“President Donald Trump will meet with the chief executives of technology companies including Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc on Monday as the White House looks to the private sector for help in cutting government waste and improving services,” David Shepardson reports for Reuters.
“White House officials said on a conference call on Friday that the administration believed there was an “economic opportunity” to save up to $1 trillion over 10 years by significantly cutting government information technology costs, reducing government costs through improved IT, leveraging government buying power and cutting fraud across government agencies,” Shepardson reports. “The meeting with nearly 20 chief executives comes as the White House pushes to shrink government, cut federal employees and eliminate regulations. Many business executives are eager to work with the new administration as they face numerous regulatory and other policy issues.”
“In May, Trump created an ‘American Technology Council,’ the latest in a series of efforts to modernize the U.S. government. He signed a separate order in March to overhaul the federal government and tapped son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner to lead a White House Office of American Innovation to leverage business ideas and potentially privatize some government functions,” Shepardson reports. “Following Trump’s June 1 decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger stepped down from White House advisory panels. White House officials said the dispute had little impact and that they had to turn away tech leaders from Monday’s event because of lack of space.”
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“On Monday, the Office of American Innovation, a Kushner-led group inside the West Wing, will conduct the first of many brainstorming sessions with about 18 CEOs and two-dozen more business experts,” Jonathan Easley reports for The Hill. “The White House also plans to unveil a new technology council.”
“Trump and Vice President Pence will swing by the working sessions on Monday. Kushner, his wife Ivanka Trump and most of Trump’s senior aides and advisers will participate,” Easley reports. “So too will Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.”
“Among the other CEOs who will be present: Ajay Banga of MasterCard, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Ginni Rometty of IBM, Brian Krzanich of Intel and Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, a Trump supporte,” Easley reports. “The White House has outlined three goals for American Innovation Office’s IT overhaul. Chief among them is modernizing the government’s digital capabilities so that citizens can receive federal services that are ‘as good as what they receive in the private sector.'”
“The second goal is aimed at finding efficiencies to reduce government spending on IT by $1 trillion over the next 10 years… by leveraging the full bargaining power of the U.S. government as the world’s largest buyer of data platforms; and by rooting out fraud and waste through machine learning programs utilized by the major credit card companies,” Easley reports. “The third focus of the group will be cyber-secruty and ensuring the government’s internal data is adequately protected.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Cutting government waste and improving services – something we can all agree upon!
The full text of the “Presidential Executive Order on the Establishment of the American Technology Council” is here.
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Apple CEO Cook calls President Trump as Elon Musk threatens to quit White House advisory councils over Paris decision – May 31, 2017
President Trump leaning toward exiting Paris climate change agreement despite Apple, others urging U.S. to remain in deal – May 31, 2017
Apple to stick with environmental pledges despite President Trump’s gutting of Obama’s climate change orders – March 30, 2017