Policymakers

Haley Van Dyck, the longtime Obama administration official who helped launch the US Digital Service in 2014, has left that office, OMB confirms. Van Dyck, who once held the formal title of deputy USDS administrator, had quietly stayed on to guide the agency through the start of the Trump presidency. "Haley's passion for improving digital services for the American people has been second to none," said Matt Cutts, the former Google engineer-turned-acting USDS administrator. "Haley had a specific goal of assisting USDS through the administration transition and left when she felt that was completed to the best of her abilities. Although the USDS team is sad to see her go, we're excited to see what's around the corner for Haley and wish her the best."

[Commentary] When President Donald Trump attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a tweet July 25 for not aggressively investigating Hillary Clinton, most attention focused, understandably, on the implications for Sessions. Yet even more alarming than the president’s assault on his own attorney general is President Trump’s return to the “lock her up” theme of his 2016 campaign.

Members of Congress who are, properly, investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 race have not questioned President Trump’s legitimacy. Hillary Clinton herself graciously conceded. The FBI thoroughly investigated her e-mail practices and found no basis to prosecute. Yet President Trump now attacks Sessions for taking “a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes,” implying that a politically inspired re-investigation might help the attorney general keep his job. It is disgusting. What’s at stake is much more than the careers of any particular attorney general or special counsel. The United States has been a role model for the world, and a source of pride for Americans, because it has strived to implement the law fairly. When he attacks that process and seeks revenge on his opponents, President Trump betrays bedrock American values. It’s crucial that other political leaders say so.

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned after denouncing chaos in the West Wing and telling President Donald Trump he vehemently disagreed with the appointment of the New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director.

After offering Scaramucci the communications job, President Trump asked Spicer to stay on as press secretary. But Spicer told President Trump that he believed the appointment of Scaramucci was a major mistake and said he was resigning, according to a person with direct knowledge of the exchange. In one of his first official acts, Mr. Scaracmucci, who founded the global investment firm SkyBridge Capital and is a Fox News contributor, joined Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Spicer’s chief deputy, in the White House briefing room and announced that she would succeed Spicer as press secretary. The resignation is a serious blow to the embattled White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, the former Republican Party chairman who brought Spicer into the West Wing despite skepticism from President Trump, who initially questioned his loyalty. Scaramucci described his relationship with Priebus as brotherly where they “rough each other up.” He called Priebus a “good friend.” Senior officials, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Spicer’s top deputy, were said to be stunned by the sudden shuffle.

Federal Trade Commission Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen announced that she has selected D. Bruce Hoffman, a partner at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling LLP, to be the Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, effective August 7, 2017. Hoffman is Global Co-Head of Shearman & Sterling’s Antitrust Group, focusing on antitrust and unfair competition, including merger reviews, government investigations, and private and government antitrust litigation. Previously, he led the global competition practice at Hunton & Williams, representing clients in the supermarket, funeral, and music industries, among others. Hoffman earned a B.A. from Penn State University and a J.D. from the University of Florida, College of Law. He served on the Florida Law Review and was the recipient of the W.D. McDonald Prize for graduating first in his law school class.

Acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen has appointed Neil Alan Chilson as the agency’s acting Chief Technologist. Chilson will be primarily responsible for advising Acting Chairman Ohlhausen and the Commission on technology matters, including the FTC’s use of technology, technical aspects of law enforcement actions, and technology policy recommendations. His portfolio will also include managing the FTC’s effort to better understand informational harms.

Chilson was previously an Attorney Advisor in the Acting Chairman’s office, serving as the Chairman’s principal advisor on technology, privacy, and data security matters. Previously, he was an attorney at the law firm of Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, where he handled a wide variety of telecommunications and privacy matters. He received his law degree from the George Washington University Law School, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Harding University.

In advance of July 19's Federal Communications Commission nominations hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee, the Consumer Technology Association was calling for a swift vote for confirmation. And the nominees are: Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel for a return engagement, FCC general counsel Brendan Carr for the open Republican seat, and FCC chairman Ajit Pai—he is being renominated given that his term expired at the end of June. Currently the FCC is down to three commissioners, effectively the minimum to get anything done.

[Commentary] I am excited to embark on the most rewarding work of my career at The United States Digital Service. The USDS is a startup at The White House, using design and technology to deliver better services to the American people. My first project will be helping to untangle, simplify and successfully deliver an improved user experience for veterans on Vets.gov.

“The Vets.gov team is creating a single place for veterans to discover, apply for, track, and manage their benefits online. We are designing with users every step of the way, collaborating with dedicated civil servants, and building the most heavily used and needed services first. As functionality expands and traffic grows, we aim to deliver the best digital experience possible to those who have served our country."

[Randall Weidburg previously worked at Groupon]

The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) Board of Directors announced the recipients of NATOA’s 2017 Community Broadband Awards. Since 2007, NATOA has been recognizing exceptional leaders and innovative programs that champion community interests in broadband deployment and adoption in local communities nationwide. Recipients will receive their awards at NATOA’s 37th Annual Conference, to be held in Seattle (WA) from September 11 – 14 at the Grand Hyatt Seattle.

The 2017 Community Broadband Award recipients are:
Community Broadband Hero of the Year: Danna MacKenzie, Executive Director, State of Minnesota Office of Broadband Development
Community Broadband Project of the Year: Longmont Power & Communications, Longmont, CO
Community Broadband Strategic Plan of the Year: Seattle, WA “Strategic Plan for Facilitating Equitable Access to Wireless Broadband”
Community Broadband Digital Equity Project of the Year: Seattle, WA “Technology Matching Fund”
Community Broadband Innovative Partnership of the Year: Garrett County, MD & Declaration Networks Group, Inc.

Actions by President Trump and his administration have created a historic ethics crisis, the departing head of the Office of Government Ethics said. He called for major changes in federal law to expand the power and reach of the oversight office and combat the threat. Walter M. Shaub Jr., who is resigning as the federal government’s top ethics watchdog on July 18, said the Trump administration had flouted or directly challenged long-accepted norms in a way that threatened to undermine the United States’ ethical standards, which have been admired around the world.

“It’s hard for the United States to pursue international anticorruption and ethics initiatives when we’re not even keeping our own side of the street clean. It affects our credibility,” Shaub said in a two-hour interview this past weekend — a weekend Mr. Trump let the world know he was spending at a family-owned golf club that was being paid to host the U.S. Women’s Open tournament. “I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point.” Shaub called for nearly a dozen legal changes to strengthen the federal ethics system: changes that, in many cases, he had not considered necessary before Mr. Trump’s election. Every other president since the 1970s, Republican or Democrat, worked closely with the ethics office, he said.

Rep Ro Khanna (D-CA) is starting a new caucus for members who have sworn off contributions from political action committees (PACs) or lobbyists.

The caucus, called the NO PAC Caucus, is “designed to encourage members of Congress to voluntarily not accept PAC money and to push for legislation that ultimately bans PAC money from Congress,” Rep Khanna said. The caucus has just two other members so far — Reps. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) and Jared Polis (D-CO) — but Rep Khanna is recruiting Republicans and Democrats, including Reps. Phil Roe (R-TN), Francis Rooney (R-FL) and John Sarbanes (D-MD), to give the caucus bipartisan bona fides. Both President Donald Trump and Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) campaigned on reducing the influence of special interests in Washington, Rep Khanna noted. “I think this is bipartisan,” he said.