TechNet held our 26th annual federal lobby day, “TechNet Day,” on March 18. At a time when foreign adversaries are eager to outpace the United States in innovation, TechNet member company leaders joined us in Washington, D.C., for meetings with senior officials from the White House, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), and 30 members of Congress, including Chairmen Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Leaders Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), on the policies needed to win the next era of innovation. The discussions focused on federal frameworks for AI, privacy, and autonomous vehicles, investments in our energy infrastructure and workforce, and pro-growth trade policies.
Thank you to Aparna Bawa (Zoom), David Zapolsky (Amazon), Kerry McLean (Intuit), Kent Walker (Google), Mamoon Hamid (Kleiner Perkins), Josh Silverman (Etsy), Ed Knight (Nasdaq), Amar Mehta (Waymo), Morgan Fong (Instacart), and Chris Lehane (OpenAI) for advocating for our priorities so effectively.
TechNet Day began with two roundtable discussions, the first with pollsters John Rogers of Cygnal and Luke Martin of Impact Research, who provided a polling update from the Republican and Democratic points of view. The second discussion was with Deputy United States Trade Representative Ambassador Rick Switzer, who discussed issues including tariffs and digital trade, and shared his expectation that the administration will continue to use Section 301 tariffs and other tools to increase U.S. leverage in trade negotiations.
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(Left to right) Luke Martin, Linda Moore, John Rogers, and Deputy USTR Ambassador Switzer.
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TechNet executives then traveled to the White House to meet with senior officials, including Michael Kratsios, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Sean Cairncross, United States National Cyber Director. During the meeting, we discussed how TechNet member companies are driving America’s global leadership in AI and how we can work together to deliver policy solutions on important issues, including energy, employment, cybersecurity, and autonomous vehicles.
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(Left to right) First photo: Mike Ward, Josh Silverman, Morgan Fong, Mamoon Hamid, Amar Mehta, Ed Knight, David Zapolsky, Kerry McLean, Kent Walker, Aparna Bawa, Linda Moore. Second photo: Ed Knight, Josh Silverman, Kerry McLean, Aparna Bawa, Morgan Fong, David Zapolsky, Mamoon Hamid, Amar Mehta, Kent Walker, Chris Lehane.
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After the White House meeting, TechNet executives traveled to Capitol Hill to kick off conversations with Congressional leaders. We began by meeting with House Republicans, led by Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. We were also joined by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN), House Republican Conference Secretary; Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE), Chairman of the House Trade Subcommittee; Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), Chairman of the House National Security Agency and Cyber Subcommittee; Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Chairman of the House Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee; and Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-CA), Ron Estes (R-KS), Russell Fry (R-SC), Rudy Yakym (R-IN), Jeff Hurd (R-CO), and Julie Fedorchak (R-ND). Our executives discussed the importance of a bipartisan AI framework that includes preemption while preserving a role for states in protecting consumers. TechNet executives emphasized the importance of increasing U.S. energy production and allowing high-skilled immigration.
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