politics
Politics

Meet the new tech bureaucracy

As Joe Biden takes the oath of office, here are the nominees who will loom large in the lives of tech companies and the people who work for them

Meet the new tech bureaucracy

Here are the nominees who are most likely to wield power over the tech industry.

Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Tech billionaires and the people who work for them overwhelmingly supported Joe Biden's election in November. Now, as he takes the oath of office and becomes the 46th president of the United States, the real work begins.

For the tech industry, that means working with or battling a new administration over everything from antitrust to workforce labor issues. While Biden will undoubtedly set the agenda, the work itself will be carried out by the new heads of federal agencies and the rank-and-file bureaucrats working underneath them.

Over the last several months, Biden has announced an ever-growing list of nominations to powerful positions within his administration. Here are the ones who are most likely to wield that power over the tech industry.

Merrick Garland

Nomination: Attorney General

Garland was an antitrust law professor in the 1980s and has written extensively on the topic. As attorney general, he'll now oversee the Department of Justice's case against Google's alleged search monopoly. Though Attorney General Bill Barr played an unusually hands-on role in the Google case, it's unclear whether Garland will take the same kind of interest or how he might approach the legal questions around Big Tech. He's already facing progressive pressure to broaden the DOJ's complaint against Google, which is relatively narrow, and to see the case through rather than settling early. The DOJ is still pursuing separate investigations into the other major tech platforms, including Apple, which could lead to more tech monopoly cases over the next few years.

Vanita Gupta

Nomination: Associate Attorney General

Gupta led the DOJ's civil rights division under President Obama, but more recently, as head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, she took a key role in pushing tech companies, including Facebook, to take action on issues like voter suppression and other election threats. Gupta is expected to apply those experiences in her role at the Justice Department, ensuring that tech platforms and their algorithms don't fall afoul of longstanding civil rights laws. As Laura Murphy, the ACLU's former legislative director who worked with Gupta, recently told Protocol, "She's going to bring her tech fluency to the leadership of the Justice Department."

Gina Raimondo

Nomination: Commerce Secretary

Raimondo is a former venture capitalist who will help shape the contours of Biden's trade policy — specifically his administration's approach to tariffs, one of Trump's favored tools for punishing other countries during disputes. Tariffs have disrupted supply chains and created expensive headaches for the tech industry over the past four years, and Raimondo will help decide how they're used moving forward. Raimondo, the governor of Rhode Island, has a close relationship with House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee chairman David Cicilline and has pledged support for his ongoing efforts to "ensure big tech companies are held accountable."

Antony Blinken

Nomination: Secretary of State

Blinken, who began his confirmation process on Tuesday, will lead the Biden administration's efforts to rebuild U.S. relationships with key allies, including the European Union, and formulate the Biden administration's stance towards China. Trump's Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, launched the Clean Network Program to crack down on Chinese technology on U.S. soil. While Blinken likely wouldn't take up that program specifically, he could engage in a similar effort to formulate rules of the road for Chinese tech companies.

Marty Walsh

Nomination: Secretary of Labor

Marty Walsh is known as a "union guy" through and through, and he's expected to come down heavily on the side of labor in the ongoing battle over whether gig workers should be reclassified as employees. Walsh's Department of Labor is widely expected to pursue aggressive executive actions to create more rights for gig workers, and it could even go so far as to sue one of the gig companies, such as Uber or Lyft, to force them to classify their workers differently.

Isabel Guzman

Nomination: Small Business Administrator

While the SBA administrator may have little influence on tech industry giants, Guzman, who most recently served as head of California's Office of the Small Business Advocate, will certainly be of interest to tech startups. That's particularly true for tech startups still feeling the pinch from COVID-19, given that the SBA is responsible for overseeing the Paycheck Protection Program.

Avril Haines

Nomination: Director of National Intelligence

Haines, who is currently going through confirmation hearings, worked her way up through the CIA, becoming deputy national security advisor under President Obama. Her most direct tie to the tech industry has been through consulting work for Palantir. But as DNI, Haines's work will undoubtedly brush up against other tech giants, including Facebook and Google, who now regularly consult with the intelligence community regarding emerging threats, including foreign influence campaigns.

Eric Lander

Nomination: Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy

Lander, a top geneticist, previously co-chaired the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under President Obama and has served on the Defense Innovation Board alongside top tech executives Eric Schmidt and Reid Hoffman. Now, he'll be charged with overseeing the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which, for the last four years, has focused on emerging tech, including 5G deployment, the AI race with China and quantum computing.

Narda Jones

Nomination: Legislative Affairs Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy

Jones was most recently a top tech policy staffer to Sen. Maria Cantwell on the Senate Commerce Committee, and she'll bring that legislative expertise to her role at the OSTP, where she'll work with Congress on issues including the future of AI, 5G, advanced manufacturing, quantum computing and more.

Alondra Nelson

Nomination: Deputy Director for Science and Society, Office of Science and Technology Policy

Nelson will bring her deep background in the social sciences to OSTP's work as deputy director for science and society, a newly created position. Nelson, president of the Social Science Research Council, has spent years researching the intersection of race and technology and worked side by side with Facebook to launch Social Science One, a sprawling social science dataset. Nelson will likely work closely with the chief technology officer, who has not yet been announced.

Tarun Chhabra

Nomination: Senior Director for Technology and National Security, National Security Council

Tarun Chhabra, a former National Security Council and Department of Defense official under Obama, will help facilitate relationships between the tech industry and the national security world from his perch on the National Security Council. He'll work to coordinate an approach to technology issues across multiple federal agencies.

Michael Sulmeyer

Nomination: Senior Director for Cyber, National Security Council

Sulmeyer, who has held cyber positions in the Trump and Obama administrations, will pick up the mantle as one of Biden's closest advisers on cyber. He has written at length about issues including election interference and federal cybersecurity.

Brian Deese

Nomination: Director of the National Economic Council

Deese recently said that the Biden administration hopes to invest domestically in the U.S. tech sector in order to compete head-to-head with China, rather than turning first to tariffs and export bans. "I think it's clear that China is our most serious global competitor," Deese said during CES. "And this competition is going to be one of the central challenges of this century."

Bruce Reed

Nomination: Deputy Chief of Staff

Reed was Biden's most important tech policy adviser during the campaign, and he's expected to play a similar role over the next four years, especially when it comes to the issue of Section 230, which Reed says needs to be overhauled. Reed helped craft California's landmark privacy law in his capacity as an adviser to Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that advocates for tougher online regulations to protect children. California's privacy law "would not have happened without Bruce, there's no question," California State Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg told Reuters.

Still to come:

Biden has yet to announce his picks for some of the most pivotal roles for the tech industry, including the chief technology officer, the head of the DOJ's antitrust division, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission and the chair of the Federal Trade Commission. He's likely to name acting chairs for the FCC and FTC this week, at which point his administration will get to work figuring out who to select for the open chair slots at both agencies. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and FTC Commissioner Reecca Slaughter are favored to become chairs of their respective agencies, but no formal announcements have been made.

 Emily Birnbaum

Emily Birnbaum ( @birnbaum_e) is a tech policy reporter with Protocol. Her coverage focuses on the U.S. government's attempts to regulate one of the most powerful industries in the world, with a focus on antitrust, privacy and politics. Previously, she worked as a tech policy reporter with The Hill after spending several months as a breaking news reporter. She is a Bethesda, Maryland native and proud Kenyon College alumna.

and
 Issie Lapowsky

Issie Lapowsky ( @issielapowsky) is Protocol's chief correspondent, covering the intersection of technology, politics, and national affairs. She also oversees Protocol's fellowship program. Previously, she was a senior writer at Wired, where she covered the 2016 election and the Facebook beat in its aftermath. Prior to that, Issie worked as a staff writer for Inc. magazine, writing about small business and entrepreneurship. She has also worked as an on-air contributor for CBS News and taught a graduate-level course at New York University's Center for Publishing on how tech giants have affected publishing.

transition politics nominees tech
stocks
Protocol | Fintech

A lawsuit tests who controls the stock market

Citadel Securities seeks to block IEX's product that limits high-frequency trading advantages.

Kenneth Griffin is the founder and chief executive officer of Citadel LLC, which argued during Monday's hearing that IEX's D-Limit order type shouldn't have been approved by the SEC.

Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Market maker Citadel Securities, stock exchange IEX and the Securities and Exchange Commission each gave oral arguments Monday in a legal case that could have large implications for financial markets.

Last October, Citadel Securities sued the SEC, seeking to reverse the SEC's previous decision last August to approve IEX's D-Limit order type, arguing that this order type would hurt the overall market. The case was argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals Monday.

Keep Reading Show less
Tomio Geron

Tomio Geron ( @tomiogeron) is a San Francisco-based reporter covering fintech. He was previously a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, covering venture capital and startups. Before that, he worked as a staff writer at Forbes, covering social media and venture capital, and also edited the Midas List of top tech investors. He has also worked at newspapers covering crime, courts, health and other topics. He can be reached at tgeron@protocol.com or tgeron@protonmail.com.

investing market makers market structure stock markets stocks
sponsored content
Sponsored Content

Four processes to keep you innovating through change

If you've ever tried to pick up a new fitness routine like running, chances are you may have fallen into the "motivation vs. habit" trap once or twice. You go for a run when the sun is shining, only to quickly fall off the wagon when the weather turns sour.

Similarly, for many businesses, 2020 acted as the storm cloud that disrupted their plans for innovation. With leaders busy grappling with the pandemic, innovation frequently got pushed to the backburner. In fact, according to McKinsey, the majority of organizations shifted their focus mainly to maintaining business continuity throughout the pandemic.

Keep Reading Show less
Gaurav Kataria
Group Product Manager, Trello at Atlassian
sponsored content sponsored
ipo

Everything you need to know about the Allbirds IPO

Allbirds wants to become an iconic global brand for shoes and everything else.

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The humble venture capitalist puts on her Allbirds one shoe at a time, just like everybody else (or at least everyone else in Palo Alto).

Since its founding in 2015, Allbirds has become an essential component of the tech bro uniform, alongside such staples as the embroidered Patagonia quarter-zip, Lululemon ABC pants, the Zuck-inspired black T-shirt and a Y Combinator-branded Hydro Flask.

Keep Reading Show less
Hirsh Chitkara
Hirsh Chitkara (@ChitkaraHirsh) is a researcher at Protocol, based out of New York City. Before joining Protocol, he worked for Business Insider Intelligence, where he wrote about Big Tech, telecoms, workplace privacy, smart cities, and geopolitics. He also worked on the Strategy & Analytics team at the Cleveland Indians.
allbirds ipo
facebook papers
Protocol | Policy

It’s Frances Haugen’s world. We’re all just living in it.

With the release of the Facebook Papers, Haugen holds Facebook's future in her hands.

Haugen's decision to open the trove of documents up to outlets beyond the Journal has sparked a feeding frenzy.

Photo: Frances Haugen

Facebook knows a thing or two about optimizing content for outrage. As it turns out, so does Frances Haugen.

Or at least, the heavyweight team of media and political operatives helping manage the rollout of her massive trove of internal documents seems to have learned the lesson well. Because the document dump known as the Facebook Papers, published the same day as Facebook's earnings call with investors and the same week as the conference where it plans to lay out its future as a metaverse company, wasn't just designed for mass awareness.

Keep Reading Show less
Issie Lapowsky

Issie Lapowsky ( @issielapowsky) is Protocol's chief correspondent, covering the intersection of technology, politics, and national affairs. She also oversees Protocol's fellowship program. Previously, she was a senior writer at Wired, where she covered the 2016 election and the Facebook beat in its aftermath. Prior to that, Issie worked as a staff writer for Inc. magazine, writing about small business and entrepreneurship. She has also worked as an on-air contributor for CBS News and taught a graduate-level course at New York University's Center for Publishing on how tech giants have affected publishing.

facebook facebook files frances haugen facebook papers
facebook

Here are all the Facebook Papers stories

They paint a picture of Facebook that's very different from what Mark Zuckerberg likes to say.

Image: Getty Images, Protocol

Monday morning's news drop was a doozy. There was story after story about the goings-on inside Facebook, thanks to thousands of leaked documents from Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who wants the information within those files to spread far and wide. Haugen is also set to speak in front of the British Parliament on Monday, continuing the story that is becoming known as The Facebook Papers.

Keep Reading Show less
David Pierce

David Pierce ( @pierce) is Protocol's editorial director. Prior to joining Protocol, he was a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, a senior writer with Wired, and deputy editor at The Verge. He owns all the phones.

apps facebook papers social media facebook
Latest Stories