Biden Sees Big Tech Role in US Recovery, Next NEC Chief Tells CES

Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council for the incoming Biden administration, said at the virtual CES 2021 Tuesday the tech sector will play a role in the recovery of the U.S. economy, hit hard by the pandemic. Deese was interviewed by CTA President Gary Shapiro and was the first official from the new administration to speak at CES.

“The vaccine itself is actually a testament to American innovation, to technology and to partnership between public and private sector,” Deese said. “We have a unique opportunity to restore science to our basic decision-making.” The role of the NEC “is particularly important at moments of economic crisis, where making decisions with the right information, but at the right time, in the right cadence, is really important,” he said.

President-elect Joe Biden emphasized helping schools reopen safely, which is “incredibly important to our economy,” Deese said: “That’s a place where broadband … is absolutely essential.” Biden wants to build an economy “with more resilience” than the one before the pandemic, he said.

The tech industry faces additional regulation, Shapiro said. “We’re not against regulation, … but we’re very concerned about the impact on competitiveness and innovation.”

Biden is focused on the economy and investing “to build our competitive strength,” Deese replied. “We have, in a lot of different areas, underinvested and under-resourced our own domestic capabilities.” Biden plans investments in R&D and manufacturing, he said. The president-elect identified places where “our regulatory architecture doesn’t capture the needs of the economy” and will work with Congress, he said.

The new administration will focus on the trade balance with China, but Deese wasn’t ready to offer specifics. “China is our most serious global competitor, and this competition is going to be one of the central challenges of this century,” he said. The U.S. needs to “rebuild its core areas of strength” to compete with China, he said. “Our allies will become our allies again?” Shapiro asked. “That’s certainly the goal,” Deese said.

“The business community is looking toward a little more steadiness and predictability rather than waking up and reading a Twitter feed and seeing how your business life has to change,” Shapiro said. Industry doesn’t like “short notices, tariffs the next week,” he said.

The Trump administration “pretty much followed” what Barack Obama did in tech areas including artificial intelligence, drones and self-driving cars, Shapiro said. Trump was effective in creating jobs, he said, and his administration “really focused on skills and workforce and jobs and had companies stepping up and committing to train workers.”

Biden will focus on training workers who lack college degrees, Deese said. There are now “big geographic differences in economic opportunity and mobility” because of the lack of training, he said. Biden “is very focused” on a “significant increase in the number of apprenticeships,” he said. Community colleges have to be “strengthened,” and education has to be affordable, he said.