Export
Time Is On Their Side
     A House subcommittee approved legislation that would reduce the amount of time Congress has to review changes to export controls over high-performance computers, bringing the computer industry one step closer to addressing one of its chief legislative priorities. With little debate, the House International Relations Committee's International Economic Policy and Trade Subcommittee approved the bill, H.R. 3680, by voice vote. The measure, introduced by Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-CA, would reduce the review period from 180 days to 30 days and would make the bill retroactive to Jan. 1 to include the Clinton administration's Feb. 1 announcement loosening computer export controls. The full committee is expected to take up the measure next week.

Education
A Tech Education Is A Terrible Thing To Waste
     A group of House and Senate Democrats introduced legislation that would fund cash bonuses for teachers who earn new information technology skills and would support IT training in populations without such skills. "We want to provide an incentive to get teachers the training they need," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, who introduced his IT 2000 Act on Monday, along with Sens. Carl Levin, D-MI, and Blanche Lincoln, D-AR. Rep. Jerold Nadler, D-NY, introduced an identical bill in the House.

Education
Community Colleges Fill Tech Training Gap
     Nearly 20 percent of students enrolled in community colleges say the main reason they're in school is to learn new technology skills, according to a new American Association of Community Colleges survey that highlights the role two-year colleges are playing in training workers for a tech-driven economy.

Digital Divide
Clinton Makes The Rounds To Bridge Tech Gap
     President Clinton officially kicked off his digital divide tour at a White House event where representatives from Yahoo!, 3Com and Covad Communications pledged to donate company resources toward bridging the gap between those who are not connected to the Internet and those who are Internet savvy. Clinton will begin his tour April 17 in East Palo Alto, CA, in an effort to get underserved areas connected to the Internet and to help those who need related training to prepare them for working in information technology jobs. One of Clinton's biggest initiatives to meet this goal is AmeriCorps.

Labor
H-1B: Who's Counting?
     The Immigration and Naturalization Service announced that an outside auditor has found that the agency gave out over 21,000 more temporary visas for skilled foreigners than it was allowed to by law in fiscal year 1999. The auditing firm KPMG discovered that the INS allocated 21,888 H-1B visas above the congressionally mandated cap of 115,000 for 1999. The firm was hired to do the audit after the INS discovered last year that problems with its computer system resulted in the issuance of too many of these visas, saying at the time that it may have given out between 10,000 and 20,000 visas above the cap.

Privacy
GOP Takes Up A Taxing Issue
     Protecting taxpayers' private electronic tax documents is one of the top priorities of the House GOP's "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" that the House Ways and Means Committee plans to take up next week. Committee Chairman Bill Archer, R-TX, said during last week's National Republican Radio Address that consumers' fears about computer hacking "makes us realize that we can never be too careful." Archer's tax plan would require states that have regular access to federal tax information to conduct annual, on-site computer system reviews to ensure their networks are safeguarded from hacking attacks.

Privacy
Tauzin Tackles SEC's Surveillance Plan
     House Commerce Telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-LA, expressed his concern in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt about the privacy implications of the agency's plan to build an automated monitoring systems of Web sites, chat rooms and message boards for possible securities violations. Tauzin's letter follows one sent by Rep. Bob Barr, R-GA, last week, also raising privacy concerns about the SEC's proposed system. Levitt responded in a letter saying that the agency never intended to invade consumers' privacy.

Privacy
Watson, Echelon Needs You
     The chairman of a key committee in the European Parliament has drafted a resolution condemning Echelon for invading European citizens' privacy, the author of one of the crucial reports on the American-led surveillance system said this week. The U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence is scheduled to hold a public hearing next Wednesday addressing the legalities under which signals intelligence systems, including Echelon, gather information about U.S. citizens.

Privacy
Do We Need Fourth Amendment 2.0?
     The House Judiciary Committee's Constitution Subcommittee launched a discussion into whether traditional privacy statutes are flexible enough to meet the demands of an Internet-driven information society. "As much of the same information individuals formerly kept in their homes, file cabinets, wallets and purses, gravitates toward new locations on the Internet's landscape, Congress must consider whether the government adequately protects Fourth Amendment values," said subcommittee Chairman Charles Canady, R-FL. The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from "unreasonable searches and seizures" conducted by the government.

E-commerce
Gilmore-led Tax Proposal Well-Received By House GOP
     While House Commerce Committee Republicans graciously received a preliminary Internet tax report from Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce Chairman Gov. James Gilmore, R-VA, Democrats expressed skepticism, citing the panel's failure to reach a consensus on the tax issue. Earlier in the week, state and local government leaders called on Congress to reject the report from the Commission saying that the final product does not reflect a consensus opinion of the 19-member panel on Internet taxes. The report's release date is April 12. The Senate Commerce Committee plans to hear from Gilmore next week.

E-commerce
House Judiciary Approves Internet Gambling Ban
     The House Judiciary Committee voted this week to outlaw Internet casinos and other forms of online gambling, after Democrats protested Republican interference with states' rights under an amendment to bar state lotteries from most Internet ticket sales. The panel approved an amendment offered from Rep. Edward Pease, R-IN, to bar sales or purchase of lottery tickets over the Internet, except for sales in public places where tickets are currently sold.

Business
Senators Fight FASB Change
     Eleven senators said that they are "troubled" by the potential economic effects of accounting changes under consideration by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the nation's independent accounting referee. In a letter to FASB Chairman Edmund Jenkins, the bipartisan group of members said the proposed accounting change, to eliminate the "pooling" method of accounting, could have enormous impact on the overall economy and urged FASB to slow down its plan to make a decision on the proposal by year's end.

Campaigns
DNC Goes Digital For Convention
     In a bid to position itself the "e-party," the Democrat National Committee launched a series of grassroots forums that will enable anyone to weigh in, through the Internet, on what the DNC's platform should contain when it is approved at the Democrat National Convention in Los Angeles this summer. Separately, the Republican National Committee last week revamped its Web site, adding more information about its policy agenda and an improved search function.
- by Sharon McLoone