Pelosi, Hatch to host Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg

Two senior lawmakers will host their colleagues at meetings with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg this week.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is hosting Sandberg at a meeting on Thursday afternoon with members involved in the Democrats’ Innovation Agenda 2.0 initiative. An invitation obtained by The Hill says Sandberg will discuss Facebook’s recent developments and the benefits of connecting more people to the internet.

{mosads}The Innovation Agenda 2.0 project launched in January and is aimed at moving policy proposals meant to encourage innovation in the tech sector. The initiative includes events around the country featuring lawmakers and stakeholders from outside Congress.

The roughly 30 Democrats who have hosted events associated with the project in their districts were invited to the meeting, according to a representative for Pelosi.

Sandberg won’t favor one side of the aisle during her trip: She’s meeting with Republican senators on Wednesday.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who chairs the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, said on Tuesday that Sandberg will also meet with upper chamber Republicans to talk tech.

“Republican Senators will have the opportunity to discuss many of the issues confronting the technology industry, including: privacy, high-skilled immigration, intellectual property protections, cross-border data flows, big data, computer science education, and free speech, among others,” his office said in an advisory.

Sandberg has come to Washington in the past on behalf of Facebook and her workplace gender equality advocacy organization LeanIn. She is likely to face questions during this trip about recent allegations that Facebook downplayed news stories and sources popular with conservatives in its Trending Topics feature.

Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) office said that Sandberg would meet with him Thursday.

Scott Wong contributed.

– Updated at 3:51 p.m.