Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has made his first public remarks as a White House adviser, calling on executives of technology companies to help modernise the government's technology infrastructure.
The federal government spends more than $80 billion annually on information technology, employing about 113,000 IT professionals, according to the White House.
The comments officially concluded the inaugural meeting of the White House's American Technology Council, a new effort chartered by Trump in May to bring the lumbering federal bureaucracy into the digital age.
"W$3 e're working very diligently with everybody, including Congress, on immigration so that you can get the people you want in your companies", Trump said, after the meeting.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, outgoing General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and Apple's Cook all condemned the move. And some of the government's most egregious tech troubles have great consequences: At the Department of Veterans Affairs, for example, it remains too hard for former servicemen and women to obtain their electronic health records, Kushner said. Almost 100 major technology companies - including Facebook, LinkedIn and Intel - also opposed the administration's travel ban in February. "Tech giants also know a powerful White House contingent has concerns about Silicon Valley's increasing wealth and control over consumers' data, so they need to maintain a dialogue".
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One witness described being surrounded by bodies in the wake of the incident outside the nearby Muslim Welfare House. On May 22, a suicide attack killed 22 people and injured almost 60 after an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
The meeting with almost 20 chief executives comes as the White House pushes to shrink government, cut federal employees and eliminate regulations. For instance, a meeting on drones is slated for Thursday, while the Trump administration also plans to announce "additional tech reforms at the Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday". And other senior White House aides will discuss how to finance those devices and services alongside Silicon Valley's top investors.
"Corporate leaders are learning about the limits of their clout".
Throughout the meeting, Trump admitted that the United States government very munch needs to play "catch up" with the private sector in terms of technology, saying that federal agencies owe it to citizens to offer "dramatically better services to citizens".
In many ways, Trump's efforts during "tech week" continue the work of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, who spent eight years trying to modernize the USA government. "We have challenged ourselves to pursue change that will provide utility to Americans far beyond our tenure here".
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