Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head EPA, is a “disastrous pick” because of Pruitt's “long record of hostility” toward the agency, said the Natural Resources Defense Council on its website. The green group is mounting an email advocacy campaign urging the Senate to “carefully vet” Pruitt’s nomination during his confirmation hearings. NRDC “can’t predict” what Pruitt will do to Energy Star as EPA administrator,” Senior Scientist Noah Horowitz emailed us Friday. Energy Star “is a voluntary program that has thrived under Democratic and Republican administrations because it’s extremely popular with manufacturers and consumers,” Horowitz said. “It provides consumers with a simple and reliable tool for identifying the models of appliances and equipment that will save them the most money on their utility bills while helping to protect the environment. And manufacturers like it because consumers seek out ENERGY STAR models. Simply put, ENERGY STAR is a voluntary program with a 25 year track record of success that works for everyone.” Trump's pick to be labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, also has been attracting criticism from within the communications field (see 1612080067 and 161209001).
Sprint majority owner SoftBank committed to invest an additional $50 billion in the U.S. and to create 50,000 jobs in the country, President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday. Trump announced the investment plan via Twitter after a meeting with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who Trump said told him he “would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!” SoftBank previously planned a $100 billion tech-centric investment fund in partnership with Saudi Arabia-based interests. SoftBank didn't comment.
The transition team for President-elect Donald Trump named L Brands’ Mark Neuman as another landing team member for the Department of Commerce. Also named: new members to the teams for the Department of Transportation, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and others, said a news release this week.
A tech initiative at the University of Colorado plans a broadband event with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez -- weeks after the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who will name others to run those agencies (see 1611180019 and 1611140066). CU's Silicon Flatirons program said Tuesday that Wheeler and Ramirez would be among those speaking at its Feb. 12-13 conference on broadband migration and the "First Principles of Information Policy." Ramirez is to give an "overview address" Feb. 12 at 10:30 a.m. MST, and Wheeler will give a closing keynote at noon the next day. Other participants include Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen, FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny, Deputy Assistant Attorney General-Litigation, Antitrust Division Jonathan Sallet, who used to be FCC general counsel, plus Mark Jamison, a member of Trump's FCC transition team. Also set to be there are some linked to Democrats, including Nielsen Executive Vice President-External Affairs Karen Kornbluh, a possible contender for FCC chairwoman if Hillary Clinton had won the presidential race (see 1611070063). Ramirez and Wheeler are confirmed to speak at the conference, and if things change, Silicon Flatirons' website will be updated, the initiative's Managing Director Anna Noschese emailed us. If Wheeler steps down as FCC member before the event, he will still take part in it, said a spokesman for that agency.
Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and the Internet Security Alliance praised the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity’s recommendations to the White House on actions the private and public sectors can take over the next decade to improve cyber defenses and raise awareness. The six main recommendation areas aim to provide a cybersecurity blueprint for the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, backing action on some items during Trump’s first 100 days in office (see 1612020050 and 1612050044). The CENC report “provides a path forward for government, the commercial sector, consumers, and educators to address the challenges before us,” Pritzker said in a statement. “The ideas highlighted in the report … transcend different Administrations, Congresses, and different political and economic cycles. These recommendations comprise an urgent action plan for our country to meet today’s cybersecurity crisis. Success will require that we all work together.” Pritzker is expected to speak about the CENC report during a Tuesday USTelecom event. The suggestions embrace most elements in ISA’s 12-step “social contract” on cybersecurity for the next administration, the group said. “Not only did our own study come to a remarkably similar conclusion, but this finding is consistent with the House GOP Task Force Report on cybersecurity” and President Barack Obama’s 2013 cybersecurity executive order, said ISA President Larry Clinton in a news release. “The degree of consensus on the direction for sound cyber policy across industry and partisan lines is remarkable and bodes well for the prospect to more aggressively fight the ever-greater cyber threat.”
President-elect Donald Trump plans to convene CEOs in early February for what he’s calling a Strategic and Policy Forum. Disney's Bob Iger, General Motors' Mary Barra and IBM's Ginni Rometty are to be among attendees. “My administration is committed to drawing on private sector expertise and cutting the government red tape that is holding back our businesses from hiring, innovating, and expanding right here in America,” Trump said in a statement. The meeting will be at the White House, the transition team said: “Members of the Forum will be charged with providing their individual views to the President -- informed by their unique vantage points in the private sector -- on how government policy impacts economic growth, job creation, and productivity.”
The Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity is to publicly release a full version Friday of its recommendations to the White House on actions the private and public sectors can take over the next decade to improve cyber defenses and raise cyber awareness, the commission said Thursday. CENC officially delivered its recommendations to President Barack Obama Thursday as directed in the White House's February Cybersecurity National Action Plan (see 1602090068). CENC has “distilled all their findings into a series of recommendations to the new administration across six imperatives,” the commission said in a media advisory. “Each imperative addresses a different aspect of cybersecurity.” Obama is expected to release his response to the recommendations Friday at 2:30 p.m. CENC is to publish the recommendations at 3 p.m. Suggestions are expected to include a continued focus on the use of voluntary cybersecurity standards and instituting incentives to encourage private sector cybersecurity improvements. CENC also considered recommending the White House create a special assistant to the president on cybersecurity issues who would have the same rank as the national security adviser. The commission may recommend the White House set up a public-private “consortium” to advise the president on cybersecurity issues. The body also considered seeking creation of a labeling system for electronic devices along the lines of nutrition labels on packaged foods that would indicate how a particular device complies with cybersecurity standards (see 1611220065).
With the nominations of businessmen Wilbur Ross as Commerce secretary and Todd Ricketts as deputy secretary, President-elect Donald Trump is building "a cabinet of winners," transition spokesman Jason Miller said Wednesday. Ross is head of investment firm WL Ross & Co. and formerly head of investment bank Rothschild. He was Trump's economic adviser on trade policy. Rickets is co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. They -- along with Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, who previously was Goldman Sachs chief information officer -- were selected because of their firsthand knowledge of issues like tax codes and trade policies, Miller said. "When we talk about 'the art of the deal,' someone who has made good deals, that's someone like Wilbur Ross," he said. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said Ross "will bring exceptional real-world business experience to the Department of Commerce as part of an administration that emphasizes job creation and the economy. I ... expect the Senate Commerce Committee will expeditiously consider this nomination once the new Congress begins in January. There will be strong support for keeping a successful entrepreneur at the helm of an agency charged with keeping our nation competitive.” Thune also issued a statement backing Trump's nomination of Elaine Chao -- who was Labor secretary under President George W. Bush and deputy Transportation secretary under President George H.W. Bush -- as Transportation secretary. "Chao has a distinguished record of serving the nation, and has already shown she can work effectively with members on both sides of the aisle," Thune said. "Her leadership will benefit the Department of Transportation in guiding investment in our infrastructure and making transportation safer and better for the public.”
A coalition of 17 technology trade groups, including CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association, is urging President-elect Donald Trump to advance policies that nurture economic growth and innovation. In a Wednesday news release, the coalition said it asked Trump to invest in technology infrastructure that could boost competition internationally and change the tax code and other data-related laws and rules to boost investment and jobs in the U.S. The coalition said "a critical early step" is to identify the right people for key positions in the administration to help drive innovation and investment and has developed recommendations for the transition team. Other members are ACT | The App Association, BSA | The Software Alliance, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and TechNet.
President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration “will have a remarkable opportunity to re-think the policies of several prior administrations” on communications, IP and tech issues given the Trump presidential campaign’s lack of a clear agenda on most tech sector issues, said Tom Sydnor, visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute's Center for Internet, Communications and Technology, in a blog post Wednesday. An “aggressive approach” to U.S. cybersecurity “will be essential,” Sydnor said. “Ordinary US citizens who take at least reasonable measures to protect their proprietary and privacy rights should be able to enforce them in practice at least within the US -- with or without the help of their state and federal governments.” The Trump administration’s commitment to end “crony capitalism” should extend to IP rights and other areas of information and communications sector-related policy, Sydnor said. “Focus on ensuring that private property rights -- including IP rights -- remain enforceable and enforced, even on the internet, and consider repealing laws or regulations that attempt to impose one-sided controls on two-sided relationships between businesses that should be expected to settle their differences in the marketplace,” he said. “These two principles, consistently applied, would do much to improve technology law and policy and reduce regulatory arbitrage.”