UPDATED 01:30 EST / JUNE 09 2017

INFRA

Tech leaders will trek to White House – again – this time to improve government IT

Leaders of the tech industry will head to the White House on June 19 for the inaugural meeting of the American Technology Council, just weeks after the Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate accord was almost universally slammed by tech giants.

According to Bloomberg, tech executives will discuss issues concerning cloud computing and tech sales to government agencies. The council will include various government officials including the U.S. chief technology officer and will be led by President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

Eleven companies are expected to attend the meeting. According to Bloomberg, the participants on the list will include Alphabet Inc. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook, International Business Machines Corp. CEO Ginni Rometty, Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella and Oracle CEO Safra Catz. Facebook Inc. has also been asked to send an executive, but hasn’t yet replied to the invite, according to the report.

The American Technology Council was formed by the Trump administration to “coordinate the vision, strategy and direction for the federal government’s use of information technology and the delivery of services through information technology,” according to the executive order.

Trump’s relationship with some tech leaders was somewhat rocky before the Paris climate accord issue, due to matters such as immigration and net neutrality. When Trump invited many of the biggest names in technology to Trump Towers in December last year, the meeting was highly anticipated. At the meeting Trump lauded the attendees, saying, “There’s nobody like the people in this room,” though those people in the room looked uncomfortable in photos of the event.

Some of those attending the upcoming meeting were outspoken after Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. “We believe climate change is an urgent issue that demands global action,” Nadella said. “We remain committed to doing our part.” Tim Cook was more stern, saying the decision was “wrong for our planet.”

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk is not reported to be on the list of attendees, although he had been in attendance at the December meeting. Musk resigned from Trump’s Advisory Council after the Paris climate accord rebuff.

Image: Jim Mattis via Flickr

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