Fresh off its six-figure fundraising total supporting last week’s victory by President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Sen. Kamala Harris, GovTech4Biden is moving on to its next mission of providing government technology policy inputs to the Biden-Harris transition team and the incoming Congress.
Created this summer by Washington-area government technology veterans, GovTech4Biden raised over $100,000 for the winning campaign by attracting a diverse set of members under the banner that Biden “is the best candidate to take our nation forward.”
The 150-strong group supports “pragmatic innovation” centered on modernizing government IT to improve citizen service, and generating strong returns on taxpayer investments.
GovTech4Biden fundraisers this year featured many of the leading voices in Congress on IT issues, including House Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Gerry Connolly, D-Va.; Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., and Sens. Jackie Rosen, D-Nev., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. In addition, the group hosted an interactive dialogue session with leaders from the New Democrat Coalition – Reps. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., Suzan BelBene, D-Wash., Darren Soto, D-Fla., and Haley Stevens, D-Mich.
With the election won, GovTech4Biden is executing on its next task – making sure that the government technology community has a voice at the table in the Biden-Harris administration.
GovTech4Biden will review its journey to date and future direction in supporting the Biden-Harris tech policy agenda during a complimentary webinar on Tuesday, November 24, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. ET.
MeriTalk founder Steve O’Keeffe – a driving force behind the establishment of GovTech4Biden – said “We came together as a community with a common purpose and embarked on an exciting, and, at times scary, journey to support American values. We jumped in the foxhole with many Congressional leaders to raise money for the campaign – and we listened hard to them.”
“Our legislators and appropriators have a huge appetite for innovation and practical changes to modernize our government tech infrastructure – we just need to communicate in a language that resonates with America,” O’Keeffe said. “It’s about the economy, healthcare, jobs – it’s about improving outcomes for America, not cloud and data centers. GovTech4Biden is excited to work with the new administration to provide input on America’s tech agenda for tomorrow.”
“We wanted to come together for a common purpose to make a difference, and we did that with a platform that helped advance the conversation around how technology can be an instrument of change,” said former government executive Darryl Peek. “GovTech4Biden provides a way to focus on improving the condition of the nation through technology, and aligning with good leadership to deliver mission outcomes.”
“It’s great to hear from industry leaders, CIOs, and CISOs, as part of a group that has been very involved in security and IT infrastructure modernization,” said Barbara Ellen Bridges, a trusted business developer who has worked across the gamut of the Federal IT private sector. “There is true excitement about taking that experience, supporting the whole transition, and understanding what’s really going to move the country and a positive agenda forward.”
“I wanted to do engage more actively for this extraordinarily consequential election, and GovTech4Biden is a good way to direct my energy in that regard,” said Mike Miller, VP of Federal Sales at Veeam Software. “I got engaged with this group because it includes a lot of people that I know and trust, and who have the same concerns about the current administration’s approach to the people and institutions that make up the government technology community. I thought it was important to join a group like GovTech4Biden and be as active as I can, and have found it to be really rewarding from that standpoint.”
Tune into the webinar on Tuesday, November 24, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. ET to learn more about GovTech4Biden and discuss America’s tech agenda for tomorrow.
