President Obama's final bill is aimed at bringing tech to DC
The Presidential Innovation Fellows program is now permanent.
The last bill President Barack Obama signed before leaving the Oval Office for good establishes a permanent pathway for technology innovators and entrepreneurs to work with the federal government across a variety of industries. The Presidential Innovation Fellows program was introduced as part of a bipartisan effort in 2012, and Obama's final signature makes it permanent.
PIF pairs top technologists with government employees and programs to address issues like transparency, public access to digital health records, technology education in K-12 schools and employing veterans. Fellows, as the tech savvy folks are called, serve for between 6 and 24 months.
Notable past PIF fellows include GarageBand CEO Patrick Koppula, Weather Underground founder Alan Steremberg, Shutterstock president and CFO Adam Riggs and Boston Children's Hospital director of digital innovation Alexandra Pelletier.
"By signing this bipartisan bill into law, President Obama took an important step toward ensuring that the federal government continues to strengthen its collaborative efforts with innovators and entrepreneurs while improving efficiency and accountability," Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) says in a press release. "The Presidential Innovation Fellows Program is a unique and effective way to engage civil servants and technologists to work together in public service for the good of the American people."
This morning, Donald Trump was sworn into the presidency, and he has promised to undo a handful of regulations implemented and overseen by Obama in the past eight years. Trump has historically denied the existence of climate change, and minutes after his inauguration, the Trump administration committed to eliminating the Climate Action Plan and Waters of the US rule. Trump had previously vowed to rescind these programs within his first 100 days in office.
Obama has taken a number of steps to ensure his legacy is preserved, including dismantling a registry used to track Muslims in the US and blocking attempts to drill for oil off of the US Continental Shelf.
