7/19. The Markle Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report [67 pages in PDF] titled "Achieving Electronic Connectivity in Healthcare: A Preliminary Roadmap from the Nation's Public and Private-Sector Healthcare Leaders". See also, Markle release summarizing the report.

The report states that "the current system is economically inefficient and ... clinically dangerous". It also states that the current systems fails to empower individuals with information technology (IT).

It concludes that "empowering patients through IT will benefit the healthcare system directly by enabling patients to better maintain and improve their own health through informed choices. More informed patients are likely, in the long term, to push for higher quality, evidence-based care that is delivered as economically as possible."

The report contains three main recommendations, which pertain to creating a technical framework for connectivity, addressing financial barriers, and engaging the American public.

First, it recommends that "The creation of a nonproprietary ``network of networks´´ is essential to support the rapid acceleration of electronic connectivity that will enable the flow of information to support patient care. The network should be based on a ``Common Framework´´ of agreements among participants. The network should use a decentralized, federated architecture, that is based on standards, safeguards patient privacy and is built incrementally, without the use of a National Health ID or a centralized database of records."

Second, the report recommends that "The development of financial and other incentives and related processes, such as standards certification, to promote improvements in healthcare quality through the adoption of clinical applications and information exchange based on standards."

Third, it recommends that "Reaching out to the public with a consistent set of messages to be used by government, healthcare, and consumer leaders to promote the benefits of electronic connectivity and to encourage patients and consumers to access their own health information."

On April 27, 2004, President Bush gave a speech in Baltimore, Maryland in which he advocated the use of electronic records in the health care industry. He also issued an executive order regarding "the development and nationwide implementation of an interoperable health information technology infrastructure". See, stories titled "President Bush Advocates Conversion to Electronic Medical Records" and "Bush Addresses Privacy of Electronic Medical Records" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 886, April 28, 2004.

See also, President Bush's speech in Minneapolis, Minnesota April 26, 2004, and story titled "Bush Addresses Broadband Access Taxes, Research and Development, and Conversion to Electronic Medical Records" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 885, April 27, 2004.

There is also legislation pending in the Congress on the conversion to electronic medical records. See, for example, S 2421, the "Health Care Modernization, Cost Reduction, and Quality Improvement Act", introduced by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) on May 13, 2004. See also, story titled "Sen. Kennedy Introduces Health Care Info Tech Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 900, May 18, 2004.

7/19. Moveon.org, Inc. and Common Cause submitted a document [10 pages in PDF] to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that requests that the FTC "institute a complaint against Fox News under section 5 of the Act, for deceptive practices in the advertising and marketing of the programming of Fox News Channel".

The document offers, and relies upon, detailed descriptions and analysis of the political news and editorial content of Fox News. The document also asserts that Fox's use of the phrase "fair and balanced" in connection with its political news and editorial content constitutes marketing to consumers. The document asserts that "fair and balanced" does not accurately portray Fox's political news and editorial content, and that Fox's use of the phrase "fair and balanced" is commercial marketing subject to FTC regulation under the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA).

FTC Chairman Timothy Muris (at right) denigrated the submission. He only rarely comments on submissions to the FTC. However, in this case he promptly issued a public statement. He stated that "I am not aware of any instance in which the Federal Trade Commission has investigated the slogan of a news organization. There is no way to evaluate this petition without evaluating the content of the news at issue. That is a task the First Amendment leaves to the American people, not a government agency."

Moveon.org and Common Cause argue that Fox has violated Section 5(a) of the FTCA, which is codified at 15 U.S.C. § 45. It provides, in relevant part, that "Unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are hereby declared unlawful."

More specifically, Moveon.org and Common Cause argue that they are not asking the FTC to issue a content based prior restraint of protected political speech. They assert that the only speech involved in their request is commercial speech, and that they only seek a restraint of the marketing practices of Fox pursuant to the FTC's authority under the FTCA.

They explain their argument this way. "To be sure, Fox News is free, under the First Amendment, to present news, commentary, entertainment and any other content, on its cable networks, in any way it wishes. It has no obligation whatsoever, under any law, actually to present a ``fair´´ or ``balanced´´ presentation of the news."

They elaborate that "What Fox News is not free to do, however, is to advertise its news programming -- a service it offers to consumers in competition with other networks, both broadcast and cable -- in a manner that is blatantly and grossly false and misleading. Under the Supreme Court's ``commercial speech´´ rulings, the government -- including this agency --may ban forms of advertising that are more likely to deceive the public than to inform it. That is certainly true of Fox News' use of the slogan ``Fair and Balanced.´´ Moreover, any claim by Fox News to First Amendment protection for use of this slogan is further undercut by Fox's efforts to use this slogan to suppress debate and free speech, through its trademark infringement action against the publisher and author of Lies and Lying Liars." See, Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right [Amazon].

Section 5(a) of the FTCA creates no private right of action in the courts. Nor does it create a private right to initiate an administrative proceeding before the FTC. The FTCA confers sole discretion to enforce Section 5(a) of the FTCA upon the FTC. Hence, the document submitted to the FTC by Moveon.org and Common Cause can only request that the FTC initiate a proceeding.

The FTC has no specific grant of authority to regulate the political news, editorial content, or political speech or broadcasters, cable companies, newspapers, or other publishers. Nor has it promulgated any regulations in any of these areas.

Also, any attempt by the FTC to engage in any such regulation would be constrained by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which provides in relevant part, that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ..." The courts have long construed this amendment to constrain administrative agencies.

Moreover, the Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment confers different levels of protection upon different types of speech. For example, child pormography is entitled to no protection, commercial speech entitled to limited protection, political speech is entitled to the highest level of protection.

The Supreme Court has upheld regulatory regimes at other federal agencies that affect free speech rights. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has sectoral regulatory authority with respect to broadcasters. The Courts have upheld various FCC actions that affect speech against First Amendment challenges. See for example, Red Lion v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367 (1969). Although, except in cases involving Janet Jackson's anatomy, Howard Stern, and indecency, the FCC has shown no enthusiasm in recent years for reviewing the content of programming.

Similarly, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has regulatory authority over contributions and spending in federal elections that also limits the free speech rights of certain political participants. The Supreme Court has reviewed and upheld many provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), most recently in McConnell v. FEC (December 10, 2003). However, the FECA and the FEC's implementing regulations contain numerous exemptions for news stories and press entities.

Numerous cases involving the speech clause of the Constitution have been decided by the Supreme Court. Yet very few have been based upon facts similar to those presented by Moveon.org and Common Cause. There have been many cases involving pormographic expression, telemarketing expression, and symbolic expression. There have also been many cases involving regulation of the time place or manner of expression. However, very few of the cases decided by the Supreme Court have involved attempts to impose prior restraints upon political and editorial expression.

Two cases on point are Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931) and New York Times v. U.S., 403 U.S. 713 (1971). Neither of these cases offers any support to Moveon.org and Common Cause. In Near, the Supreme Court held unconstitutional a state injunction that was issued by a state court against a small newspaper. The applicable state statute did not purport to regulate speech. Rather, it purported to be a public nuisance statute regulating malicious, scandalous and defamatory newspapers. That the newspaper at issue was a scandalous rag that often published content with little concern for its veracity was not pertinent to Chief Justice Hughes, who wrote the opinion. It is protected speech, and its critics' remedy is post publication actions for defamation.

In the later case, which is more commonly known as the Pentagon Papers case, the Supreme Court held that the U.S. was not entitled to an injunction of the publication of the Pentagon Papers. While each Justice wrote an opinion, two wrote that no restraint of political news is ever permissible, while four more wrote that the test is very strict. And, national defense, international diplomacy, and saving the lives of U.S. servicemen was apparently not important enough for the Court to approve an injunction of political speech. In contrast, in the present case, Moveon.org and Common Cause seek regulatory relief to vindicate the political views of Moveon.org, Common Cause, and Al Franken.

Also, several Justices in the Pentagon Papers case wrote that it was significant that there was no Congressional statute authorizing the injunction of political speech such as that involved in that case. In the present case, there is no Congressional statute authorizing the FTC to regulate or enjoin political speech and editorial content of companies that publish news, or even authorizing the FTC to regulate marketing practices of news publishers.

Thus, given the state of First Amendment law, it is highly unlikely that Moveon.org and Common Cause will ever obtain any relief via the FTC in this matter. Nor would they if they complained to the FEC or FCC.

It is possible that this submission is made to the FTC, not to obtain regulatory relief, but to obtain publicity for their criticism of Fox News. A review of their websites reveals that both have published and publicized their criticism of Fox News.

7/19. Michael Gallagher, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, released a statement regarding the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Gallagher, who is the head of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is in Kuala Lumper, Malaysia for the meeting of the ICANN on July 19 through 23. See also, ICANN meeting agenda.

Gallagher (at right) stated that "I am pleased that ICANN has timely met the MOU milestones to date. Clearly more work remains to be done for ICANN to achieve functional, sustainable independence. We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with ICANN to complete the remaining tasks over the course of the MOU as we complete the transition to independent, private sector management of the Internet Domain Name System."

In the beginning, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) created the internet. The DOD's Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) handled domain name registrations. Later, civilian registration activity was transferred from the DOD to the National Science Foundation (NSF), which subcontracted to Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI). In 1997, President Clinton transferred authority to the Department of Commerce (DOC). In 1998, the DOC entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the ICANN transferring considerable control over the DNS to the ICANN. However, this MOU is limited in its term, and is subject to termination by the DOC. The MOU was renewed in September 2003 for three years. The DOC's NTIA is responsible for matters relating to the DNS and this MOU.

The ICANN stated in a release that "it has successfully completed all of its objectives to date" under its MOU) with the DOC. It added that it "has so far completed seven independence enabling structural reforms from the MOU on time, and is on or ahead of schedule to complete all of the remaining key organisational tasks."

7/19. John Kneuer was named Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. That is, he is Michael Gallagher's top assistant at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Kneuer joined the NTIA in October of 2003 as Counselor to the Assistant Secretary. He has also worked for the law firm of Verner Liipfert (which is now part of Piper Rudnick), the Industrial Telecommunications Association, and the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) wireless bureau. See, NTIA release.

7/19. President Bush announced his intent to nominate Michael Gallagher to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information (head of the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration). Bush nominated Gallagher for this position last fall following Nancy Victory's ethics related resignation. The Senate did not act on Gallagher's nomination. Bush gave Gallagher a recess appointment over the July 4 recess. Hence, he already holds the position for which he is being nominated. However, the recess appointment will terminate with the new Congress in January. In contrast, a person confirmed by the President serves at the pleasure of the President. That is, if Gallagher is confirmed by the Senate, and Bush is re-elected, he could hold the position through January of 2008, if Bush so decides. See, White House release.

7/19. President Bush announced his intent to nominate Theodore Kassinger to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce. Bush also just gave him a recess appointment.

7/19. Doug Gaston was promoted to SVP and General Counsel of Comcast Cable. He has worked for Comcast for eight years. He will report to Mike Tallent, EVP for Finance and Administration of Comcast Cable, and Art Block, SVP and General Counsel of Comcast Corporation. He replaces Terry Bienstock who has left Comcast to establish a legal practice and consulting firm. See, Comcast release.

7/16. Federal Reserve Board Governor Susan Bies gave a speech in Chicago, Illinois titled "Using Enterprise-wide Risk Management to Effectively Execute Business Strategies". She spoke about risk management. She also related a historical anecdote about the early use of information technology in risk management. She stated that "When Regulation Q was lifted in 1978, the Federal Reserve no longer established the rate paid on non-demand deposit accounts. Bankers were then able to set the rate of interest paid on core deposits based on their own competitive conditions." She continued that "One of the first challenges bankers faced in this environment was that no one had the information systems needed to manage the entire balance sheet rate sensitivity. Not only were asset/liability models nonexistent, but data on loan and deposit maturities and repricing were also not available from standard loan and deposit computer application systems. So in the early 1980s, asset/liability models were developed, taking advantage of the newly emerging technology of computers and software."

7/19. Microsoft and Lindows (now Linspire) both announced that they have settled their trademark infringement litigation. They stated that "The settlement agreement resolves all claims in this litigation, both in the United States and internationally. Terms of the settlement are confidential." See, Microsoft release and Linspire release. However, the two companies did announce that Lindows will stop using the word "Lindows", and instead use "Linspire". On December 20, 2001, Microsoft filed a complaint [MS Word] in U.S. District Court (WDWash) against Lindows, Inc. alleging trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition, and a state law claim for unfair business practice. The claims are based upon the similarity of the term "Lindows" to the term "Windows", which is a Microsoft trademark.

7/19. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Michael Copps gave another speech [2 pages in PDF] in which he described a "deplorable mess" in radio and television broadcasting.

The House will meet at 9:00 AM for morning hour, and at 10:00 AM for legislative business. The agenda includes consideration of HR 3574, the "Stock Option Accounting Reform Act". See, Republican Whip Notice.

The Senate will meet at 10:00 AM. It will then consider the nomination of William Myers to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

9:00 AM. The House Ways and Means Committee will meet to mark up HR 4842, the "United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act". See, notice. Location: Room 1100, Longworth Building.

9:30 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an executive business meeting. See, notice. Press contact: Margarita Tapia (Hatch) at 202 224-5225 or David Carle (Leahy) at 202 224-4242. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

CANCELLED. 9:30 AM. The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a business meeting. Press contact: Rebecca Fisher at 202 224-2670. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.

10:00 AM. The Senate Finance Committee will meet consider several items, including S 2677, the "United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act". Location: Room 215, Dirksen Building.

10:30 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) will release a report titled "Meeting the Offshoring Challenge". The speakers will include Will Marshall (PPI), Robert Atkinson (PPI, author of the report), Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), and Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN). See, notice. Location: Room 428A, Russell Building.

12:00 NOON. The Cato Institute will host a panel discussion titled "The Case for CAFTA: Four Ambassadors Speak Out for Free Trade". The speakers will be Hugo Guiliani (Dominican Republic), René León (El Salvador), Guillermo Castillo (Guatemala), and Mario Canahuati (Honduras). See, notice and registration page. Lunch will be served. Location: Cato, 1100 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

1:30 PM. The House Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census will hold a hearing titled "The Science of Voting Machine Technology: Accuracy, Reliability, and Security". See, notice. Location: Room 2154, Rayburn Building.

2:30 PM. The Senate Banking Committee will hold an oversight hearing to examine the Semi-Annual Monetary Policy Report of the Federal Reserve Bank. FRB Chairman Alan Greenspan will testify. See notice. Location: Room 216, Hart Building.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM. The House may take up HR 4842, the "United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act" and/or HR 4600, the "Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2004". See, Republican Whip Notice.

9:00 AM. Day one of a two day meeting of the Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Standards (BXA/BIS) Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC). Some of the meetings will be closed to the public. The agenda includes a summary of the Wassenaar Arrangement inter-sessional meeting on semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and a presentation on computational capability of graphics processors. See, notice in the Federal Register, July 6, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 128, at Page 40601. Location: DOC, Room 3884, 14th Street between Pennsylvania Ave. and Constitution Ave., NW.

10:00 AM. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing to mark up several bills, including S 1230, a bill to provide additional responsibilities for the Chief Information Officer of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) relating to geospatial information, and S 2536, the "Homeland Security Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Protection Act of 2004". See, notice. Location: Room 342, Dirksen Building.

10:00 AM. Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, will testify before the House Financial Services Committee. Press contact: Peggy Peterson at 202 226-0471. Location: Room 2128, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The House Science Committee will hold a hearing titled "Cybersecurity Education -- Meeting the Needs of Technology Workers and Employers". Location: Room 2318, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will hold a hearing titled "The Digital Television Transition: What We Can Learn From Berlin?" The witnesses will be Mark Goldstein (Government Accounting Office), Mark Cooper (Consumer Federation of America), Greg Schmidt (LIN Television Corp.), Michael Willner (Insight Communications), John Lawson (Association of Public Television Stations), Eddy Hartenstein (DirecTV Group), Carl McGrath (Motorola), and James Snider (New America Foundation). See, notice. Press contacts: Jon Tripp (Barton) at 202-225-5735 ant Sean Bonyun (Upton) at 202-225-3761. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

POSTPONED. 10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Thomas Griffith to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Press contact: Margarita Tapia (Hatch) at 202 224-5225 or David Carle (Leahy) at 202 224-4242. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

10:30 AM. The House Ways and Means Committee will meet to mark up HR 2971, the "Social Security Number Privacy and Identity Theft Prevent Act of 2004". See, notice. Location: Room 1100, Longworth Building.

12:00 NOON. The Americans for a Secure Internet (ASI) will host a panel discussion titled "Phishing: The Next Challenge for E-commerce". The speakers will be Howard Beales (Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection), Dan Caprio (Chief Privacy Officer, Department of Commerce), Steve DelBianco (Executive Director, NetChoice), Ben Golub (VeriSign), and Jonathan Zuck (President of the Association for Competitive Technology). See, notice and registration page. For more information, contact Mark Blafkin at 202 331-2130 x104. Location: Room HC-7, Capitol Building.

12:00 NOON. The Heritage Foundation will host a book presentation. James Rogan, a former member of the House Judiciary Committee and a former director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), will talk about his book titled Rough Edges: My Unlikely Road from Welfare to Washington [Amazon]. See, notice. Location: 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE.

1:30 PM. The House Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census will hold a hearing titled "Where's the CIO? The Role, Responsibility and Challenge for Federal Chief Information Officers in IT Investment Oversight and Information Management". See, notice. Location: Room 2154, Rayburn Building.

2:00 PM. The House Armed Services Committee's Tactical Air Land Forces Subcommittee will hold a hearing on "Small Business Innovation and Technology". Location: Room 2118, Rayburn Building. This hearing was previously scheduled for July 15.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM. The House may take up HR 4842, the "United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act" and/or HR 4600, the "Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2004". See, Republican Whip Notice.

9:00 AM. The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. William Graham, the Chairman of the Commission, will testify. Location: Room 2118, Rayburn Building.

9:00 AM. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will hold the second part of its hearing titled "Buyer Beware: The Danger of Purchasing Pharmaceuticals over the Internet". The witnesses will be Richard Stana (GAO), Robert Bonner (Bureau of Customs & Border Protection), Karen Tandy (Drug Enforcement Administration), John Potter (Postmaster General, USPS), John Taylor (Food and Drug Administration), John Scheibel (Yahoo), Sheryl Sandberg (Google), Joshua Peirez (Master Card), Steve Ruwe (Visa), Robert Bryden (Federal Express), and Daniel Silva (United Parcel Service). See, notice. Location: Room 342, Dirksen Building.

9:00 AM. Day two of a two day meeting of the Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Standards (BXA/BIS) Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC). Some of the meetings will be closed to the public. The agenda includes a summary of the Wassenaar Arrangement inter-sessional meeting on semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and a presentation on computational capability of graphics processors. See, notice in the Federal Register, July 6, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 128, at Page 40601. Location: DOC, Room 3884, 14th Street between Pennsylvania Ave. and Constitution Ave., NW.

9:30 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an executive business meeting. See, notice. Press contact: Margarita Tapia (Hatch) at 202 224-5225 or David Carle (Leahy) at 202 224-4242. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

CANCELLED. 9:30 AM. The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on media ownership.

9:30 AM. The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a meeting to mark up numerous bills, and consider several pending nominations. Several of the items on the agenda are technology related, including S 2603, the "Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2004", S 2644, the "Satellite Home Viewer Extension Act", S 2281, the "VOIP Regulatory Freedom Act of 2004", and the nominations of Deborah Majoras (to be a Federal Trade Commission Commissioner), Jonathan Liebowitz (FTC), Benjamin Wu (Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy for the Department of Commerce), and Brett Palmer (Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Department of Commerce). See, notice. Press contact: Rebecca Fisher at 202 224-2670. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.

10:30 AM. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing titled "Problems with the E-rate Program: Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Concerns in the Wiring of Our Nation's Schools to the Internet". Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) will host a luncheon. The featured speaker will be Wayne Brunetti, Ch/CEO of Xcel Energy. His address may include many topics, including broadband internet access over power lines (BPL). The FCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on BPL on February 12, 2004. See, story titled "FCC Adopts Broadband Over Powerline NPRM" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 836, February 13, 2004. Xcel has filed comments. See, April 5 comment [15 pages in PDF] on BPL, and July 14 comment [16 pages in PDF] in IP enabled services proceeding. This NPRM is FCC 04-29 in ET Docket Nos. 03-104 and 04-37. See, notice and registration page. Press contact: David Fish at 202 775-2644. Location: Rotunda Room, Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

1:00 PM. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing titled "Health Information Technology: Improving Quality and Value of Patient Care". See, notice. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

LOCATION CHANGE. 1:00 PM. The House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing titled "Electronic Prescribing". See, notice. Location: Room B-318, Rayburn Building.

2:00 PM. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on S 2560, the "Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004". See, story titled "Senators Introduce Bill to Amend Copyright Act to Ban Inducement of Infringement" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 925, June 24, 2004. See, notice. Press contact: Margarita Tapia (Hatch) at 202 224-5225 or David Carle (Leahy) at 202 224-4242. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 10. Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its public notice (DA 04-1690) requesting public comments on constitutionally permissible ways for the FCC to identify and eliminate market entry barriers for small telecommunications businesses and to further opportunities in the allocation of spectrum-based services for small businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities. See, notice in the Federal Register, June 22, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 119, at Pages 34672 - 34673. See also, notice of extension [PDF].

The House may meet at 9:00 AM. See, Republican Whip Notice.

10:00 AM. The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law will hold a hearing titled "Regulatory Aspects of Voice Over the Internet Protocol (VoIP)". The hearing will be webcast. Press contacts: Press contact: Jeff Lungren or Terry Shawn at 202 225-2492. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

12:30 PM. The Cato Institute will host a panel discussion titled "The Case for CAFTA: Promoting Freedom in our Neighborhood". The speakers will be Dan Griswold (Cato) and Mario Canahuati (Ambassador from Honduras). See, notice and registration page. Lunch will be served. Location: Room B-354, Rayburn Building.

Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding a national one call notification system. The FCC adopted this NPRM on May 13, 2004, and released the text [34 pages in PDF] on May 14, 2004. See, story titled "FCC Adopts NPRM Regarding One Call Notification System" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 899, May 17, 2004. This NPRM is FCC 04-111 in CC Docket No. 92-105. See, notice in the Federal Register, June 8, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 110, at Pages 31930 - 31939.

Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Inquiry (NOI) [30 pages in PDF] regarding its annual report to the Congress on the status of competition in the market for the delivery of video programming. See also, story titled "FCC Adopts NOI For Annual Report to Congress on Video Programming" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 916, June 11, 2004. This NOI is FCC 04-136 in MB Docket No. 04-227. See also, notice in the Federal Register, July 1, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 126, at Pages 39930 - 39933.

The House and Senate tentatively will not meet from July 26 through September 6.

The Democratic National Convention will be held in Boston, Massachusetts on July 26 through July 30.

Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the reporting requirements for U.S. providers of international telecommunications services. This NPRM is FCC 04-70 in IB Docket No. 04-112. See, notice in the Federal Register, May 25, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 101, at Pages 29676 - 29681.

The e-mail address for Tech Law Journal has changed. The new address is as follows:

All previous e-mail addresses no longer operate. This new address is published as a graphic to avoid e-mail address harvesting, and the associated spam messages and malicious code messages. If your e-mail system does not display graphics, see notice in TLJ website.

Tech Law Journal publishes a free access web site and subscription e-mail alert. The basic rate for a subscription to the TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert is $250 per year. However, there are discounts for subscribers with multiple recipients. Free one month trial subscriptions are available. Also, free subscriptions are available for journalists, federal elected officials, and employees of the Congress, courts, and executive branch. The TLJ web site is free access. However, copies of the TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert are not published in the web site until one month after writing. See, subscription information page.

Contact: 202-364-8882.
P.O. Box 4851, Washington DC, 20008.

Privacy Policy
Notices & Disclaimers
Copyright 1998 - 2004 David Carney, dba Tech Law Journal. All rights reserved.