Clinton Administration
Wanted: One White House Point Person
The White House should hire a single point person on federal technology policy, according to recommendations by President Clinton's Information Technology Advisory Committee. While the panel of outsiders is happy with the administration's proposal to boost technology spending, it found the need for one individual responsible within the White House to establish and set long-term information technology goals. The panel recommends that the "senior policy official" should be located in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Industry
ITI Tallies Tech Voting Records
The Information Technology Industry Council, which represents 30 of the nation’s largest computer companies has rated, for the first time, all 535 members of the 105th Congress on their technology voting records. The group ranked how members voted on the final securities litigation reform bill, the Internet tax moratorium, H1-B visa, computer export controls, fast track, the WIPO treaty, and the omnibus budget bill (which contained technology provisions). It also tracked committee votes on the Internet tax bill and the visa bill. In the Senate, 25 members (16 Republicans and nine Democrats) voted in support of all the bills. But neither Senate Commerce Committee John McCain R-AZ nor Internet Caucus co-chairs Sens. Conrad Burns R-MT and Patrick Leahy D-VT made that list. In the House, 26 members (14 Democrats and 26 Republicans) voted to support 100 percent of the tech bills. Internet Caucus co-chair Rep. Robert Goodlatte R-VA was on the list, but co-chair Rep. Rick Boucher D-VA was not.

R&D Pushing For A Permanent Tax Credit
Momentum is building behind a bill to make the $2 billion research and development tax credit permanent. Rep. Nancy Johnson R-CT and Rep. Robert Matsui D-CA, along with 69 bi-partisan co-sponsors will be unveiling their bill Wednesday Feb. 24. Co-sponsors include 20 members of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, which is the panel that will be considering the legislation.

EU-U.S.
What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate
One of the leading congressional players on digital copyright expressed concern Friday about the European Union's version of the measure and encouraged European officials to move closer to the U.S. law. During meetings in Brussels with members of EU's European Commission and others, Rep. Bob Goodlatte R-VA expressed concern about several provisions included in the legislation approved Feb. 10 by the European Parliament that differ from the U.S. measure passed last year. Meanwhile, a high-ranking European Union official in Washington expressed frustration late Thursday that the United States was slow to discover the potential problems posed by the Union's tough new data privacy law, saying such issues beg for better EU-U.S. contacts at lower levels. Earlier in the week Eliot Maxwell, special adviser on e-commerce to Commerce Secretary William Daley, told the Software Information and Industry Association that his top priorities are working through the European data privacy directive and creating consumer access to faster high-speed data lines.

Piracy
Group Asks U.S. Trade Rep To Fight Harder
The International Intellectual Property Alliance asked U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky to take aggressive action to push 62 countries to strengthen their efforts to fight intellectual property piracy. Leading the list of pirate states is Israel. Barshefsky is expected to announce in coming weeks whether to take action against the countries charged by IIPA, which include copyright-based industries such as software makers and others. The IIPA estimates that industry losses due to piracy in these 62 countries reached $12.4 billion in 1998 -- including $4.6 billion in losses by the makers of business-application software.

Encryption: Overseas Export Plans Concern Net Caucus
Congressional Internet Caucus leaders expressed strong concern about the British plan to license companies to serve as key recovery agents to provide law enforcement officials with the keys needed to descramble encrypted communications. Key recovery undermines the "very purpose of encryption, which is to provide privacy and security," said Rep. Rick Boucher D-VA, who joined Rep. Bob Goodlatte R-VA and two other lawmakers on a week-long trip to Europe to discuss e-commerce issues. He and Boucher wanted to make it clear that many U.S. lawmakers do not share the Clinton administration's support for key recovery, he said. Goodlatte and Zoe Lofgren D-CA announced this week that they will re-introduce legislation Feb. 25 that would loosen controls on the export of encryption products.

Telecom: More E-rate Hate
One week after FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth fired off a letter criticizing e-rate funding distribution, Chairman William Kennard replied in a public statement that the agency handling the funds "has done an excellent job." The back-and-forth between the two illustrates the tug-of-war between Republican and Democratic camps over the program that provides technology funds to schools and libraries. While the program has received wide support, there are still some Republicans in Congress that say it is funded by a tax that needs cutting. In the wake of conflict over how technology funds are distributed to rural and urban schools, the federal government distributed $323 million Friday in the latest wave of e-rate funding. Of that total, 63 percent of the funding, or $204 million, is going to urban areas, while rural institutions will get 33 percent, or $108 million. The balance of the funding goes to consortia that do not fall into regional categories.

Privacy
Will New Legislation Treat Adults Like Kids?
Some of the Web businesses that helped craft the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act are beginning to worry that similarly-named legislation to be introduced by Sen. Conrad Burns R-MT treats adults like kids. And while a spokeswoman for the Online Privacy Alliance said the organization can't take a position on legislation that hasn't been introduced, at least one member of the alliance is fuming about the Online Privacy Protection Act of 1999. "This is an outrage," said Andrew Sernovitz, president of the Association for Interactive Media, which recently merged with the Direct Marketing Association. "It encourages the public to sue companies that are conducting legitimate, honest business practices." He objected to provisions that would require Web site operators to obtain the up-front or "opt-in" consent prior to the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information. OPA guidelines permit businesses to allow customers to "opt-out" of data-sharing arrangements.

Privacy
Social Security Numbers Have Big Potential for MisuseThe potential for misuse and abuse of Social Security numbers has sparked the House Social Security Subcommittee into planning hearings within the next few months to consider whether regulations are necessary to protect personal information. The GAO just completed a study of the growing government and commercial uses of SSNs and found that privacy may be compromised. A key concern is the health care industry, which uses the identifying numbers to track patient records and insurance and billing information. Congress has until Aug. 1 to develop laws governing medical records, as mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

Taxes
Mad Mayors Take On The Hill
Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk has serious concerns about the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce - and he's a member. The committee was established by Congress last year to look into taxation options after the end of the three-year moratorium on Internet taxes. But Kirk is so angry about the composition of the panel that he is leading a group of mayors threatening a lawsuit to change the membership. The committee currently has nine industry members and just six from government. The suit was threatened in a letter sent last week by U.S. Conference of Mayors Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran to Speaker Dennis Hastert R-IL, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt D-MO, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott R-MS, and Minority Leader Tom Daschle D-SD. "The White House is very wound up about the potential of the suit, and probably some on the Hill are a little embarrassed because they made the law, we didn't," said Frank Shafroth, a spokesman for the National League of Cities.

States
Who Needs Friends When You've Got The Web?

Gov. Tom Ridge R unveiled the design of Pennsylvania's new license plates this week, which displays the state's URL. It replaces the well-known "You've Got A Friend In Pennsylvania" slogan with "www.state.pa.us."

Cyberterrorism
CSIS Launches Missal
The Cold War old guard and the Clinton administration may have finally found a common new threat in "cyberwarfare." Frank Cilluffo, task force director of a recent report, Cybercrime, Cyberterrorism and Cyberwarfare, sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Thanks to President Clinton's announcement of plans to spend $10 billion dealing with chemical, biological and technological warfare, CSIS, a longtime cheerleader for increased defense spending, is riding the cyberwave. Its report, subtitled "Averting an Electronic Waterloo," is currently the think tank's best-selling work.