Pelosi Eyes Influence of Big Data, IT in Innovation Agenda 2.0 Development

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., touted big data and IT overhaul as key components involved in the developing of her caucus’ Innovation Agenda 2.0, a revamp of a decade-old policy platform that addresses broadband as one central component. “What’s exciting about it all is, no matter what subject you bring up, whether it’s the distribution of food, the education of our people, our transportation system, democratizing financial services, supporting entrepreneurs in every possible ways, the subject of IT is one of the answers, the subject of big data and how we deal with that is part of the answer,” Pelosi said Friday following a listening session held at tech incubator 1776 in Washington. “So you are all not only part of the answer, you are the future. Any ideas that you have, we want to hear, too.” Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and John Delaney, D-Md., joined Pelosi for the private listening session at 1776 before speaking about the initiative. The session included George Mason University President Angel Cabrera, 1776 co-founder Donna Harris, former White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and Notarize co-founder Adam Pase, an aide told us. “Regulatory flexibility came up again and again,” Beyer said. “Creating safe spaces within regulation so people are allowed to fail and try new things. … The sense was that we would come away from this with a concrete agenda that we could move forward with at a national level with government but also within the private sector in ways that will really transform the economy.” Delaney outlined one priority as figuring out “how the government and the private sector, particularly the entrepreneurial sector” can work together better in the future. Pelosi stressed the importance of listening to the private sector before developing government ideas. “Let’s listen first before we act upon them,” Pelosi said, mentioning how much has changed since the agenda’s first development. “At the time, we didn’t talk about the cloud, there’s so many other things that have happened in that short period of time,” she said. “It’s time for Innovation Agenda 2.0, from listening to the private sector, to the nonprofit sector, how we can work together, public, private, nonprofit.” Several House Democrats have quietly participated in listening sessions around the country in recent months. The initiative is seen as likely to be influential for the future of the caucus’ telecom platform (see 1601260060).