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White House To Hold June Tech Summit
by Bara Vaida
The White House has invited about 100 high-tech CEOs to attend a June 13 forum that will focus on economic growth, homeland security and education and workforce issues.
The meeting will include three panel discussions, with Commerce Secretary Donald Evans expected to chair the panel on economic growth and the state of the high-tech economy; White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to chair the panel on homeland security and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to chair the panel on workforce and education issues. President Bush also is expected to make public remarks.
The meeting next month follows a briefing senior White House staff held last Tuesday with about 70 California-based high-tech executives and Washington lobbyists. The meeting, organized by White House Office of Public Liaison Director Lezlee Westine, focused on the administration's support for information technology in Bush's fiscal 2003 budget, sources who attended the meeting said.
Mark Forman, associate director of information technology and e-government at the White House Office of Management and Budget, discussed the administration's e-government efforts, while Westine highlighted Bush's efforts to improve education. Richard Russell, associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, discussed federal investments in research and development and outlined a planned June 12 meeting of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
The senior staff only briefly touched on broadband policy, a fact that disappointed several lobbyists who hoped to hear about the administration's vision on broadband. In January, senior White House staff had told high-tech executives that a broadband policy would be unveiled "soon," but a plan has yet to be unveiled.
Brian Kelly, senior vice president at the Electronic Industries Alliance, said the meeting was "a good listening session" between White House staff and the high-tech community.
New Democrats' Leader Addresses IT Group
One of the House New Democrat Coalition's newest co-chairmen, Adam Smith of Washington, outlined his group's high-tech agenda for the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) last week. At a monthly government relations luncheon, Smith said the group plans to unveil its 2002 E-Genda within the next few weeks.
Matt Tanielian, ITI's director of government relations, said five items on the New Democrats' tech policy agenda match ITI's priorities: securing quick passage of a bill to renew and overhaul the Export Administration Act, better educating lawmakers on the complexities of privacy legislation, ensuring that stock options are available to employees, increasing funding for math and science education, and safeguarding innovation by finding an industry-led solution on managing digital rights.
Tanielian said Smith and ITI participants had a "long discussion" on legislation to renew presidential trade-negotiating authority, which Smith and most of the New Democrats voted against, much to the chagrin of the high-tech sector. Tanielian said Smith's message on the legislation was that the Senate is expected to pass a version this week, along with a new measure for protecting workers that should garner more moderate Democrats' votes when a compromise version of the bill reaches the House floor later this year.
"The high-tech sector is pragmatic [about the trade vote.] They are moving on," Tanielian said.
High Tech Staffers Leave Capitol Hill
After a year-and-a-half on Capitol Hill handling issues such as digital rights management, border security and immigration, David Safavian, chief of staff to Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, left to join the General Services Administration (GSA) He will be a senior policy adviser to the GSA administrator and acting deputy chief of staff.
At GSA, the Michigan native will manage the agency's efforts on e-government, telecommunications, privatization and other programs. "GSA plays an incredibly important role in every agency ... and I saw this as a great opportunity to help this administration improve government performance," Safavian said.
Before joining Cannon's office, Safavian was a partner at the consulting firm Janus Merritt Strategies, where he worked on telecom and high-speed Internet service issues. Chris MacKay will replace Safavian at Cannon's office. MacKay has been the legislative director, and Thad Bingel, Cannon's legislative counsel, will move into that role.
In other Hill news, Ernest Baynard, the press secretary to Silicon Valley Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., has taken a job as vice president at Main Street Communications, where he will be managing the Democratic firm's client list of incumbent political candidates and challengers. He also will focus on earned media and message strategies, and will "learn the art of the media buy, as well as the creation of hard-hitting television and radio spots." Baynard also said he would continue to assist high-tech companies in gaining visibility on the Hill.
Before joining Honda's office, Baynard was a special assistant to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo during the Clinton administration and worked on the national advance staff for former Vice President Al Gore. Baynard joked that while it was hard to leave Honda's office, "as part of the deal I cut with Honda ... I will always be available to him to grill large quantities of red meat on my grill in Adams Morgan ... and be available for Karaoke and Mariachi."
Propelling The Democratic Fundraising Machine
Steve Kirsch, founder of the software company Propel.com and Infoseek, has given generously to Democratic political parties over the past several years and is one of several hosts of a $1 million Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) fundraiser in Silicon Valley at the end of the month. That fundraiser may prove to be his limit, however.
According to a DSCC e-mail to fellow Senate Democratic fundraisers, "he is maxed out" and asks that he not be called for the rest of the year in deference to already generous donations to the party, Hotline reported in last Friday's edition of Last Call.
In an interview with National Journal's Technology Daily late last year, Kirsch said he became interested in donating to Democrats because of their efforts on improving education.
And the Winner Is ...
Miriam Browning, who is a member of the Secretary of the Army's chief information office, and Joan Vallancewhitacre, executive officer of information services at National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), were among the winners of the third annual Women in Technology awards this month.
The awards recognize women for leadership in their specific sectors. Other winners included: Linda Gooden, who is president of information technology at Lockheed Martin; Donna Morea, executive vice president at AMS; and Faith Driscoll, patent attorney at Bull HN Information Systems.
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