CEOs to Senate: Travel ban could hurt business
A Senate hearing on reducing regulations became a forum Wednesday for business leaders to criticize President Trump’s executive order suspending travelers from seven countries from entering the U.S.
“We’ve sent a message to the world which is very strong that the welcome mat is being pulled away,” Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, told the Senate Commerce Committee.
GE, Merck, Allergan, Ford and Microsoft each issued statements supporting diversity and offering legal assistance to workers in the wake of the Jan. 27 order that barred citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country, said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, a member of the committee.
“They are worried about their ability to attract new talent going forward,” Schatz said.
But the committee chairman, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Trump was trying to bolster security after inheriting a humanitarian crisis in the Middle East made worse, he said, by President Obama's inaction.
"The ability of properly credentialed international visitors to come and go is important to our economy, including the tech sector," Thune said. "Some tech companies may be getting pressured to speak out and I suspect a short period of time will allow the administration to look at security concerns and move past these travel interruptions.”
Trump's order, which is being challenged in federal court, blocks arrivals from six of the countries for 90 days and from Syria indefinitely. The administration said its goal was to pause arrivals so that travel security it described as woefully inadequate could be reviewed and tightened. But airports erupted in chaos as immigration officials detained travelers. Protesters descended on airports across the country.
"This is not a travel ban, this is a temporary pause that allows us to better review the existing refugee and visa vetting system," John Kelly, secretary of Homeland Security, told reporters Tuesday. "This way we can ensure the system is doing what it is designed to do, which is protect the American people."
Schatz asked a vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers why the group hadn’t taken a position on the travel order.
“This is the elephant in the room when it comes to America’s business reputation, when it comes to our core values, when it comes to your members, that it’s odd to me that you either haven’t taken a position or don’t yet want to articulate it,” Schatz said.
Rosario Palmieri, NAM’s vice president of labor, legal and regulatory policy, said he would get a reply for the senator.
Schatz then asked Shapiro whether the order was good for business.’
“No it is not, sir,” Shapiro said. “America’s strategy for years has been to attract the best and the brightest.”