WASHINGTON – On Monday, May 6, 2013, the California State Senate unanimously passed legislation calling on Congress to pass, and the president to sign into law, Startup Act 3.0 – the strongest, most comprehensive jobs and high-skilled immigration reform bill on the table in Congress. U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Jerry Moran (R-KS), authors of Startup Act 3.0, lauded the passage as an important step toward breaking the log-jam of inaction in Washington.

“Startup 3.0 would help keep America businesses competitive in the global market for talented innovators and entrepreneurs,” Sen. Warner said. “I am hopeful that the Senate will be able to pass the bipartisan immigration reform bill, which includes STEM visa and entrepreneur visa provisions that I support.”

“At a time when our economy needs jobs first and foremost, America’s archaic government policies have us falling behind,” Sen. Moran said. “We are losing talent and jobs by the day to countries like Canada, Chile, and the United Kingdom that are aggressively courting the world’s best and brightest. We must take this opportunity to pass Startup Act 3.0, or we risk losing the next generation of great entrepreneurs and the jobs they will create. I look forward to working with my colleagues to make certain the American dream can continue to be lived in America.”

California Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, authored the resolution which states the following:

“The United States economy has been enriched by the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants from around the world. Foreign nationals residing in the United States were named as inventors or co-inventors in one-quarter of all patent applications filed in 2006. Fifty-two percent of Silicon Valley startups between 1995 and 2005 were founded or cofounded by immigrants, generating $52 billion in revenues and employing 450,000 workers.”

“The Startup Act means job opportunities for California families,” California Senate Republican Leader Huff said in a statement. “According to a white paper released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, it has the potential to add between 500,000 and 1.6 million new jobs for Americans over the next 10 years. California has one of the worst unemployment rates in the nation. California needs this opportunity.”

Startup Act 3.0 is the only proposal introduced in Congress that creates the Entrepreneur Visa. It was re-introduced in the 113th Congress by Sens. Warner and Moran, and is cosponsored by Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE) Roy Blunt (R-MO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tim Kaine (D-VA).

At a time when the Congressional Budget Office expects unemployment to remain above 7.5 percent through 2014 and the economy to grow by just 1.4 percent this year, the job creation potential of Startup Act 3.0’s Entrepreneur Visa translates to an additional 1.6 percent increase in GDP, or about $224 billion in economic activity.

A National Foundation for American Policy analysis of the top 50 venture-capital-backed companies in 2011 revealed that 24 were founded or co-founded by immigrants. At an average company age of 5.8 years and 153 employees, this small sample of immigrant-founded companies added 27 new employees per year, indicating the potential such companies – or even a sliver of Entrepreneur Visa companies – have for extraordinary job creation in the United States.

To access the full survey of Startup Act 3.0’s job-creating potential, visit www.kauffman.org/startupvisa, and follow the conversation on Twitter via #StartupVisa and #StartupAct.