CBC Members Butterfield, Lee to Keep Pushing Tech Sector on Diversity Policies
Congressional Black Caucus members Reps. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., and Barbara Lee, D-Calif., emphasized during a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council event they intend to continue pressuring companies at all levels in the tech sector to increase hiring of racial minorities. Butterfield launched the CBC's Tech 2020 initiative more than three years ago to improve diversity in the industry, including setting clear, public goals to measurably increase the number of African-Americans at all levels within tech companies (see 1505200007). Others from Capitol Hill and state legislatures also emphasized the importance of increasing diversity in tech, highlighting interest in Hill work on net neutrality and privacy. MMTC also heard about FCC issues (see 1807190055).
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“This is a fight that we are not going to let go of” for the foreseeable future, Butterfield said: CBC members at first attempted to be “conciliatory” toward tech companies in the hope that would be enough to push the sector toward more diversity in future hires. The caucus attempted to make an “intellectual argument” that “diversity and profits are interrelated,” he said. CEOs he met with promised change, but “nothing happened,” and the diversity statistics for some companies have become “worse instead of better” since the Tech 2020 initiative launched.
The CBC will now actively “agitate” for such changes, Butterfield said. He, Lee and a group of CBC members met in April with executives from Apple, Twitter and other companies to raise concerns about the sector's failure to make more progress on diversity issues. Amazon and other companies have adopted versions of the NFL's “Rooney Rule,” which requires at least one minority candidate be interviewed for any head coaching or general manager job opening.
The CBC and others should continue to “turn up the volume” and push top tech companies to “move beyond” actions like “retreats and seminars and messaging campaigns” that emphasize the importance of diversity, said Lee, co-chair of the caucus' Diversity Task Force: “There are no action plans, no accountability measures” to back up such actions. “There has to be a comprehensive strategy” to ingrain diversity measures into the tech sector's culture, or there won't be real improvement, she said.
“So many of my constituents are expressing not just anger but fear of the future,” Butterfield said. “Things are very unsettling” in Washington, but “we’ve been through some difficult times before.” Communities of color should pay attention to the House Commerce Committee's work on privacy and data security legislation since incidents like the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data breach “disproportionately affect people of color, low-income people who don’t have the financial means to address these threats,” he said. House Communications Subcommittee Chief Democratic Counsel Alex Hoehn-Saric also emphasized the importance of work on privacy legislation, saying problems posed by Facebook-Cambridge Analytica and other incidents “cut across” the entire tech sector.
Former Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., who co-chairs MMTC's New Telecom and Internet Policy Task Force, cited the federal government's evaluation of major communications and tech sector mergers like Sinclair's proposed buy of Tribune (see 1807190060) as a top issue of interest to MMTC members. Stearns noted the continued push for a House vote on the Congressional Review Act resolution aimed at restoring the rescinded FCC 2015 net neutrality rules (House Joint Resolution-129), though he believes it's unlikely to pass unless Democrats win majority control of the chamber in the November election. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., announced Tuesday he's the first House Republican to support the resolution (see 1807170048).