After visiting DC regularly for a number of years for conferences or other programs, it struck me that it might be worthwhile to meet with our federal legislators. I didn’t have an ask or an agenda, and KC Digital Drive does not have a policy portfolio per se. But we do engage with several federal agencies and networks—US Ignite started out of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). We were closely involved with NIST’s Global City Teams Challenge. MetroLab Network was city-focused but with an office and eye on federal policy and politics. And it seemed like this work might be interesting to our congressional leaders.
A few weeks back the KC Tech Council’s DC Fly-in happened to overlap with the Greater KC Chamber’s DC Fly-in. Here are a few reflections from the trip:
Our work on regional innovation-led economic development necessitates a policy perspective—not ours per se, but a way for our partners and stakeholders in that work to better inform organizations who do have policy as part of their core work. The KC Chamber, the Civic Council, the EDC of KCMO, and the KC Tech Council all offer policy agendas that touch the tech innovation and inclusion ecosystem, but we haven’t yet built a good systematic way to inform that. So we’re working on it.
The KCDD team does have a lot of experience in how certain federal programs and policies w
ork and are felt at a community level. Our legislative offices are really interested in that sort of thing, and so—while we aren’t in a position to judge the tradeoffs and decisions that are part of the political process—we can certainly help educate and provide context for decision makers. And we should in order to better serve our partners in the community.
The fly-ins themselves are a little bit funny. You might have 5 or 15 people in a room. Your audience might be with an elected for 15 minutes or a 22-year-old staffer for 45 minutes. The visitors have a wide array of issues, and the office reps have a varying level of interest and expertise. All that said, it is really valuable to hear what other people from our community care about and what info they bring to make their case. It is really great to get the tech industry perspective that KC Tech Council helps bring to the table.
Finally, when I’m preparing to go into a congressional office is one of the few times I realize how many items from a federal legislative or policy standpoint are actually tied closely to our work. We don’t have a marker for our federal grants or a dedicated internal policy list, but here are just some of the issues that either impact our work or where our work offers particular boots-on-the-ground insight:
- BEAD non-deployment funds (and BEAD implementation more broadly)
- USF-reform, especially broadband affordability and an ACP replacement strategy
- Federal research and innovation funding of many types: Tech Hubs, Regional Innovation Engines, Build to Scale, SBIR/STTR
- The TechAccess: AI-Ready America network
- Crypto-related legislation like the Genius Act and Clarity Act
- National health data standards, especially in maternal and child health
- Standards work and global outreach on smart cities and digital rights
This list is fairly specific and ties directly to projects we’re working on; it supplements a longer regional tech policy portfolio that includes state/federal AI regulatory legislation, federal privacy policy, data center development and permitting reform, tech-related immigration policy, and many other elements.
We’re thinking about how to give some local perspective on some of these items, so if you are interested in this sort of info and have any thoughts on how you’d like to receive it, please feel free to share—we’re looking for input.