Budget
Defense, Security Offer Top Tech Opportunities In Budget
     The Defense and Homeland Security departments would be recipients of most federal spending in fiscal 2004, as proposed by the Bush administration this week, and both of those departments would devote significant resources to new technologies. Overall spending on information technology would be $59 billion, up from the request of $53 billion last year. The Defense Department would remain the goliath of government, which at a proposed $379.9 billion would get almost half of the total $782.2 billion in discretionary money for fiscal 2004. The Defense proposal would emphasize network-centric warfare. Funding for the Homeland Security Department would be $36.2 billion. Technology-related funding also would go to entities such as the Commerce, Justice and Education departments, and the National Science Foundation.

Budget
Commerce Officials Defend Planned Cuts In Tech Programs
     Anticipating criticism of proposed budget cuts, Commerce Department officials went on the offensive in a budget briefing. President Bush called for eliminating Commerce's Advanced Technology Program and Technology Opportunities Program, and for phasing out funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The fiscal 2004 budget plan "recognizes that money is limited in wartime but research is critical," said Phil Bond, the Commerce undersecretary for technology. "I implore you all not to miss the forest for the trees. This is a pro-technology budget." Bond said he expects to be called to Capitol Hill to explain the proposed budget cuts but reiterated that despite the cuts, the Bush administration remains committed to the tech sector.

Budget
President's Budget Request For Science Triggers Criticism
     Republicans and Democrats alike on the House Science Committee criticized the percentage increases for science programs sought by the White House for fiscal 2004. "The administration's budget proposal for science and technology is disappointing, although perhaps unsurprising given the budgetary constraints," committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., said in a statement. "Many science programs do not even keep up with inflation." In particular, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, the ranking Democrat on the House Science Research Subcommittee, criticized the budget for the National Science Foundation (NSF). "Underfunding NSF is surely a grave mistake that will cost much more in loss of ideas and technology in the future," she said.

Budget
Science Agency Gets 'Green Light' For Management
     The National Science Foundation received the highest score of "green" for both its financial, e-government and information security management in the White House's fiscal 2004 budget proposal to Congress. The administration assessed all the agencies with a "traffic light" system to score them on compliance with the President's Management Agenda, and a green score indicated success in implementing the agenda. Departments that received high scores for e-government progress included Education, Energy and Labor. Departments with "red" ratings, which indicated poor results, included Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State and Transportation. Mitchell Daniels, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the report is key because the government has spent "trillions of dollars without getting a sense of what works and what doesn't and the president wants to do something about it."

Budget
Aspects Of Education Budget Concern Businessmen, Techies
     Business officials and educational technology advocates expressed a mix of disappointment and support for President Bush's fiscal 2004 budget proposal for the Education Department. They back Bush's proposal to increase by $1 billion the funding to school districts serving low-income students, and they support the call to keep funding of state block grants for technology programs at close to $1 billion. But the officials are disappointed that programs that are aimed specifically at training teachers in new technologies would be eliminated. Don Knezek, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, expressed concern that the decision on teacher training "shows a lack of priority around ensuring new teachers are qualified to teach."

Telecom
Tauzin's Telecom Advice To The FCC: 'Rip The Rules'
     The same debate about telecommunications regulation that plagued Congress the past two years resumed in a House hearing. Now that the FCC is on the verge of changing its rules, lawmakers wanted to make their views known. Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. (Billy) Tauzin, R-La., called on the FCC to "rip the rules" imposed by the Clinton administration "out by the roots and throw them away." Tauzin wants the agency to remove any regulations that apply to high-speed Internet investments by telecom firms and to eliminate the regulatory framework that requires the regional Bell telephone companies to share their networks with competitors. "At the very least, our Republican FCC commissioners should want a wholesale change to the overly regulatory approach taken by Al Gore and Reed Hundt," Tauzin said in reference to the vice president and FCC chairman under former President Clinton.

Intellectual Property
Experts Do Not Foresee Passage Of Piracy-Related Bills
     No government-mandated technology solutions or other legislation related to stopping online piracy is likely to pass Congress this year, a key Bush administration official said. Bruce Mehlman, the assistant Commerce secretary for technology policy, said he doubts that any of the three bills introduced last year will make it through the legislative process in 2003. Those bills included: S. 2048, which would have mandated the inclusion of anti-piracy technology in electronics products; H.R. 5211, which would have exempted copyright holders from anti-hacking laws for infiltrating computers to prevent piracy; and S. 2395, which would have banned tampering with authentication features affixed to software, movies and compact discs. "There will continue to be congressional sound and fury this year ... but I don't think, in my personal opinion, that it will lead to anything," Mehlman said.

Cyber Security
Alliance Releases Cyber-Security Tips Aimed At Consumers
     Programs to block computer viruses and other cyber-security measures need to become as habitual to U.S. consumers as locking their front doors or buckling their seatbelts, FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle said, as an industry group unveiled "common sense" security guidelines for home computer users. "We must realize that we each have a role to play, we have a responsibility, and we must be accountable for our actions -- or perhaps worse, for the lack of action," Swindle said during a briefing sponsored by the Internet Security Alliance. The alliance guidelines recommend that home users install anti-virus programs, as well as patches released by software vendors. Consumers also should install and use "firewall" programs, make backups of important files, use strong passwords, and use care when downloading and installing programs from the Internet, according to the guidelines.

Lobbying
Index Tries To Gauge Impact Of Technology Policies
     The increasing number of proposed policies related to the high-tech sector could have a negative impact on the ability for small and medium-sized high-tech firms to grow, officials with an industry association said. The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) evaluated legislation and regulations and their impact on the ability of companies to hire more staff and expand their businesses. The group concluded, in its first "Tech Environmental Quality Index," that such regulations are creating a growing economic threat. "This isn't a voting guide. ... Rather, this is about policies that create better or worse environments for businesses to operate," ACT President Jonathan Zuck said.