompTIA’s job to ensure these regulations protect consumers without hindering innovation.
Last year, while we tracked about 400 bills at the federal level, we tracked triple that at the state level. Many times, we found that while state legislators had the best of intentions, they were not always reaching productive solutions. This can be especially arduous when 50 states take up the same issue with 50 different approaches. The result is that consumers lose when laws lead to confusion.
CompTIA: What are the CompTIA Advocacy grass roots efforts, how critical are they to your success and how can people reading this article get involved?
Hyman: The grass roots is absolutely vital. We do our best to represent the industry, but it is so much more persuasive when a real live constituent or member communicates with their elected official to share how a policy personally impacts them. We have invested in several grass roots efforts that anyone can participate in.
First, we built the Strategic Tech Council Alliance, a partnership between CompTIA, TECNA and participating regional technology associations with the goal of mobilizing the grassroots tech community to impact legislative and regularity issues important to tech growth, innovation and job creation. This alliance empowers the voice of state and local constituents.
Second, we implemented an online grass roots legislation advocacy hub on our website called, CompTIA Engage. This hub gives individuals the chance to catch up on tech issues they may care about and communicate directly with their elected represented.
Last and most importantly, we have, for the last seven years, hosted the CompTIA DC Fly-In, where we ask our members and partners to join us in Washington, D.C., to advocate around an signature issue each year. The first year we held the Fly-In we had about 30 attendees. This past February we had about 150. The most gratifying part of this grass roots effort is to hear a small business person who is coming to Washington, D.C., for the first time walking the halls of Congress, talking about how moved they were to be a part of our democracy. It sounds corny, but the fact that you can walk into the office of a Senator or Representative that works for you and ask them to support a bill that is important to your business or industry, that is what the pact between the government and her people is supposed to be about. Our eighth annual DC Fly-In will be held February 5 to 6, 2019.
CompTIA: Workforce is one of the most important topics for CompTIA, and the CHANCE in Tech Act was born out of the CompTIA 2017 Fly-In and now a bill in Congress. Can you tell us a bit about the bill and how that came about?
Hyman: Definitely. A long time ago, it used to be that you could become a master tradesman through apprenticeship. Today, we are seeing that the work-and-learn model that apprenticeships present is showing promise in the technology field but the tools that government provides to seed these opportunities are generally geared toward more traditional trades like construction or manufacturing.
We wanted to make sure that there is a strong public-private partnership that supports apprenticeships in technology. That is why we worked with members of Congress to draft and introduce the CHANCE in Tech Act. The bill seeks to scale up apprenticeships in the technology sector while lessening compliance burdens on employers by significantly minimizing the requirements of the U.S. Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship program. The bill also encourages high schools to multiply their career training efforts, ensuring students are provided with a strong STEM and IT career tech curriculum and diverse career pathway counseling that aligns to recognized tech career pathways. We need the support of every CompTIA member to ask their members of Congress to support this legislation!
CompTIA: As you look forward to the next five years, what are some of your primary goals for the advocacy group?
Hyman: There are several indicators of positive growth we are focused on for the Advocacy department:
- We want to see the CHANCE in Tech Act pass Congress and be enacted into law.
- We want to expand our membership because we do a better job of representing the industry when we have more voices at the table.
- This year, we are also relaunching our political action committee. PACs allow individuals to pool their resources in the name of an industry or issue, send a collective message to candidates and encourages involvement in the political process.
- We also are very proud of the DC Fly-In and the other events and would love to increase our member attendance.
- We want to continue to educate policy makers about technology to ensure we build a vibrant and innovative industry
- Lastly, CompTIA is launching the Center for Technology and Workforce Solutions (CTWS) – a think tank on the tech workforce. CTWS will examine how we get more people into and retained in tech and tech-enabled careers [and] do so with equity, [as well as] how we prepare our fellow citizens for the jobs of the future. The state of our tech workforce is so fundamental to our industry and CompTIA Advocacy wants to help support the launch of this important initiative.
To get involved with the Strategic Tech Council Alliance, go to https://www.comptia.org/advocacy/our-structure/federal/state-tech-council-alliance-(stca). To sign up for CompTIA Engage, go to https://cqrcengage.com/techvoice/home?0. To learn more about the CompTIA DC Fly-In, go here: https://www.comptia.org/dcflyin/home.
