On January 12, President Obama gave his eighth and final State of the Union address to the nation. A time-honored institution written into the U.S. Constitution, this speech allows the President to update Congress and the American people on the status of his agenda, the country’s accomplishments, as well as the challenges we have yet to confront.

Tekedra Mawakana, an experienced public policy leader has joined eBay as its new vice president of Government Relations. She will lead legislative, policy, antitrust and government affairs for eBay forging relationships with government officials and other stakeholders around the world.

Today, the House and Senate passed a $1.15 trillion bipartisan spending bill which will fund the government until September 2016. Thanks in part to the efforts of the eBay Main Street community, this comprehensive appropriations bill did not include destructive remote sales tax collection and remittance requirements for online sellers. This result is a huge win for U.S. Internet-enabled small businesses.

by Steve DelBianco, Executive Director of NetChoice, a trade association of e-commerce and online businesses.

As Congress weighs Internet sales tax proposals, it should look to Europe’s unpleasant experience with the Value Added Tax (VAT) system for guidance on what not to do.

Last month, 65 students from over 20 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) visited eBay as a part of the third annual HBCU ICE (Innovation, Commercialization, and Entrepreneurship) Summit to empower students─ most of whom are Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology majors ─ to chart their career paths within the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) industries.