| Senate to Take Up Export
Bill After Recess |
8/1. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) said
in the Senate that he anticipates that S
149, the Export Administration Act of 2001,
sponsored by Sen. Mike Enzi
(R-WY) will be brought up on September 4, and if necessary,
cloture will be filed September 7. The bill would modernize
export control laws. It would ease restraints on most dual use
products, such as computers and software, but increase
penalties for violations. The Senate Banking Committee passed
the bill in March with only one negative vote. The Bush
administration supports it. The bill is opposed by a small
group of Senators who assert that it would harm national
security.
Sen. Enzi released a statement in which he said that
"This bill has such strong bipartisan support, it's a
shame that it has taken this long to work through. I'm
confident we'll have the bill passed quickly. Quick passage of
this bill is in fact what President Bush has called for. The
country needs this bill to enhance both our security and
economic interests." |
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| New Bills |
7/31. Rep. Tom
Davis (R-VA) and Rep.
Jim Moran (D-VA) introduced HR 2678, a bill to create an
exchange program between the federal government and the
private sector to develop expertise in information technology
management. The bill was referred to the House Committee on
Government Reform. See also, statement
by Rep. Davis.
7/31. Sen. Tom Harkin
(D-IA) introduced S 1273, which is titled the "Improving
Health Care in Rural America Act.' It would amend the Public
Health Service Act to provide for rural health services
outreach, rural health network planning and implementation,
and small health care provider quality improvement grant
programs, and telehomecare demonstration projects. It
was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions.
7/31. Sen. Tim Johnson
(D-SD) introduced S 1283, a bill to establish a program for
the delivery of mental health services by telehealth.
It was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions. |
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| More News |
8/1. The House
Education Committee amended and approved HR
1992, the Internet Equity and Education Act of 2001,
sponsored by Rep.
Johnny Isakson (R-GA). The bill would make it easier to
obtain federal financial aid for web based education programs.
8/1. The Progressive
Policy Institute, a Democratic think tank, released a report
titled "Adopting P3P for Congressional Web Sites: A
How-To Guide." It states that "By adopting P3P
policies on their own web sites, Members send a signal to both
commercial and government web site operators that P3P is here
to stay, and that it is an important part of the debate on
Internet privacy." The problem, write authors Shane Ham
and Ari Schwartz, is a "chicken or egg" issue:
"Web site operators will not go through the effort of
adopting P3P if Internet users are not using P3P software. On
the other hand, if no web sites are P3P compliant, Internet
users will either ignore privacy warnings or disable the P3P
function altogether."
8/1. The National
Telecommunications and Information Administration's
Spectrum Planning Subcommittee released its Federal
Long-Range Spectrum Plan.
8/1. The FBI's National
Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) issued a release
at 11:30 AM EDT on August 1 on the status of the Code Red
worm. It stated: "Based on preliminary analysis, we
expect a level of worm activity comparable to the July 19th
Code Red infection, which resulted in infection of over
250,000 systems. It should achieve that level of activity by
this afternoon." |
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| Internet Tax Legislation |
8/1. The Senate
Finance Committee held a hearing on whether to extend the
existing Internet tax moratorium, and whether to allow
state and local governments to impose sales taxes on remote
sellers, including Internet retailers. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT),
Chairman of the Committee, said in his opening
statement [PDF] that "I, frankly, have not made up my
mind yet on what is the best way to proceed." The
existing moratorium expires this fall. See also, opening
statement [PDF] by Sen.
Charles Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican.
See also, prepared statements in PDF by Tom
Woodward (Congressional Budget Office), Frank
Shafroth (National Governors Association), David
Bullington (Wal-Mart), Frank
Julian (Federated Department Stores), Michael
Grieve (American Enterprise Institute), Steven
Rauschenberger (National Conference of State
Legislatures), and Jeff
Friedman (KPMG).
8/1. The House
Judiciary Committee's Commercial and Administrative Law
Subcommittee scheduled a meeting to mark up either HR
1552 or HR
1675 at 2:00 PM on August 2. Both bills are titled the Internet
Tax Nondiscrimination Act. Each would extend the current
moratorium on multiple and discriminatory Internet taxes, and
taxes on Internet access. The Subcommittee has not scheduled
for mark up other bills pertaining to authorizing states to
tax remote sellers, and business activity taxes. |
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| People and Appointments |
8/1. The Senate confirmed Rep. Asa Hutchinson
(R-AR) to be Director of the Drug
Enforcement Administration.
8/1. The Senate
Banking Committee approved by voice votes the nominations
of Michael Garcia to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce
for Export Enforcement, Henrietta Fore to be Director
of the Mint, and Linda Conlin to be an Assistant
Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development.
8/1. President Bush nominated Paul McNulty to be U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which includes
tech heavy northern Virginia. He is a Deputy Associate
Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. Previously
he was Chief Counsel and Director of Legislative Operations
for House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX). Before that,
McNulty held several posts at the House Judiciary Committee,
including spokesman and Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on
Crime. And before that, he worked in the Justice Department
during the administration of the elder Bush. He has also
worked at the law firm of Shaw Pittman. See, WH
release.
7/31. The Senate confirmed Zig Ziglar to be
Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization.
8/1. The Senate
Commerce Committee held a hearing on several pending
nominations, including that of Nancy Victory to be head
of the NTIA. She
encountered no opposition or criticism. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
announced that the full Committee will vote on her nomination
at its August 2 mark up meeting. |
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| Thursday, August 2 |
10:30 AM. Reps. Richard Neal (D-MA), Tom Davis (R-VA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA),
and Jerry Weller
(R-IL) will hold a press conference to announce the
introduction of legislation to reform the Alternative Minimum
Tax (AMT) treatment of Incentive Stock Options (ISOs).
Location: House Triangle (outside of the east entrance of the
House Chamber).
2:00 PM. The House
Judiciary Committee's Commercial and Administrative Law
Subcommittee will meet to mark up either HR
1552 or HR
1675, both titled the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination
Act. Each would extend the current moratorium on multiple
or discriminatory Internet taxes, and taxes on Internet
access. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building. |
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| Friday, August 3 |
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Day one of a two day conference titled
"6th Annual Independent Inventor's Conference." The
conference its hosted by U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Office of
Independent Inventor Programs (OIIP). See, USPTO
notice. Location: The DoubleTree Hotel, 300 Army Navy
Drive, Arlington, Virginia.
9:30 AM. The Senate
Commerce Committee will hold a business meeting. The
agenda includes markup of several bills, and votes on pending
nominations, including that of Nancy Victory to be head
of the NTIA. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.
9:30 AM. The House
Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations will hold a hearing for titled "How Secure
is Sensitive Commerce Department Data and Operations? A Review
of the Department's Computer Security Policies and
Practices." The scheduled witnesses are: Robert Dacey (Director, Information
Security Issues, GAO), Johnnie
Frazier (Inspector General, Commerce Dept.), Samuel Bodman (Deputy Secretary,
Commerce Dept.), Thomas Pyke (Acting CIO, Commerce Dept.). Location:
Room 2123, Rayburn Building.
Deadline to file comments with the FCC in its Notice of
Inquiry (NOI) regarding video competition. On June 20, 2001
the FCC adopted a NOI into the status of competition in the
market for the delivery of video programming. The FCC stated
in a release
that "The NOI seeks information that will allow the FCC
to evaluate the status of competition in the video
marketplace, prospects for new entrants to that market, and
its effect on the cable television industry and consumers. The
NOI also solicits information regarding the extent to which
consumers have choices among video programming distributors
and delivery technologies." Reply comments are due by
September 5. See, CS Docket No. 01-129. |
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| Wershba v. Apple |
| 8/1. The California
Court of Appeal (6th) issued its opinion
[PDF] in Wershba
v. Apple Computer, an appeal of the settlement
of one of the three class action lawsuits brought against Apple Computer in connection
with its withdrawal of free technical support in 1997. The
Court of Appeal affirmed. |
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