(GeekWire Photo Illustration)

When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the oath of office on Wednesday, the new president and vice president will inherit a nation in turmoil. Their administration will be tasked with unifying a deeply divided country, repairing a hobbled economy, reining in the rampant coronavirus, mitigating the existential threat of climate change, and helping Americans access jobs in a rapidly changing workforce.

Despite those unprecedented challenges, tech leaders who work closely with the federal government are looking to 2021 with a healthy dose of optimism.

GeekWire quizzed government affairs leaders at a handful of Washington state’s top technology companies to get their perspective on the year ahead. We asked them about the political trends they’re tracking, the biggest policy issues the tech industry faces, and the shifts underway in the workforce dynamics.

These tech policy leaders largely see partisanship and political division as the biggest obstacles on the path forward, but they are hopeful that the incoming Congress and Biden administration can guide the country toward recovery.

The nitty-gritty issues they’re tracking range from high-profile concerns like online content moderation to wonky, but significant, questions of taxing the digital economy. And each of them believes the pandemic-driven shift to remote and distributed work will have long-term consequences for tech talent.

While data privacy and antitrust regulation of the tech industry will continue to be subjects of debate, several of the policy leaders we spoke with believe those issues are less likely to be prioritized given the challenges the administration faces.

Continue reading for highlights from their responses, and keep up with GeekWire’s ongoing civic coverage here.

What are the key legislative and policy issues that you’ll be watching in the first hundred days at the Biden Administration?

WTIA CEO Michael Schutzler. (WTIA Photo)

As CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association trade group, Michael Schutzler is focused on how the federal government will respond to rapid changes in the workforce. He called Big Tech regulation and other headline-grabbing issues a “rounding error” compared to the “tectonic plate movement, the earthquake underway right now” due to the shift to remote work.

“What does it mean to be a tech hub? That’s gone,” Schutzler said. “That’s a whole definition that’s completely over and the dynamics that are at play right now are going to change forever — really rapidly — where you get your talent, how you deploy your talent, how you train your talent. All of that is just going through a massive reconstruction. I think that actually is dramatically more important than all the other public policy topics combined.”

Microsoft is keeping close tabs on the next administration’s pandemic response, particularly as it applies to equity, the workforce, and broadband internet access.

Fred Humphries, corporate vice president of U.S. government affairs at Microsoft. (Microsoft Photo)

“Even as we grapple with the continuing COVID-19 health crisis, we also need to focus on how we can work together to drive an inclusive economic recovery,” said Fred Humphries, corporate vice president of U.S. government affairs at Microsoft. “Ensuring people have access to the skills they need for the jobs that are being created and addressing the broadband gap will both be key to achieving this recovery.”

Brian Huseman, vice president of public policy for Amazon, also cited broadband access as a key issue, as the company moves toward the launch of Project Kuiper, the constellation of low-orbit satellites that the company says will close the digital divide by expanding access to affordable high-speed internet.

In addition, Amazon is asking Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour, matching its own minimum wage for employees companywide.

“We have begun outreach to President-elect Biden’s transition team and Hill leadership, indicating our desire to help advance this legislative priority next year,” Huseman said. “We are also working to develop partnerships with other major employers who are paying their team members at least $15 an hour to amplify our advocacy efforts, which will include continued lobbying and a national advertising campaign.”

Zillow Group, naturally, is focused on how the Biden administration will contend with housing shortages across the country.

“A lot of people are looking for a new place to move or relocating because of COVID, so the housing market by and large has been strong but clearly there are a lot of people out there who are struggling,” said Ken Wingert, head of federal government relations for the Seattle-based real estate tech company.

“One of the main things we’ll be watching and engaging with early on is efforts to help renters, especially, but also homeowners who are struggling because of the economic fallout from the pandemic.”

What are some of the biggest tech policy issues facing the country as Joe Biden takes office?

An outstanding question for several of the executives is whether the federal government will pick up the mantle of online content moderation, a focus of the previous administration. For varying reasons, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for the repeal or modification of Section 230, a law that shields internet companies from liability for content their users post.

“Content moderation is probably the hottest topic right now, which is more focused on the social media side of things but it does impact Zillow,” he said. “If people debate the pros and cons of changing Section 230, there’s a lot more to the debate than just political speech and what’s going on right now in the social media sphere.

Despite concerns about Section 230 from both Democrats and Republicans, policy leaders and experts tend to agree that online content moderation won’t be a high priority for the Biden administration when compared with the pandemic and other more pressing issues.

Scott Peterson, Avalara’s director of government affairs. (Avalara Photo)

Scott Peterson, director of government affairs at the tax automation company Avalara, has his eyes on a lesser-known tech issue facing the federal government. Taxes on digital services and online advertising are becoming more popular around the world as governments seek to benefit from the wealth generated by the tech industry. In the U.S., several states are pursuing similar taxes, which Peterson says could be a headache for tech companies to comply with.

“It’s easy to do at a national level,” he said. “It’s harder to do at a state level and it’s just going to be part of the challenge that the administration has as they negotiate with countries around the world that want to tax a portion of the digital advertising that’s being earned from consumers in their countries, given federal government taxes. The U.S. income tax structure is different and this has been a long-standing dilemma for folks that are in the tax treaty business.”

After four years of environmental deregulation and policies supporting the fossil fuel industry, several of the executives are eager for the new administration to partner with tech in response to the climate crisis.

“COVID-19 was an issue of the year; the climate crisis is the urgent issue of the decade,” said Microsoft’s Humphries. ” Avoiding a climate catastrophe will take aggressive approaches, new technology that doesn’t exist today, and innovative public policy.”

Brian Huseman, vice president of public policy for Amazon. (Amazon Photo)

Microsoft and Amazon have each launched separate climate initiatives in recent years.

“Climate change is serious and action is needed from public and private sectors,” Amazon’s Huseman said. “We’ve pledged to be net carbon zero by 2040 and will push for more ambitious federal climate policy while we work with government partners on climate solutions.”

WTIA’s Schutzler agreed that climate change will “require a tremendous amount of collaboration on many different disciplines using technology.”

“Technology’s going to be a critical partner for real-world solutions that are going to work,” he said.

If you could change one thing about the political process, what would it be and why?

The tech lobbyists interviewed for this story want to see lawmakers prioritize legislating over notching political victories.

Avalara’s Peterson would change the process by which Congress considers new laws so that “if a piece of legislation gets introduced, there’s a hearing.”

“People get to come in and talk about it, the proponents have to defend what they want to do,” he said. “Today so much of the stuff that gets introduced is just done for political reasons because they know there will never be hearing on it. They just introduce it, they make a copy of it, they send it to their constituent who wanted it and it’s all good. If you had to get up in a public forum and defend something that’s completely different than the norm, you might be more inclined to be less outside the norm.”

Schutzler, of the WTIA, would like to see a less combative approach from Congressional leadership.

“We live in a world in which both sides have very strong leadership positions that believe that winning isn’t enough,” he said. “The other side has to lose.”

“If I could flip a switch, I would get our political leaders to believe in collaboration and building a future rather than fighting for political wins,” Schutzler added.

Zillow’s Wingert echoed concerns about the hyper-partisan state of federal politics.

“It’s the partisanship and the zero-sum side of things that frustrates lawmakers,” he said. “It certainly frustrates those of us who work with them and it certainly frustrates company leaders as well, who want to see some things get done and it’s just really, really tough to move the ball right now.”

This year, how do you expect life to change for workers in the technology industry?

The long-term shift to remote work, sparked by the pandemic, remains a key trend policy leaders are watching.

Ken Wingert, Zillow’s head of federal relations. (Zillow Photo)

“Zillow’s certainly at the forefront of really trying to think about what a distributed workforce looks like, how that works, not only from working with our headquarters and those types of logistical issues, but what it means in terms of recruitment, benefits, just work in general,” said Wingert. “You talk about people having Zoom burnout and things like that. Really making sure that we’re able to have our employees connected because it does look like a lot of workers probably won’t have a vaccine until at least the second half of the year.”

But Peterson expects a return to in-office work sometime this year.

“I still think there’s an awful lot of people who want to work in an office,” he said. “Notwithstanding some of the actions that tech companies have taken to deal with the pandemic, I suspect the majority of people to go back to the office once the world becomes a little safer.”

For the WTIA — which runs an apprenticeship program to train diverse cohorts of students for tech jobs — helping newly unemployed workers enter the technology industry will be a key issue this year.

“We have 20 million people unemployed,” Schutzler said. “Surely, 10% of them are willing and able and ready to be trained to take the couple of million open jobs that are within the tech sector, but our country isn’t set up to do that. Apprenticeship, which we’ve been doing, is a component of that but that’s got to become a major focus for any new administration because that’s how you’re going to solve some of the biggest economic issues that individual families are struggling with in the pandemic.”

Microsoft remains concerned with ensuring that those unemployed Americans have reliable internet to participate in the digital economy.

“Closing the broadband gap remains an urgent and immediate need,” Humphries said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how critical broadband coverage is to daily lives – from schoolwork, work, shopping, and connection with others – but too many Americans don’t have access to it and are being left behind. Funding must be available to ensure that all Americans have access to broadband, services, and devices that are affordable.”

How is the turmoil in Washington D.C. impacting your day-to-day government affairs work, lobbying, and other advocacy?

Several policy leaders we spoke with lamented how lobbying has changed since the outset of the pandemic. They say the inability to catch up with lawmakers and staff in-person has made it much more difficult for tech companies to plead their cases in Congress.

“No longer doing in-person meetings or just hanging out in the hallways or the cafeteria and running into staff, that personal connection that you build with staff and other government relations folks has kind of been lost,” said Zillow’s Wingert. “That’s been the biggest challenge to adjust to.”

As a result, tech companies have become more likely to pool their lobbying resources, according to Peterson.

“It has forced us to rely on others,” he said. “I think it’s going to help build coalitions. It’s easier if you’ve got someone who can be on the ground somewhere, for them to act on behalf of a larger group. I expect associations to become more useful.”

What are you most optimistic about in 2021?

Despite the major challenges that the country faces, tech leaders who work closely with the federal government are optimistic that coronavirus vaccine rollout will usher an era of economic and societal healing.

Previously: Broadband, automation, privacy top tech industry’s priorities for Biden — after controlling pandemic

“I think the economy is going to grow like heck,” said Peterson, noting that many businesses will emerge from the pandemic more resilient because of the creativity it took to survive.

“I’m very optimistic about 2021,” he added. “I think that the vaccine is going to change everything. I think that there’s enough pent-up demand that once we get to even a medium level of folks being vaccinated, that the spending spigot will be turned on.”

“I think there’s a lot of evidence out of the pandemic of 2020, and all the suffering that went along with it last year, that there’s a lot to be hopeful for, both in social and economic terms,” said Schutzler. “We just need focus on the future that we want to build together.”

“I’m also hopeful that despite all the divisions, I think there is still a solid middle in both parties that really do want to come and get some things done,” Wingert said. “Hopefully they’ll be able to work together on some of these bigger issues.”

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