Overnight Tech: Uber CEO taking leave of absence | Senators unveil goals for driverless car bill | Court strikes down FCC prison phone caps | Verizon closes Yahoo deal

by Harper Neidig and Ali Breland - 06/13/17 6:38 PM ET

STEPPING AWAY: Travis Kalanick will be taking an indefinite leave of absence from his post as CEO of Uber, he told employees in an email Tuesday.

“For the last eight years my life has always been about Uber,” Kalanick wrote in the email, which was sent to reporters by a spokeswoman.

“Recent events have brought home for me that people are more important than work, and that I need to take some time off of the day-to-day to grieve my mother, whom I buried on Friday, to reflect, to work on myself, and to focus on building out a world-class leadership team.

Kalanick’s decision to step aside comes as the company undergoes massive changes and amid reports that Uber’s board was considering suspending the embattled CEO.

{mosads}The company is struggling to deal with allegations of widespread sexual harassment — one of a number of controversies and missteps that have dogged the company in recent months. The turmoil has led to the departures of several top executives. At the moment, Uber has no chief operating officer, chief business officer, chief financial officer, chief marketing officer or senior vice president of engineering.

On Tuesday, Uber released a list of recommendations from former Attorney General Eric Holder and Tammy Albarrán, an attorney, who were called in to investigate the workplace culture after the harassment allegations became public.

The board voted unanimously on Sunday to adopt all of the recommendations in Holder and Albarrán’s report to improve the workplace environment.

Read more here.

Adding to the company’s woes, an Uber board member also joked that women talk too much — during a meeting on sexism. Read more on that here.

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SENATORS OUTLINE DRIVERLESS CAR LEGISLATION: A bipartisan group of senators outlined a broad sketch of their highly anticipated driverless car legislation on Tuesday as Congress looks to speed up the deployment of autonomous vehicles.

The package from Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the panel’s ranking member; and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) could “become the first ever changes in federal law” governing self-driving cars, Thune said in a statement.

Their bill will aim to prioritize safety, reduce roadblocks, remain tech neutral, strengthen cybersecurity, reinforce separate federal and state roles and better educate the public about the emerging technology, according to lawmakers.

Read more here.

USAID GETS A+ ON IT REPORT CARD: Federal agencies averaged a “B” grade in information technology procurement in their latest report cards, with one agency being the first to score an “A.”

The fourth version of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard dropped Tuesday morning, with the B average the same as in the last report, six months ago.

FITARA uses an evolving set of gradable criteria to evaluate progress in information technology investments. Grades come out twice a year and are meant to keep agencies focused on IT targets.

In the latest report card, the United States Agency for International Development scored the first ever A-range grade — an A-plus. Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency and the General Services Administration all scored in the B range. Defense received the only F.

Read more here.

FEDERAL COURT STRIKES DOWN PRISON PHONE CAPS: A federal court has partially struck down a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule that capped the rates for inmate phone calls.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said in 2-1 decision that the FCC overstepped its authority by trying to set limits on intrastate phone call rates. The court, though, found that an FCC rule capping interstate rates is permissible.

The rule was passed in 2015, when Democrats held the majority at the FCC. Prison phone service providers later sued to block the rule from going into place, and after Republican Ajit Pai took over as chairman this year, the agency mostly dropped its defense against the lawsuit.

Read more here.

VERIZON-YAHOO DEAL GOES THROUGH; MAYER RESIGNS: Verizon completed its $4.48 billion purchase of Yahoo on Tuesday, and Marissa Mayer, the website’s CEO, resigned. Verizon will be combining its portions of the Yahoo business with its AOL subsidiary to create a new entity called Oath.

Oath will comprise the Huffington Post, Yahoo Sports, AOL, Tumblr, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail and other brands. The remainder of the Yahoo business will be rebranded as Altaba.

Former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong will head the new subsidiary.

Read more here.

TUESDAY PROFILE – CHIP PICKERING: In a Capitol Hilton ballroom last week, Chip Pickering, CEO of the telecommunications trade group Incompas and a former GOP congressman from Mississippi, argued on an economic conference panel that Republicans deserve credit for the competitive nature of the tech world.

“If you look historically — 1984, who broke up AT&T? It was Ronald Reagan,” Pickering said. “If you look at the current open internet policy that was just adopted by the last [Federal Communications Commission] chairman — who gave him the blueprint to do so? [Supreme Court] Justice [Antonin] Scalia.”

These days, it’s uncommon to see a Republican arguing in favor of the FCC’s open internet rules, more commonly known as net neutrality, a set of regulations passed during the Obama administration that are now on the chopping block in the new Republican-controlled FCC.

Read more here.

ON TAP:

George Washington University Law School will hold an event on self-driving cars at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on self-driving cars at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

The App Association is hosting a lunch briefing on patent reform at noon on Wednesday.

The Brookings Institution will hold a discussion on “internet freedom” during the Trump administration at 2:00 p.m.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

COVFEFE Act would classy social media as part of presidential record

Supreme Court to examine legality of patent reviews

Groups urge White House to keep ‘International Entrepreneur Rule’

From The New York Times, here are Holder’s recommendations for Uber

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