Before the end of the year we will take whatever lawful actions i can take that i believe will improve the functioning of the immigration system, that will allow us to search Additional Resources to the border where i think the vast majority of americans have the deepest concern, and at the same time i will be reaching out to both mitch mcconnell, john boehner and other republicans as well as Democratic Leaders to find out how it is that they want to proceed and if they want to get a bill done, whether it is during lame duck or next year, i am eager to hear what they have to offer. For more i spoke with todd schulte, the new executive director of forward u. S. , an Amnesty Group backed by mark zuckerberg, bill gates and others. He recently took over for joe green, and is calling for big and bold action from the president. Its important to keep in mind we were really proud that it has been around for about a year and a half in helping to get a senate bill done and that had broad bipartisan support. We think ultimately it is absolutely critical that there is a legislative solution here. That is the permanent legislative solution that so many people need including the tech community. We do think there are things the president could do in the meantime that are meaningful, although temporary. We hope he does those things. He said he is going to. He said he was going to do this before the ends of the year. You have your feet on the ground there. There is a bill that has passed the senate that could come up in the house but the speaker will not allow a vote on it. David axelrod sent a tweet out saying the president should promise not to go on executive order if they can get a vote on that bill. Do you think that approach has any chance in the Current Congress . I think the speaker has made it clear he will not put that on the floor. We think it is disappointing the house, unlike the senate, couldnt get a bill done. We are encouraged by so much broad support around the country. Three in four americans support Immigration Reform. What we like to see is a legislative solution, but barring that now there are steps the president can take through Legal Authority and it is our job to lay the foundation, and this is what were doing, for that permanent legislative solution, whether that is in the next couple of months, over a year from now we want it soon. Every day that congress doesnt act, there is 37 million lost to our economy, families being torn apart and entrepreneurs who have to leave this country and create jobs elsewhere. We want to see as much as we can now. What is one thing you want the president to do before the year is up . If there is one thing, i would have to say we think he can do more by doing more than one thing. To flip the question here, we think there are things he can do to help families who are being separated to some sort of expansion of the dock of program. We think there are things he can do to help companies by clearing the green card backlog. We think there is things he can do to help entrepreneurs. We want to see all of that stuff. We think its important. Were hoping for a broad solution to the president as well, and we think that is best way to lay that foundation for legislation too. Comprehensive always sounds good. That is the problem in congress. There are republicans who would instantly like to help the skilled workers come here and help keep the unskilled workers and the people who are already here, not allow them to be citizens. Binding that all together in one bill seems to be the political problem. Do you accept the approach of unpacking that and going for piecemeal reform when you can get it . First, i would say there are a lot of problems in d. C. I think an approach where you do these things together, it is born out in the conversations we have in washington with voters you see in polling. When you put all of these things together, it is a compromise and people want people to compromise. People on one side of the aisle care more about one side, certain things, people in business. People care more about others. What were focused on is you have this incredibly broad coalition. That is how this become so popular. Whether that was last year when the senate did one big bill or when the house did three or four bills in short succession. Thats fine. Were agnostic on that. We think the reason and will be successful is it is such a win on some different issues. Why is technology so important in the skilled worker set . The thing you hear so much is when people are out there and trying to create jobs, finding talent is so important. This is a program right now that is creating a lot of jobs, not just for the people coming here but for nativeborn americans. Its allowing companies to grow and expand. We think that is absolutely critical. They have had an amazing competitive advantage. We have a system that welcomes people. We accept the best and the brightest. That is a lot of what the program does. We think it can be expanded and reformed to do a better job with that. It is absolutely critical. I have no idea what the answer is to this question that im going to ask you. Why is this issue so important to Technology People than people in other industries . I think it is a couple of things. At a moral gut level, there is this idea that our country should be meritocracy. Its a country where the best and the brightest can come here. The very active entrepreneurs or immigration is so entrepreneurial. It hits at a cultural level. 40 of fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or by the children of immigrants. It helped creates jobs. We talked about that before. At an moral level, an historical level, an american level and economic level. It hits home to so many people. We have had 300,000 different people taking action in support of Immigration Reform. That is a lot of people, and i think it speaks to the energy you were talking about. That was todd schulte, the executive director of forward u. S. Technology companies have spent millions in lobbying in the last year. Lobbying Spending Continues to increase, 13. 7 million from google. Facebook, 7. 4 million. 2. 9 million from apple. Even yahoo spending 2. 2 million on lobbying in d. C. Emily chang sat down for an interview with michael beckerman, the president and c. E. O of the internet association, a lobbying organization formed by google, facebook, yahoo and other tech titans. Emily began by asking him what he calls our current immigration status and why he called it broken. We are sending away some of the best and brightest educated here in the united dates, clearly it is a problem. When you start seeing the canadian government and others advertising trying to draw away startups to Internet Companies to open offices there, bring jobs there because we cannot have a qualified workforce in the United States, that is clearly a problem. How do you propose we change it . Clearly there are things that the administration can do. We are looking for a comprehensive approach that deals with issues at the border. Allows for higher skilled h1b visas to be increased in the United States and we need to educate the young people so we can have more stem graduates in the future. Now Silicon Valley heavyweights are spending more and more on lobbying, but how much influence can they buy with all of the wealth we have here . Education is crucially important. It is very important what you see from Silicon ValleyInternet Companies taking a leadership role. Other industries and Corporate Leaders need to do that. The more they speak up the more it helps move the ball forward. Education is key and that is what they are doing. Tech executives like mark zuckerberg, marissa mayer, eric schmidt, they have all been invited to the white house many times. How much have they pushed president obama personally on the immigration issue . This is clearly an important issue for all of them and all the companies. Also it is an important issue for our entire country and future of american competitiveness, and they think they should be commended for the leadership role they have taken and would be great to see other executives following suit. I know your organization is focused on h1b b says what about the unskilled workers very much in focus right now, the people that are pouring across the southern border . That is an important component. I think youre seeing a push to see a more robust bill signed into law, passed by the president and congress because you will not be able to fix any one piece. Obviously for our companies it is very important to have h1b visas but for full immigration system and the economy we need to deal with those issues. There are two sides to every story. What do republicans have to say about Immigration Reform . Well talk to one of the president s top critics on Immigration Reform next on the best of bloomberg west. Welcome back to the best of bloomberg west. Im cory johnson. President obama is promising aggressive action to introduce Immigration Reform. Republicans are outraged at that idea. Speaker john boehner said the president will burn himself with his immigration moves. I sat down with another hours republicans, lamar smith of texas. He voted against increasing the number of h1b visas. I think it is disappointing the president is threatening congress and the American People with executive orders. 3 4 of the American People do not think the president should do it himself. He should not go it alone. These kinds of threats, the president himself has said he does not have the authority to do that. Several times over the last several years he has told groups i cannot do that. I hope hell go back and read what he said. Are you going to defund those programs . Are you going to keep these programs from going into effect . If the president pushes ahead and gives amnesty to millions of people and work permits to millions of people who are going to compete with unemployed and underemployed americans, there is going to be a price to be paid. We might try to defund what he does. We will try a lawsuit and there may be actions we can take otherwise. When he does this, he will poison the barrel and make it awfully hard to work with him on other issues, in particular immigration. If he wants to accomplish anything lasting on immigration he was to work with congress and not just issue these executive orders. There was a bill that was approved by the senate. It will not come before a vote because boehner said he will not let it. Would you vote for that bill if it comes before you in front of the Current Congress in the session . The Senate Amnesty bill early this congress cannot be sent to the house because it is unconstitutional. It is contrary to the constitution for the senate to include revenueincreasing measures in their legislation. The reason the Senate Majority leader harry reid hasnt sent it to the house is because we cannot take it on. We are opposed to that bill. It never secures the border. We cannot have that kind of putting off the secure borders, meanwhile, giving amnesty which would encourage more people to come into the country illegally. We need to start over. Secure the border first. Even under this administration, the Government Accounting Office said only 15 of the border is under full control. Thats why we have hundreds of thousands of people coming across the border every year right now under this administration. Secure the border first and then we can talk about the other measures. Does granting amnesty hurt the American Workforce . If the president grants amnesty by himself, which i believe and he knows is unconstitutional, that will absolutely hurt unemployed americans and underemployed americans. Almost every study done when you have that many more people getting permits it will have two harmful impacts on American Workers. It will depress wages and cost them jobs. That is irrefutable, and i am surprised and disappointed the president isnt going to put the American Worker first. I ran across a quote of yours. I dont know the context. It is about the dream act. It allows children of u. S. High schools overseas or people who served in the military to get some kind of conditional citizenship that are good, moral citizens. You called it a nightmare for the American People. Is that an accurate quote . What do you mean by that . The socalled dream act to me is a nightmare for a couple of reasons. First of all, it basically gives amnesty to anyone the country who is under 30 years old who claims they came in when they were younger. The administration when we quizzed them said there is no way for them to double check to try to avoid the fraudulent documents everyone would use. It is an open invitation to massive fraud. It is an open invitation for half of the people in the country to say they came in when they were younger and get amnesty. Everyone in the category is getting work permits. Then they will be competing with American Workers or driving down their wages. This kind of a piece of legislation should not be done alone or in isolation and we shouldnt be doing any kind of bill like this that will encourage more people to come into the country illegally. That was congressman lamar smith, republican from texas. You can bank online, turn stocks online, do virtually anything online, but you cant vote online. At least not in the United States. Were going to look into the challenges of bringing online voting next. Welcome back to the best of bloomberg west. Im cory johnson. You can renew your business license online. You can file your taxes online. You can find a wife online, but as an american you cant vote from your mobile phone or your desktop. Mcafee has released a new report on the risks and potential rewards of voting online. I spoke with mcafees chief Consumer Security evangelist, gary davis, and asked him what the potential is for voting online. I think one of the challenges they see today is the fact that if it becomes really popular, when there are midterm elections are president ial elections and it gets a lot of hype. But after the hype cycle fades away, the incentive for doing this goes with it. I think the potential is there and the technology is there. We just need to drive this. Beyond that, are there technological limits to this . Are there reasons why this hasnt happened that are technologically based . I wouldnt say today. I think the technology exists today to make this doable. Every device you buy today has a biometric member. You have the means of using things like biometrics. We have better encryption technology. We have better means of making sure that that transaction can take place with some of the requirements for online voting. I believe that the technology exists today. It is just a matter of getting the electoral boards to embrace it in a more meaningful way. How much cheaper would it be . I dont have hard numbers, how much more or less expensive it would be. But if you think about it, it would open up the window for a lot of new voters. Younger voters who are very tech savvy, i think about the elderly and infirm that would open up the opportunity for them to vote. I think about my son. He is a First Lieutenant in the marine corps. He is stationed in spain right now. I bet he is not going to be able to vote, just because of the complexity of doing voting from remote locations. As an american, im fairly embarrassed that countries like estonia are leading the way here. What other countries have adopted online voting like this . Weve seen success in countries like switzerland. India it uses a lot of evoting technology. It is a bit dated, but they have some 900,000 machines deployed around india. It really helps when they have a high degree of illiteracy. It helps as part of the voting process to allow evoting machines in india. There have been successes in places like canada, india, estonia, switzerland, brazil had some success, australia had some success. We really are a little bit of a late bloomer when it comes to some of our online voting habits here in north america and the United States. Late bloomer makes us sound like there is blooming happening. I wonder who would be voting more if the voting were allowed in this kind of way . Who is being disenfranchised by the lack of online voting . That is a great question. I think one of the big dating factors is that if im an elected official, do my constituents benefit . Does my Party Benefit by having online voting . If you think about the fact that more elderly could vote, Younger Voters could vote, the infirm could vote, who best benefits from that . Is it part of my constituency, part of my party that would most benefit to help drive this Going Forward . Can i suggest that the sort of myth of voter fraud is really the people who dont want more people to vote are behind this effort to keep this technology away from people who would vote if it were easier to do so . I dont believe that is the case. If you think about the electoral process, the intent is to provide everyone with the ability to vote and give them the means to vote as simply and convenient as possible. I have to push back on you a little there. There are repeated cases across this country where there are new laws, especially in this election, this week, being enacted to keep people from voting. Agreed. There has been some legislation which has disadvantaged some segments of the population. But i dont know if that same statement would be disadvantaged by online voting, and opening up these means. The intent of those really was to help stamp out fraudulent voting. People casting multiple ballots or having people who were not even alive anymore having the opportunity to vote. To be clear, does not happen i