Courts
Supreme Court Weighs Merits Of Anti-Porn Law
     Supreme Court justices weighed arguments that a federal law is so broad that if left intact it could bar certain popular movies against claims that the law is necessary to combat child pornography. Considering the constitutionality of the 1996 Child Pornography Prevention Act, which criminalizes computer-generated images of fictional children engaged in sexual activity, Supreme Court justices asked tough questions of the government and the adult entertainment group that is challenging the law. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stephens, David Souter, Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor questioned the government about whether aspects of the act are overly broad and chill speech protected by the First Amendment. "'Traffic', 'Lolita' and 'Titanic' all depict simulated sexual behavior" by individuals playing the role of minors, Breyer said. "Why am I not guilty of a crime" by renting the movies?

Privacy
Official Urges More Security For 'National Identifier'
     The federal government must acknowledge that Social Security numbers have become national identifiers in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and take measures to protect their integrity, a top official said. Reversing an earlier stance, James Huse, the inspector general of the Social Security Administration, told the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee that the public and private sectors must "face reality" about Social Security numbers. He said to the best of his knowledge, all 19 terrorists who hijacked American jets and subsequently crashed them in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania had obtained numbers, and 13 of them did so lawfully. In May, Huse told the subcommittee that in order to curtail identity theft, policymakers should take steps to stop the use of Social Security numbers as identifiers. But this week, he said policymakers instead should focus on making the system more secure.

Export
Committee Expected to Approve Export Controls
     The House International Relations Committee approved, by voice vote, a six-month extension of the Export Administration Act (EAA). The EAA is a system of export controls for "dual-use" items -- commercial products that could have military uses. However, the committee action would be provisional because the nation currently is controlling exports under a presidential executive order imposed in August under the authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Last year, both chambers of Congress voted to revive the original 1979 EAA until Aug. 21, 2001. Earlier this year, International Relations voted to extend that date until Nov. 1, but the Senate did not consent to that move, prompting the executive order. Wyoming Republican Michael Enzi, the sponsor of the Senate-passed EAA reform bill, S. 149, has held the position that a temporary EAA extension would hurt the momentum for his broader bill.

E-Commerce
Goodlatte Unveils Measure To Ban Illegal E-Gambling
     Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte introduced legislation that attempts to ban illegal Internet gambling by revising federal criminal statutes on interstate gambling. In a press briefing, Goodlatte -- flanked by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, ranking Democrat John LaFalce of New York, and Republican Reps. Frank Wolf of Virginia and Jim Gibbons of Nevada -- called the bill a continuation of past congressional efforts to "crack down" on gambling, particularly online gambling. The bill, which the Justice Department helped draft, would update the 1961 Wire Act -- which prohibits interstate sports betting via telephone lines -- to include online gaming.

Net Governance
NTIA's Victory Questions Alternate Child-Friendly Domain
     A watered-down version of legislation to create a special Internet area for children under the nation's .us domain-name suffix could lead to lawsuits and other problems, according to Nancy Victory, head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. At issue is a bill, H.R. 2417, introduced earlier this year by Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. The so-called manager's amendment to the bill proposed this week instead would place .kids under .us, the United States' country-code domain. But NTIA recently announced an agreement to relinquish management of .us to the Internet registry company NeuStar. Victory said the NeuStar agreement contains a provision to develop a second-level .kids domain, but it is not a firm commitment. Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said the agreement contains no requirement or timeframe for NeuStar to create a .kids domain. The subcommittee is planning to hold a vote on the measure "as early as next week," according to a committee aide.

Education
Negotiators Near Agreement On Educational Technology
     Congressional negotiators working on a bill that would reauthorize and overhaul elementary and secondary education programs reached an agreement on educational technology programs. All 39 of the House and Senate negotiators voted that the bill, H.R. 1, authorize $1 billion for educational technology programs in fiscal 2002, up from $872 million in fiscal 2001. Lawmakers, however, still have not reached agreement on how many educational technology programs will be consolidated into block grants. The Senate version of the bill would keep several programs, including one aimed at teacher technology training, separate from the block grant; the House version calls for consolidating all of the programs.