Prior to talking to the president, these technology leaders had already conducted 10 smaller group sessions with White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to discuss innovating strategies, reforms, and potential partnership, as Reuters reported. While it was COO Sheryl Sandberg, rather than Mark Zuckerberg, who represented the company at December's meeting with Trump, the social network sent no representatives to yesterday's summit. A Facebook spokesperson told Axios "scheduling conflicts" were to blame.
The four-hour event was the first major meeting of the American Technology Council, a new group that Trump commissioned in May that's being led by Jared Kushner, the president's senior adviser and son-in-law.
The White House will spend more time this month focusing on various tech-related themes, with upcoming meetings dedicated to driverless cars, drones, investments in emerging tech and 5G wireless technology. He also noted that some Pentagon legacy systems still rely on floppy disks.
A 2016 U.S. Government Accountability Office report estimated the U.S. government spent more than $80 billion in IT annually, excluding classified operations.
"Government needs to catch up with the technology revolution", he said. "We're going to change that with the help of great American businesses like the people assembled". "So far I have found exactly the opposite", he said.
Senate Republicans Work To Gather Votes To Pass Health Care Bill
Shortly after the 142-page bill was distributed, more than a half-dozen GOP lawmakers signaled concerns or initial opposition. It also would provide more generous tax subsidies than the House bill to help low-income people buy private insurance.
Following Trump's June 1 decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, Tesla TSLA.O CEO Elon Musk and Walt Disney DIS.N CEO Robert Iger stepped down from White House advisory panels. Uber's Travis Kalanick, who stepped down from the council earlier this year following protests by employees and users, also did not attend.
Apple's Tim Cook also spoke up at the meeting, stating the coding should be made a mandatory requirement in US's schools. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. Spicer added that it was "pretty telling", despite differences numerous CEOs have with Trump, that the administration was able to bring them together "to further the president's agenda and to bring ideas to the table".
Besides talking big data, cyber security, the cloud, and more topics, the attendees will have a chance to engage in conversation with Donald Trump at the end of the afternoon when he swings by to greet members of the Council and hear a briefing of the discussions. "I care deeply about America".
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the administration was focusing on technology this week.
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