President Donald Trump welcomes members of his American Technology Council, including (L-R) Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in the State Dining Room of the White Houseon June 19. | Getty Tech CEOs descend on White House to talk fixing federal IT

Tech industry leaders from companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google headed to the White House Monday to brainstorm on how to improve the government's creaky IT systems — aiming to find common ground with the Trump administration after weeks of tension over climate change, immigration and other policies.

The official focus of the meeting had non-partisan appeal: upgrading federal systems that one senior White House official described as "in some cases 10 to 20 years out of date." And the tech giants could stand to benefit if the government moves to modernize with the help of their hardware, software and cloud-computing services.


But the gathering comes at a low point in the tumultuous relationship between President Donald Trump and Silicon Valley, with many in the tech world deeply disturbed by Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Activist groups have been urging Silicon Valley's tech workforce to press their CEOs to disengage from Trump.

Monday's session marked the first official meeting of the American Technology Council, created by the president in May under the auspices of the White House Office of American Innovation led by Trump son-in-law and senior presidential adviser Jared Kushner. The idea behind the council is to bring the government's IT infrastructure, websites and apps to the same level of excellence associated with the country's leading tech companies.

To that end, executives spent hours brainstorming on topics like the use of artificial intelligence to reduce fraud and the potential for cloud computing to lower the cost of providing government services.

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At a roundtable session with the CEOs held after the day's working meetings, Trump said his administration is engaged in a "sweeping transformation of the federal government's technology."

"Government needs to catch up with the technology revolution," he said, according to a White House pool report. "We're going to change that with the help of great American businesses like the people assembled."

Those attending included Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty and Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet. Also on the list were Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. They were joined by Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor and Trump adviser, and John Doerr of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Notably absent from Monday's meeting was Facebook. The company's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, had joined other tech executives in a December, post-election meeting with Trump in New York, but the social network said Monday its executives had longstanding scheduling conflicts. Likewise, Cisco, which had earlier told POLITICO that its CEO, Chuck Robbins, would be participating, said Robbins couldn't attend due to a conflict.

In a rare public speech at the start of Monday's meetings, Kushner rattled off the deficiencies of federal IT. The U.S. government, he said, operates thousands of data centers that could be shifted to the cloud. He bemoaned the state of aging federal technology, noting that the Defense Department "still uses 8-inch floppy disks on some of its legacy systems." He pointed out the government requires a six-month review process to approve any changes to a federal website, and said many forms from the Department of Veterans Affairs aren't accessible by modern browsers.

"We have challenged ourselves to pursue change that will provide utility to Americans far beyond our tenure here," he told the executives. "Together, we have set ambitious goals and empowered interagency teams to tackle our objectives. It’s working, and it’s very exciting."

The tech leaders were given a detailed briefing memo to prepare for Monday's sessions, complete with questions to contemplate in advance, such as, "How have you created a culture of user- or service-first?" and "What lessons have you learned in modernizing legacy systems?" They were also asked by the White House to bring a "plus-one" from their companies with expertise on the topics to be addressed during the day's meetings.

If the government gets better at buying modern technology, the tech companies could bolster their position in a lucrative federal market. Google, for example, is already an email service provider for some federal agencies, and the White House itself, under former President Barack Obama, explored using Facebook to communicate with citizens.

Still, the gathering exacerbates a tension that has existed for tech industry leaders since Trump was elected. They are caught between the desire to stay engaged with the Trump administration on issues that matter to their businesses and the risk of a backlash from their liberal-leaning West coast tech workers as well as customers angered over Trump's policies.

"By collaborating with Trump, in spite of his backward-looking climate action and dangerous Muslim travel ban, Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and other participating tech leaders are making a clear statement that their bottom line is more important than our communities and planet," said Nicole Carty, a campaigner for SumOfUs, an advocacy group pressuring executives to leave Trump’s advisory councils. "Trump’s invitation to the White House and American Technology Council was a test, and these tech CEOs failed."

Upgrading federal IT systems was a focus of the Obama White House, too, at least in the wake of the failure of the HealthCare.gov website in 2013. After that, Obama created the U.S. Digital Service to attract tech sector experts to federal jobs revamping the government's online services.

Trump White House officials argue that IT modernization efforts could help the government cut down on wasteful spending and curb fraud, potentially saving what they estimate as $1 trillion over the next 10 years. That finding echoes the conclusions of a report released this year by the Technology CEO Council, whose membership includes several of the executives who took part in Monday's White House meeting.

