Taxes
Panel Pushes For States To Simplify Sales-Tax Systems
     Members of a key committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) this week voted to recommend that state lawmakers adopt a proposal designed to simplify state sales taxes. The panel also began discussing how to help shepherd the model legislation through the states. The Executive Committee Task Force on State and Local Taxation of Telecommunications and Electronic Commerce voted unanimously to have NCSL's executive committee send a letter to presiding state officers, urging them to debate model legislation approved by states participating in a project to simply sales-tax systems. Neal Osten, director of the committee, noted that Congress is likely to re-examine the states' efforts this year as NCSL works to extend the ban on Internet taxes. With the moratorium expiring Nov. 1, lawmakers again are expected to discuss the remote sales-tax issue because even though sales-tax simplification and e-commerce taxation are separate issues, he said, they are inextricably tied "in the minds of many congressmen."

Taxes
Daschle's Stimulus Ideas Include 'Immediate' Depreciation
     Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle outlined principles that he hopes the Bush administration will incorporate into the economic stimulus package it is considering. In a letter to the White House, he criticized the tax change that allows companies to more quickly write off their taxes the value of new technology and equipment they buy. He noted that because the enhanced depreciation is over three years, companies have delayed investments and the change has not provided an immediate boost to the economy. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who is expected to head the Senate Finance Committee, is "keeping an open mind" about whether a stimulus package is necessary and what should be in it, his spokeswoman said.

Telecom
Spectrum Managers Vow To Abandon Turf Fights Of Past
     The government agencies that manage the nation's airwaves are working to better coordinate their efforts and find ways to accommodate new technologies and innovations, officials at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said. They will work with lawmakers to shepherd legislation through Congress. NTIA and FCC officials and staff are working to overcome the "what's mine is mine and what's yours is yours" mindset of the past that stipulated which bands of spectrum the agencies monitored, said Michael Gallagher, deputy assistant secretary of Commerce. NTIA has overseen government-used spectrum, and the FCC has been in charge of spectrum for commercial use.

Telecom
Allen Sees Wireless Web As Tool For Economic Growth
     Hoping to seize on the potential of wireless innovations, Sen. George Allen said that he plans to introduce legislation he drafted earlier this year that is designed to harness unlicensed spectrum to facilitate the deployment of high-speed Internet access by wireless connections. Allen, a Virginia Republican and former chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, announced in speech that he and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., are crafting the broadband measure in an effort to spur economic growth. Meanwhile, Michigan Republican Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, plans to reintroduce his bill to create a fund that would reimburse government spectrum users for the cost of relocating to other bandwidth to accommodate commercial users. And Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., has said his priority, as incoming chairman of the Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee will be to introduce legislation to reform spectrum management.

Export
Sen. Enzi Aims For All New Export Bill By End Of January
     Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., has pronounced the Senate-passed bill to reform the nation's export-control policy officially dead, an Enzi staffer said. A new bill will emerge from the ashes, probably by the end of January, she said. "S. 149 will be put on the trash heap and become the 12th failed attempt" at renewing the 1979 Export Administration Act that expired in 1994, said Katherine McGuire, Enzi's legislative director. McGuire said Enzi and his staff will meet intensively with interested parties in the coming weeks to craft a new bill that can gain support in the House, traditionally the biggest trouble spot. An International Relations Committee aide confirmed that the bill is a top priority for Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill. Hyde seeks committee passage by April, the aide said.

Security
Security Department Looks To Corporate Mergers For Cues
     Hoping to glean some valuable private-sector insights as they begin consolidating 22 federal agencies into the new Homeland Security Department, Bush administration officials have spent the past three months meeting with key players in several high-profile corporate mergers, a top White House technology expert said. "One of the common themes we got out of all those meetings was that they all had fairly large integration teams," Lee Holcomb, the Office of Homeland Security's director of information infrastructure, said during a homeland security conference sponsored by E-Gov. Executives who helped orchestrate the mergers of Exxon and Mobil, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, and several other recent corporate marriages also emphasized the importance of "day one" communications capabilities, according to Holcomb.

Intellectual Property
Copyright Exception In Chile Deal Panics Software Industry
     The U.S. software industry was flustered after learning of a copyright provision in the new U.S.-Chile free-trade agreement that appears to leave software unprotected in certain cases. The exclusion may have been inadvertent, and one industry source said experts are trying to work with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to correct it. Perhaps the biggest concern is that the language could lead to a change in the law in the United States and elsewhere. At issue is a reference to an article of the European Union Copyright Directive that lists exceptions and limitations to the rule protecting copyrights. Under that article, temporary acts of reproduction that occur in the regular course of data transmissions are not protected. In Europe, the exemption does not apply to software because the copyright directive does not apply to software. Europe has a separate software directive. But in the Chile pact the exemption would apply to software, which would be a first in a trade agreement, sources said.

Trade
U.S. Faults China's WTO Implementation On Tech Issues
     One year after joining the World Trade Organization, the Chinese government is making solid strides toward implementing the trade-liberalizing commitments it made during the accession process, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said in a new report. But implementation is getting stuck at the local level, it said. The Bush administration found "a number of causes for serious concern." For instance, the USTR report said China's overall effort to allow public comment on draft laws and regulations is "plagued with uncertainty and a lack of uniformity." USTR praised China for "major improvements" in intellectual property rights through legal changes but cited a lack of effective enforcement procedures, which are required under the WTO. USTR also raised concern about a new regulation that appears to establish a broad right to require compulsory licensing of patents on all technologies introduced into China, an idea that may violate WTO limits on such practices.