Security
Senate Passes Bill That Would Ease Wiretapping Rules
     The Senate passed a bill that would ease wiretapping rules contained in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The legislation, passed on a 90-4 vote, would make it easier for the FBI to seek warrants for wiretaps and searches on non-Americans suspected of planning terrorist attacks. The bill would eliminate a requirement that the agency show that a suspect is connected to a known terrorist group or a country that sponsors terrorism.

Digital Television
Rep. Markey Seeks More Pressure For Digital TV Transition
     Unless the industries involved in the transition to digital television believe Congress will legislate a solution to the issues surrounding that transition, they are unlikely to resolve the issues on their own, a top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said. The threat of a congressional solution "should hang over their heads like a sword of Damocles," Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., told a meeting of the American Cable Association. Without that threat, it is unlikely that the industries successfully will negotiate solutions to copy protection, rules on what content must be carried and other challenges that have slowed the migration from analog to digital TV transmission.

Education
Lawmaker Pushes For Teacher-Improvement Funding
     A lawmaker who is a scientist touted a new report detailing the need for cultural change in the nation's perception of math and science education as evidence that Congress should increase funding of specific teacher-improvement programs. New Jersey Democrat Rush Holt, one of two physicists in the House, told an audience gathered to discuss a Committee for Economic Development report that math and science teaching must improve for the United States to see an increase in the number of students interested those topics. Holt said he would push for $200 million for the math and science partnership in the Education Department's fiscal 2004 budget.

Trade
House Panel Raises Concerns About Singapore, Chile Deals
     Republican and Democratic members of a House subcommittee raised various concerns about the proposed U.S. trade agreements with Singapore and Chile. But at the hearing, administration officials and technology industry representatives held fast to their support for the agreements. Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Edward Markey of Massachusetts raised concerns about Singaporean corporations that are majority government-owned being able to compete in the United States. Ralph Ives, the assistant U.S. trade representative for Asia-Pacific affairs and lead negotiator to Singapore, acknowledged that they could compete but said that in the telecommunications chapter of the deal, the Singaporean government agreed not to interfere with company operations and to privatize the nation's telecom industry over time.

Security
Passenger Screening Could Be Expanded To Rail, Cruises
     A screening system for airline passengers eventually could be extended to cover travel by rail and on cruise ships, the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said, but such a step would not occur without oversight, open debate and privacy safeguards. TSA chief James Loy, a retired admiral, said the Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System under development by the Homeland Security Department is designed to be a "national transportation security system" and not confined merely to aviation. Loy told Florida Republican Adam Putnam, chairman of a House Government Reform subcommittee, that the system could be extended to rail and cruise ships.

Government Reform
Tech Chief For Homeland Security Discusses Reform Progress
     The Homeland Security Department's top technology leader said that a "roadmap" outlining the new department's business process and corollary technology support should be released by the end of September. Steven Cooper told the House Government Reform Committee that his department is making progress in its Herculean task of integrating the operations of the 22 federal agencies that were transferred under Homeland Security's umbrella. The department's directorates are tasked with everything from border and immigration control and intelligence sharing to coordinating nationwide disaster response. He told lawmakers that the architecture development plans will be disclosed in phases beginning in June, with the release of the current architecture. By August, the department aims to release a "to be" architecture that will detail business strategies and "mission elements" of the department and its directorates.

Security
Experts Predict Increase In Tech Contracts Within The Year
     Companies looking to do business with the Homeland Security Department are likely to see procurement opportunities increase next year, technology experts from industry and government said. "I think you'll see, toward the end of [2003] and into [2004], a lot more investments happening," Jim Flyzik, who served as Tom Ridge's senior adviser for information technology in the White House Office of Homeland Security, said during a conference sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. Flyzik, a former Treasury Department chief information officer who is now a partner in a consulting firm for companies that contract with the government, said homeland security officials are using most of the department's current budget for "planning purposes," such as mapping how to integrate the financial and human resources systems of the 22 component agencies.

Business
Experts See Trouble Ahead For U.S. Semiconductor Industry
     The semiconductor industry, the largest U.S. manufacturing sector, will be lured to competing nations in Asia and Europe if the U.S. government does not help, a panel of private-sector and academic experts said. They made the prediction at an event sponsored by the Northeast-Midwest Senate Coalition, the Senate Task Force on Manufacturing and the National Academies, which released a report. The biggest competitive threat comes from China, which is busily adopting Taiwan's successful policies. The biggest concern is a 17 percent levy on chips imported into China, compared with a 3 percent tax on those produced within the country. Europe and Japan continue to provide government support for microelectronics research and development, the experts said. Japan and Europe's R&D strategies emphasize chips for communications technologies because they believe future Internet access will be through cell phones.

Taxes
California Senate OKs Taxes On Some Internet Sales
     The California Senate voted to make online retailers collect sales taxes from their California customers. The legislation is somewhat broader than a similar bill that Gov. Gray Davis vetoed three years ago but that he said he would reconsider as the Internet matured. The measure, passed on a 23-15 vote, would apply not only to online sellers affiliated with companies that have retail outlets in California but also to out-of-state firms that offer local repair services to Californians.