On The Hill
Getting Their Signals Straight
     Congressional Republicans broke a deadlock on a satellite television bill by dropping two controversial provisions and then adding the revised measure to the year-end appropriations package in order to assure passage this year. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-MS, bowed to pressure from Senate Banking Chairman Phil Gramm, R-TX, and promised to drop a $1.25 billion federal loan guarantee for rural areas. Meanwhile, Internet companies prevailed in a lobbying rush to strip the bill of a provision that would have prevented the companies from receiving a compulsory license needed to carry video programming. Internet firms, such as America Online, fear that the one sentence added late in a House-Senate conference would stifle the growth of the Internet by preventing industry from easily carrying broadcast programming. As part of the compromise, Gramm will hold Banking hearings next year on legislation to encourage satellite, cable, broadcast, Internet and emerging companies to carry local broadcast programming into rural areas.

Exports
Export Reviews Remain The Same
     Congressional appropriators refused to attach to omnibus spending legislation a provision that would have allowed some of the changes loosening controls on computer exports to be implemented faster. The provision would have provided the computer industry with a one-time waiver to a law, passed by Congress in 1997, requiring a six-month congressional review before permitting changes to computer export controls covering about 50 "Tier Three" countries, which pose a potential proliferation risk.

Intellectual Property
Groups Urge More Time On Database Bill
     Technology association executives are attempting to enlist Vice President Al Gore to keep the Clinton Administration from supporting a bill that would create new legal protections for databases. The Collections of Information Antipiracy Act, H.R. 354, introduced by House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property Chairman Howard Coble, R-NC, and championed by database producers and some software publishers, has come under fire by e-commerce businesses. Although House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley, R-VA, introduced a rival, narrower bill, House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-TX, encouraged the committees to compromise by using Coble's legislation.

Taxes
House Approves Tax Credit
     The House approved late Thursday legislation that includes a multi-year extension of the research and development credit, a key victory for business interests who feared at one point that they would end up with no reauthorization. The five-year extension of the R&D tax credit — also called the Research and Experimentation credit — was part of a package of other expiring tax breaks, known as extenders, that was included in legislation (H.R. 1180) that would allow the disabled to take a job with out fear of losing their government-funded health insurance.

Trade
China to Allow Foreign Investment in Internet Market
     China agreed to allow foreign companies to invest in its Internet market as part of an agreement reached between U.S. and Chinese officials for the Asian nation's entrance into the World Trade Organization. The deal reached between U.S. and Chinese officials ended 13 years of talks between the countries on the bilateral terms for China's entrance into the WTO. An initial U.S. agreement was reached in April that included a provision allowing for foreign ownership in China's telecommunications sector. But President Clinton refused to sign off on that deal.

Exports
Commerce Calls For Looser Export Controls
     Commerce Department officials said they are aiming to send a new proposal to further relax controls on computer exports to President Clinton before the end of the year. Commerce Secretary William Daley "wanted to accelerate that schedule and get something to the president by the middle of next month," said Commerce Department Undersecretary for Export Administration William Reinsch during a meeting of the President's Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration.

Privacy
Leahy Legislation Calls For Tougher Privacy Rules
     Citing weaknesses in the privacy provisions of the Financial Services Modernization Act, S. 900, passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton last Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, introduced legislation designed to require federal banking regulators to enact financial privacy rules. The measure, the Financial Information Privacy and Security Act of 1999, would require that the privacy rules permit customers to have the right to opt-out of the sharing of personally identifiable information with insurance companies or brokerages affiliated with a bank. It also would require institutions to obtain "opt-in" consent before selling or such information with third parties.

Privacy
US Claims Rules Meet EU Requirements
     U.S. officials say the privacy provisions included in the new financial services legislation and in other existing laws covering personal financial data provide sufficient protection to comply with the European Union's data privacy directive. The financial services overhaul, S. 900, which was signed into law last week by President Clinton, has presented a new issue in the 18-month-old talks between the United States and the European Union aimed at ensuring that data flows between Europe and America are not cut off because of the privacy directive. The directive bans the flow of personal data about European citizens to third countries without adequate privacy protections.

Piracy
Senators Seek Inclusion Of Net In WIPO Treaty
     Web Sites that provide audio and video over the Internet have gotten the attention of some members of Congress in their drive to ensure that their transmissions are included in an effort to protecting broadcast signals from piracy. In separate letters sent to Commerce Secretary William Daley, a group of senators and more than a dozen House members called on the Clinton Administration to push the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to include Internet transmissions in the update of the broadcaster rights treaty. As originally drafted in 1961, the treaty covered piracy of "wireless" programming, such as that transmitted by television stations or satellite companies.

Telecom
Putting Broadband In The Hands Of The Market
     Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard reiterated his position this week that the marketplace is the best place to sort out the broadband access issue, but if those forces don't work, the government would ultimately step into protect consumers. "Now is not the time to waltz into the marketplace and start micromanaging and regulating our way there," Kennard said at a Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce technology breakfast.

Telecom
FCC Splits The Line
     The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved a plan that it hopes will increase deployment of high-speed Internet services through telephone lines to residential and small business customers. The FCC order requires local telephone providers — the Baby Bells and GTE — to give their competitors access to the high frequency portion of the telephone loop to provide high-speed Internet access through digital subscriber line (DSL) technology. This would allow a consumer to get traditional voice telephone service from their traditional provider, while receiving Internet services from a competing company over one phone line.

Y2K
Y2K Costs Businesses, Government Billions
     American businesses and the government will spend more than $100 billion preparing for the 2000 date change, money that should protect the U.S. economy from any Y2K-related economic hits, Commerce Secretary William Daley said. "Obviously, this is a lot of money," Daley said. "But the potential cost of not doing anything was far greater."

Y2K
Federal Y2K Command Center Almost Ready For Prime Time
     The nearly $50 million federal Y2K Information Coordination Center is not ready for prime time yet, but Y2K czar John Koskinen said this week that he expects everything to be running in time to test the center and be on alert for the 2000 date change by early next month. The ICC will formally open for business, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Dec. 28, and switch to a 24-hour operation, staffed with workers from federal agencies, on Dec. 30. That shift will run through the New Year's weekend and until the business day begins on Jan. 3. Koskinen said the center would then go back to a reduced schedule, until Feb. 29, in which it will be on alert for the leap year. In other Y2K news, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, is urging U.S. airlines to make public their foreign airline partners' Y2K compliance.

Campaigns
Gore, Bradley Debate Could Be First For Net
     Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Al Gore challenged his chief rival former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-NJ, to debate him on the Internet, which if Bradley accepts, would be the first time a presidential debate would occur online.

On the Hill
Postulating Politics On The Net
     With seed money of $8 million, the newest entrant into the increasingly crowded Internet politics market is Speakout.com, whose founder Ron Howard hopes will give elected officials more detailed information on what their constituents are saying and get citizens more motivated to participate in politics. Lending their name to the site, includes an impressive number of members from the Washington political establishment such as former Rep. Tom Downey, D-NY, former Republican National Committee Chairman Richard Bond, former Reagan White House Chief Of Staff Michael Deaver, Democrat media consultant Carter Eskew, former Rep. Susan Molinari, R-NY, and former Vice President Al Gore's Chief Of Staff Jack Quinn. All are serving on Speakout.com's board of advisers and will help to spread the word about the new Web site.

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