Security
Homeland Security Strategy Needs 'Sharpening,' Expert Says
     As government and industry officials work to implement the Bush administration's homeland security strategy, the document will need to be "sharpened" with more specific guidance, the chairman of the four-year-old Gilmore Commission said. Speaking at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce conference on critical infrastructure protection, former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore said his counter-terrorism panel plans to spend much of its fifth, and probably final, year developing recommendations for updating the security strategy. "I think that as we close this thing out, we're going to ... urge that the national strategy be very focused and sharpened up so that we get some real direction to federal, state, local and [private-sector] people," Gilmore said.

Security
Customs Official Details Work Toward Secure Ports, Borders
     The Homeland Security Department's efforts to tighten border security while facilitating the flow of legitimate cargo have kept delays to a minimum in recent weeks at the nation's seaports and land borders, a senior customs official said. "The borders are open," Jayson Ahern, an assistant commissioner at the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, said during a conference at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Substantial improvements have occurred since [the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks]." Ahern said last month's transfer of the Customs Service's functions to the Homeland Security Department has boosted efficiency at the borders. "We've already started to see some of the enhancements and some of the accountability and responsibility improving operational procedures at the border," he said.

Budget
Expert: Pentagon Favors 'Legacy' Weapons R&D
     Although the Pentagon's fiscal 2004 budget calls for an unprecedented investment in research and development programs, most of that money would focus on traditional "legacy" weapons systems instead of transformational technologies, a leading defense budget analyst told reporters. President Bush has requested $380 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2004, about $62 billion of which would fund R&D programs. That would be a $4.3 billion increase over fiscal 2003 R&D spending and a $20 billion increase over fiscal 2001 levels. But the question of whether the budget emphasizes the most important priorities is "debatable," according to Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "The administration has made a rhetorical commitment to transformation, and I think in some important ways they have made a few changes," Kosiak said. "But I think there's still a question as to whether we're not still too focused on the ... legacy systems."

On The Hill
Fight Over Expensing Stock Options Moves To Congress
     This week's vote by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to require public companies to count their employee stock options as expenses prompted one of California's senators to vow a legislative fight against the rules change. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said she and Nevadan John Ensign, chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, plan to introduce legislation to block the action. The bill would be a companion to a House measure, H.R. 1372, introduced in March. The legislation would halt any mandate that stock options be counted as expenses and direct securities regulators to review the economic impact of that idea. FASB, an independent board that sets the nation's accounting rules, said the move would make the financial markets and company balance sheets more transparent for investors. Technology companies say the decision would harm investors.

Privacy
Groups Slam Amazon For Violating Children's Privacy Law
     The Electronic Privacy Information Center and 10 other privacy groups accused Internet retailer Amazon.com of violating a children's online privacy law because the Web site collected minors' e-mail addresses and permitted children to post reviews including personal information on the Web site. In a complaint before the FTC, the groups urged an investigation into the company's information-collection practices and said the site should destroy records collected from minors on portions of the site it said are targeted at children. Under current law, Web sites that are directed at children -- or where the operator has knowledge that children's personal information is being collected -- must provide notice of information practices to parents and "obtain verifiable parent consent for the collection" of such information. Meanwhile, the online auctioneer eBay was pulled into the privacy fray when an activist charged it with deceptive trade practices because of discrepancies between its summarized privacy principles and its full privacy policy.

Privacy
Financial Institutions Await Customer Verification Rules
     Banks and other financial institutions are cautiously awaiting customer-verification regulations expected to be released by the Treasury Department within the next few weeks. The rules, which sprang from a range of rules against money laundering included in the 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act, are expected to require banks to ask customers for identification before establishing accounts. The unsettled issues include which financial services firms will be regulated and how, whether banks are required to ask for and store copies of individual driver's licenses, and whether banks must periodically check their customers' names against Treasury's "watch list" of suspected terrorists. Some financial institutions believe that customers will consent even to stringent identity verification rules because of their concerns about ID theft, which polls show is a top privacy fear of consumers.

Labor
Manufacturers Work To Reshape Image Among The Young
     As baby boomers retire and the image of manufacturing declines in students' minds, companies that make products are going to have a harder time finding highly skilled workers, according to a report released by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Businesses will have to do more to educate high-school and college students about the good pay and working conditions of manufacturing jobs -- one of the nation's key sectors -- or else the overall economy will suffer, NAM President Jerry Jasinowski said. The manufacturing sector represents about 20 percent of the economy and is a major purchaser of technology products, Jasinowski said. Hence the health of the sector should be a key concern for the business community, as well as Congress.