Policymakers

Billionaire investor George Soros launched a brutal attack on big online platform companies at 2018’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. Now, his influential organization is "certainly examining new ways" to tackle the growing power of tech giants. With a global reach and an annual budget of more than a billion dollars, the Open Society Foundations has the ability to significantly shape the growing debate over the power of Big Tech.

[Commentary] President Donald Trump’s White House has been so scandal-plagued that controversies involving cabinet members and other high-level officials that would have been front-page news in any other administration have barely registered in the public consciousness.

A senior Trump administration adviser on government-to-government and technology initiatives is stepping down, the latest of more than a dozen top officials to depart the White House in little more than a year.  Reed S. Cordish is leaving his post as assistant to the president in the Office of American Innovation, where he is being replaced by Brooke L. Rollins. 

An executive at a top technology trade association will be joining the White House as a tech adviser to President Donald Trump. Abigail Slater, the general counsel for the Internet Association (IA), which represents tech giants like Google and Facebook, will replace Grace Koh as a special assistant to the president with the National Economic Council. 

Today let’s celebrate the history of Hayleyville (AL)—and the present of 9-1-1 by bestowing honors on some dynamic individuals and organizations: Tamika Greer, Roger Marshall, Cheryl Kagan and the 9-1-1 programs from Monmouth County (NJ); Orange County (FL); and the District of Columbia. They deserve our righteous praise and deepest gratitude.  But I believe we celebrate 9-1-1 best by securing its future. I think that means three things:

Increasing access to broadband and other telecommunications services in rural areas, including on Tribal lands, has been one of my top priorities. The good news is that the percentage of Americans living on Tribal lands who lack access to high-speed broadband has been cut in half since I arrived at the Federal Communications Commission in 2012. The bad news is that that percentage is still over four times higher than for the overall US population.

The Senate Commerce Committee convened a hearing for the president’s nominees to serve as Federal Trade Commissioners:

The Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee's (BDAC) membership -- and, therefore, the recommendations and discussion drafts currently under consideration -- do not reflect balanced viewpoints between industry and state and local interests. Previous efforts to meaningfully engage state and local members have been ignored or actively discouraged.

House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) announced Mike Bloomquist, currently the committee’s Deputy Staff Director, will be named Staff Director effective immediately.  The committee’s previous Staff Director Ray Baum passed away Feb 9 after a years-long battle with cancer.