OSTP's Future Role in Trump Administration Seen Likely Focus of Senate Commerce Hearing
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director nominee Kelvin Droegemeier is likely to face questions during a Thursday Senate Commerce Committee hearing on how he thinks the office can shape tech policymaking in President Donald Trump's administration, lawmakers and tech sector officials said in interviews. Officials are optimistic OSTP can still be influential in policymaking despite misgivings about the amount of time it took Trump to staff it (see 1704210055 and 1801180055). Trump nominated Droegemeier, vice president-research and professor of meteorology at University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma cabinet secretary of science and technology, earlier this month, more than a year and a half after John Holdren stepped down at the end of President Barack Obama's administration.
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Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us he wants to hear Droegemeier's “ideas for how we can stay ahead” on a range of tech policy issues and how the nominee views OSTP's role within the Trump administration. Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, wants to ensure Droegemeier is “given the independence that [OSTP] needs to effectively advise the president and the executive branch.” Droegemeier "is a respected scientist, but that's only useful insofar as anybody in the administration listens to him,” Schatz said.
Schatz noted Democrats' concerns about how long it took to put someone forward and potential aftereffects of that. Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios has been the office's de facto leader. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., met Droegemeier Tuesday and echoed Schatz's concerns. “This nomination was long overdue and it's deeply concerning that the office has been without a leader for so long,” she tweeted Wednesday.
“Obviously, you want to provide as much continuity as you can in these offices and make sure there's a smooth transition from administration to administration,” Thune said. “I don't know that it's become moribund. I think it's an office that still makes significant contributions to the way that we deal with science and technology policy. I hope [the Democrats] will help us to get [Droegemeier] over to OSTP as quickly as possible.” OSTP has been active on interagency artificial intelligence efforts, engaging tech sector executives and highlighting the Trump administration's research and development priorities for federal agencies to consider as they develop their FY 2020 budget proposals.
Society for Science & the Public's Kumar Garg, a federal deputy chief technology officer during the Obama administration, and others believe OSTP still has time to play an influential role. The year-plus gap “has been damaging to science and tech policy overall” and there's “certainly been a lot of time lost,” Garg said: It's “important for the position to get filled so there is a White House science and tech policy adviser who is playing the same honest broker role” on those issues as the national security adviser plays on national security issues.
“Without someone permanent leading OSTP, that office hasn't been getting represented well,” said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro: The office has remained active on a range of tech policy issues, and now that Trump has selected Droegemeier, “that can obviously increase” the office's impact. “I suspect they've come across the need for good tech policy” staff within the administration in part because of interest in privacy issues, Castro said: The White House “outsourced that to NTIA partially because they don't have as much in-house expertise on those issues.”
“I do wish OSTP had staffed up earlier on but that hasn't prevented them from being active in the conversations we've been having on international engagement on tech policy, AI research and development” and other issues, said Computer & Communications Industry Association Senior Policy Counsel Bijan Madhani. “Maybe their bandwidth has narrowed a little bit, but there's nothing to prevent them from taking on more in the future” provided the right staffing additions. “There's still so much room” for additional tech policy influencers to be added to this administration compared to past ones, so “anyone they bring in at the point will be impactful,” Madhani said.
“There will be a lot of questions about privacy” at the Senate Commerce hearing “because that's still on everyone's mind” after the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data breach, Madhani said. “They're going to ask whether the administration has an idea about what they're going to do on those issues, what [Droegemeier] thinks about the need for legislation and what OSTP can do.” Garg predicted Senate Commerce members will ask what Droegemeier's “proactive agenda might be” given “it's an open question what the overall science and tech policy priorities of this administration are.” Madhani said he will be watching out for what role Kratsios will play within OSTP if the Senate confirms Droegemeier, particularly since Kratsios “has a pretty good relationship with the [Washington, D.C.] tech policy community.”