Y2K
Dodd Drops Liability Bill
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-CT, formally introduced his moderate Y2K liability bill late Thursday. S. 738 incorporates a number of the broad concepts included in competing Republican bills, S. 461, introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, and S. 96, introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-AZ. It does not, however, cap punitive damages and doesn't go as far to limit class action lawsuits. The bill's introduction comes one day after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Hatch's bill by a mostly partisan vote. The only Democrat to support S. 461 was bill cosponsor Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA. Dodd's bill will be referred to Hatch's committee, rather than the Senate Commerce Committee headed by McCain. The two Republicans have been fighting in a protracted turf battle over which committee has jurisdiction over Y2K liability. Hatch and McCain each maintain their committees are in charge. In the House, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-CA, on Friday introduced a bill, H.R. 1319, similar to Dodd's. Rep. Tom Davis, R-VA, introduced a plan, H.R. 775, last month that has received from a handful of moderate Democrats and the GOP leadership. Davis is hoping for a full House vote on his plan by May.

Y2K
House Joins The Party
By a voice vote Tuesday, the House approved a Senate plan that would let small businesses tap into an existing federal loan program for cash to fix Y2K-related computer problems. The bill, S. 314, was introduced by Sen. Kit Bond, R-MO, and passed the Senate unanimously last month. The legislation has been on a fast track because lawmakers say small businesses need funding now to prevent Y2K problems next January. Small business groups support any extra help, but they are pushing more heavily for a bill that would protect them from Y2K-related lawsuits. There are three bills in the Senate and one in the House that would limit lawsuits spurred by the 2000 date change. The House version, H.R. 775, introduced by Rep. Tom Davis, R-VA, includes a small business loan program similar to S. 314.

Y2K
Securities Board Almost Secure
Securities and Exchange Commissioner Laura Unger anticipates the agency will be completely Y2K-compliant by Aug. 31. The government-wide deadline set by the Office of Management and Budget is March 31. The agency still has some work to do on its Edgar computer system, which is an electronic database of company filings with the SEC, but has largely completed its work on eradicated the bug. Also at the SEC, the agency said Thursday it will be scrutinizing the approximately 100 securities firms that participate in day trading online to ensure that they adequately understand trading rules and are correctly advertising their services.

Antitrust
Attorneys General Weigh In
The nation's attorneys general huddled Thursday to discuss the Microsoft antitrust case settlement proposal floated earlier in the week. Leaving a closed-door meeting at a DC hotel, New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid, D, indicated there might be a meeting Tuesday with state officials, the Justice Department and Microsoft. Meanwhile, it looks like the resumption of the trial is likely to be delayed beyond the anticipated April 12 start date, due to a lengthy criminal trial being heard by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. The judge on Wednesday is expected to issue an official date to continue with the trial.

Antitrust
Byron Adds On Support
Ratcheting up the antitrust action on Capitol Hill, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND, announced bipartisan support for his planned budget amendment that would restore the administration's request for a 16 percent increase for the Department of Justice's antitrust division to $114 million. In appropriations discussions, Republicans, led by Microsoft's homestate ally Sen. Slade Gorton, have said they will approve only $98 million for the antitrust division.

E-commerce
Net Gambling Chips On The Table
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, renewed his attack on Internet gambling Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information, which he chairs. Kyl vowed to re-introduce a bill this week that failed last year in Congress. The proposed bill, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, would ban all forms of sports betting and casino gambling on the Web. Kyl argued that his bill would merely bring the 1961 Wire Act, which banned gambling over the phone, in line with advances in technology. Opponents of banning Internet gambling claimed they were shut out of the hearings. Friday morning Kyl reiterated his case before a gathering of the National Association of Attorneys General which has pleaded for federal involvement in barring online gaming.

Telecom: Internet Access
Bonuses From Boucher?
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-VA, is close to dropping a sweeping Internet bill that would create incentives for local phone companies to offer more high-speed data services in exchange for a reduced regulatory burden, he said Wednesday. Boucher said he and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-VA, who together head the Congressional Internet Caucus, plan to introduce Internet legislation the second week of April. Boucher said he wasn't sure yet if it would be a package of individual bills, or one large one, as he had indicated earlier this year when he discussed crafting a "foundation law for the Internet."

Export
Cox Committee Continued
The House passed a resolution late Wednesday extending by one month the life of the select House committee established to probe the national security implications of technology transfers to China. Lawmakers passed the resolution by voice vote a week before the panel was set to expire. However, some panel members and others say they are confident the committee, headed by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-CA, will finish its work of producing an unclassified version of the report before the end of April. If so, the panel will disband earlier than scheduled.

Encryption
McCollum Can't Manage To Add Amendment
Critics of legislation to loosen controls on encryption exports were rebuffed Wednesday in their effort to weaken the so-called SAFE Act by adding a descrambling provision favored by law enforcement but anathema to the bill's supporters. The attempt to offer an amendment to the bill by Rep. Bill McCollum, R-FL, was just the most recent skirmish in the battle over the measure and others like it in the past five years. And it appears likely that H.R. 850, which was approved by the Judiciary Committee on a voice vote, will face continued attacks by opponents, who are generally allied with federal law enforcement and intelligence interests.

Business
H-1B Ceiling Closing In
At the rate current applications are running, high-tech industry officials fear that the number of temporary visas available for high-skilled foreign workers will run out as soon as May. But while they expect to hit the H-1B visa cap months before the end of the fiscal year, industry representatives say they are still uncertain how they will address lingering needs for high-skilled workers. Some say it may be too soon to go back to Congress to push for an increase in the number of H-1B visas it allows to be issued in a year.

Contributions
The Match Game
Vice President Al Gore's campaign strategists are investigating ways to persuade the Federal Election Commission to change its campaign fundraising rules to facilitate donating over the Internet, and to allow candidates to receive matching funds for online contributions, according to a source close to the campaign. At issue are rules that prevent campaigns from getting public matching funds for money received through credit cards, the chief way people pay for items on the Internet.

Contributions
PACing 'Em In
The FEC has given Microsoft permission to allow its employees to use electronic signatures to authorize payroll deduction of contributions to the company's political action committee. Microsoft workers are already permitted to use electronic signatures to view and make changes to their company stock options and benefits packages. But under FEC rules, a company must show that an employee voluntarily contributed to its PAC, usually through a written signature. However, the FEC said it recognizes technological innovations and because Microsoft already has an established system for using e-signatures, the company would be able to prove that contributions were voluntary.

E-commerce
Dig Sig Bill Leaves Its Mark
Legislation that would create a national framework for businesses to accept electronic signatures was introduced Friday by a bipartisan team of Senators, including Spencer Abraham, R-MI, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-AZ, and Ron Wyden, D-OR. (To see a draft of the full bill, click here.) Abraham, who has been the lead on the bill, to be called the Millennium Digital Commerce Act, has worked closely with the Commerce Department and the states to craft a bill that would be acceptable to both to the Clinton Administration and the states.

Net Governance
McCain Says Can't
Verbal assurances from the Federal Communications Commission that it will not regulate the Internet are not enough for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-AZ. He is drafting legislation to ensure that the FCC cannot go back on its word. McCain wants to ensure that high speed data services are deployed more quickly, and that the FCC cannot regulate them once they are, according to a McCain spokeswoman. McCain was one of several Republicans who sent a letter to FCC Chairman William Kennard last week to remind him that Congress will not tolerate a regulated Internet. McCain said Thursday that he will hold an April 13 hearing to "refocus the [FCC] on what the law requires them to do rather than what they want to do."

Taxes
Economy Needs A Shot Of R&D
A group of senators said Monday that a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit is vital to help sustain the nation's booming economy. Sens. Orrin G. Hatch, R-UT, Max Baucus, D-MT, and Charles Robb, D-VA, made the pitch during a news conference to announce they were reintroducing legislation Monday to permanently extend the credit.

Privacy
Chapter 11 For Know Your Customer
Federal banking regulators reversed themselves Tuesday, dropping a proposed rule that had sparked an Internet-based rebellion against a potential invasion of financial privacy. In a board meeting held in concert, the four major financial regulatory agencies dropped their Know Your Customer proposal, which would have required banks to compile data profiles about their customers' pattern of deposits and withdrawals.

SEC
Fraud Spiraling Out Of Control
Internet stock fraud is soaring past the ability of government resources to combat it, witnesses told a Senate subcommittee Monday. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Susan Collins, R-ME, heard that the Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated 66 enforcement actions against Internet securities fraud operators since 1995, and that number continues to grow. A General Accounting Office report warned that the rapid growth in fraud "could ultimately place a significant burden on the regulators' limited investigative staff resources and thereby limit the agencies capacity to respond effectively."

Business
Dreier Names Advisory Panel
A cross-section of the high-tech industry's largest companies have been chosen to advise House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier R-CA on policy issues, and the role of Congress in helping to foster the industry's growth. Those tapped for Dreier's High Technology Advisory Group include representatives from Novell, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, America Online, IBM, Intel, Gateway 2000, Cisco, Motorola, Compaq, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, AMP and Amgen.