With the nominations of businessmen Wilbur Ross as Commerce secretary and Todd Ricketts as deputy secretary, President-elect Donald Trump is building "a cabinet of winners," transition spokesman Jason Miller said Wednesday. Ross is head of investment firm WL Ross & Co. and formerly head of investment bank Rothschild. He was Trump's economic adviser on trade policy. Rickets is co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. They -- along with Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, who previously was Goldman Sachs chief information officer -- were selected because of their firsthand knowledge of issues like tax codes and trade policies, Miller said. "When we talk about 'the art of the deal,' someone who has made good deals, that's someone like Wilbur Ross," he said. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said Ross "will bring exceptional real-world business experience to the Department of Commerce as part of an administration that emphasizes job creation and the economy. I ... expect the Senate Commerce Committee will expeditiously consider this nomination once the new Congress begins in January. There will be strong support for keeping a successful entrepreneur at the helm of an agency charged with keeping our nation competitive.” Thune also issued a statement backing Trump's nomination of Elaine Chao -- who was Labor secretary under President George W. Bush and deputy Transportation secretary under President George H.W. Bush -- as Transportation secretary. "Chao has a distinguished record of serving the nation, and has already shown she can work effectively with members on both sides of the aisle," Thune said. "Her leadership will benefit the Department of Transportation in guiding investment in our infrastructure and making transportation safer and better for the public.”

A coalition of 17 technology trade groups, including CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association, is urging President-elect Donald Trump to advance policies that nurture economic growth and innovation. In a Wednesday news release, the coalition said it asked Trump to invest in technology infrastructure that could boost competition internationally and change the tax code and other data-related laws and rules to boost investment and jobs in the U.S. The coalition said "a critical early step" is to identify the right people for key positions in the administration to help drive innovation and investment and has developed recommendations for the transition team. Other members are ACT | The App Association, BSA | The Software Alliance, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and TechNet.

The transition team for President-elect Donald Trump added members Monday to its landing teams for the departments of Commerce and Justice. Ideagen CEO George Sifakis is a member of the Commerce group, and Hunton & Williams Managing Partner David Higbee is joining Justice’s. Higbee is "Vice-Chair of the firm’s Global Competition practice, based in Washington, DC, and works regularly on matters before the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice,” his firm’s website says. “David previously served at the Department of Justice as Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Chief of Staff of the Antitrust Division.”

Artificial intelligence, its policy implications and impact on commerce will be the focus of a Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness hearing Wednesday. Witnesses listed are Steve Chien, senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology; OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Greg Brockman; Andrew Futreal, professor at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research Lab managing director; and Andrew Moore, dean of Carnegie Mellon University's computer sciences school. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, chairs the subcommittee. The 2:30 p.m. hearing will be in 253 Russell.

Niantic CEO John Hanke, whose company's popular augmented reality game Pokemon Go sparked privacy and safety concerns (see 1607150014 and 1607250009), is among witnesses scheduled to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday on the new technology. “Stretching far beyond entertainment, augmented reality is starting to be used today for transportation safety, scientific research, communication, and other real-world tasks,” Chairman John Thune, R-S.D, said in a news release. Witnesses are expected to talk about benefits and implications for policymakers. Other witnesses are Gartner Vice President Brian Blau, University of Washington School of Law assistant professor Ryan Calo, augmented reality company Daqri CEO Brian Mullins and Stanley Pierre-Louis, Entertainment Software Association general counsel. The 3 p.m. hearing will be held in 253 Russell.

House Oversight IT Subcommittee Chairman Will Hurd, R-Texas, “has accomplished more in two years than some politicians do in 10,” CTA President Gary Shapiro said in a Medium blog post over the weekend, arguing that Hurd deserves re-election to his 23rd District House seat. He is facing Pete Gallego, a former Democratic House lawmaker, in a race that’s seen as especially tight, ranked as a toss-up by RealClearPolitics. “Hurd fights for issues that help keep us safe, such as promoting the role of encryption in cybersecurity and streamlining government technology,” Shapiro said. “He has urged the federal government to migrate to the cloud, a move he says will cut costs and improve data security.” Hurd has also eyed the policies surrounding StingRays, also known as cell site simulators (see 1510210060).

Dish Network is predicting Hillary Clinton will win the presidency and the House will remain in GOP hands. In a news release Monday, Dish pointed to its predictive model, based on customer viewership data from Internet-connected set-top boxes. Dish said the model used the relationship between programs Dish customers watched in 2014 with the state-by-state outcomes of the 2014 House elections as well as the relationship between House party control and presidential party affiliation historically, and that, when tested against 2014 House elections, called results at a 98 percent reliability point. The company said its modeling showed Republicans taking 245 of the 435 House seats, giving Democrats a two-seat gain.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., wants Lyft and Uber to weigh in on a new study that said minorities and women who use such services wait longer to be accepted by drivers and face other discriminatory practices. Franken said in a news release Wednesday that he sent a letter to Lyft CEO Logan Green and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, asking them to explain how they fight such practices. The companies have antidiscrimination policies and their apps "offer consumers relief from discrimination and destination bias," but Franken said the companies must "ensure technology does not give cover to bias, whether intentional or unconscious." Rachel Holt, Uber's head of North American operations, said in a statement these apps make it easier for people to move about regardless of their location. "Discrimination has no place in society, and no place on Uber," she said. "Uber is helping reduce transportation inequities across the board, but studies like this one are helpful in thinking about how we can do even more.” A Lyft spokesman said it has provided better transportation alternatives to underserved areas and welcomes a discussion on its impact "on communities of color. ... We intend to use this opportunity to jump-start a dialogue within the Lyft community on these issues. Inclusivity has always been a core part of who we are, and we condemn discrimination in any form."

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a former CTA chairman active on tech policy who faces a tough re-election campaign. Issa, a Trump backer, “is a very good man,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “Help him win his congressional seat in California.” RealClearPolitics judges the 49th District seat a tossup. Issa’s campaign website touts his tech interests and role in the Sharing Economy and IoT caucuses and the House encryption working group, where he and colleagues “are busy crafting policies to help U.S. companies so that can make secure technologies protect our privacy in a digital age,” Issa said. “Before coming to Capitol Hill, I was in the electronics industry and saw first-hand the importance of supporting America’s innovators. In Congress, I have fought hard for policies that encourage growth in the digital economy and strive to educate my colleagues on the importance of supporting our new economy.” Issa chairs the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet. His Democratic opponent is Doug Applegate.

More than 2,000 members of The Recording Academy met Wednesday with members of Congress from 315 districts and their aides, the group said. House Judiciary IP Subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., tweeted that he was among the lawmakers academy members met with. The meetings were aimed at lobbying on the group's policy agenda, including backing the language included in the Fair Play Fair Pay Act (HR-1733). The organization originally backed HR-1733 when Nadler introduced it in 2015 (see 1504100044). The bill would require most terrestrial radio stations to begin paying performance royalties and would require digital broadcasters to begin paying royalties for pre-1972 sound recordings. The Recording Academy's members backed a revamp of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music Inc. consent decrees, which received renewed attention after the DOJ Antitrust Division's conclusion to its review of the decrees (see 1608040066). The group said its members also lobbied in favor of copyright protections for music producers and engineers.