Taxes
Panel Ponders Changes Before Approving Internet Tax Ban
     A House Judiciary subcommittee approved a bill that would permanently bar certain Internet-related taxes. Subcommittee members offered several amendments but withdrew them without votes on the condition that the full committee considers them later. The Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee approved the measure, H.R. 49, by voice vote. The bill would permanently ban taxes on Internet access, taxes that discriminate against e-commerce and multiple taxes on, for example, telecommunications firms that provide Internet connections. The current ban is set to expire in November. The panel made only technical corrections to the bill and no substantive changes.

Defense
White House Opposes Cuts In Technology Budget For Pentagon
     The Bush administration told the House that it "strongly opposes" provisions in the House Armed Services Committee's version of legislation to reauthorize Defense Department programs in fiscal 2004 that would cut $1.7 billion from information technology programs and delay planned retirements of ships and aircraft. The White House Office of Management and Budget released a statement that challenges a wide range of provisions in the bill now being considered by the full House. Those provisions include language intended to make sure civilian military personnel get the same pay raises as the troops and to cut the procurement workforce by 25 percent over five years, among other things.

Antitrust
Parties Debate Rule Changes For Computer Airfare Systems
     Airlines, online travel services, computer-reservation companies and technology firms all offered arguments on whether proposed Transportation Department regulations should be implemented and whether those regulations would stymie market growth and boost airfares. During the morning session of an all-day hearing sponsored by Transportation, many of the parties said the agency's proposed rules would hurt competition, so the department should quickly deregulate the computer-reservation marketplace. But America West, American Airlines and the online travel service Orbitz said such action could harm competition. A Hewlett-Packard lobbyist argued that "technology and innovation works worst when the government attempts to pick winners and losers, and issues detailed command-and-control regulation. ... We call for deregulation."

E-Commerce
China Seeks Exceptions To Hague Jurisdictional Treaty
     China, soon to be home to the most Internet users in the world, has worked to change the terms in a draft convention under which countries could enforce judgments in disputes arising from cross-border, business-to-business contracts, a U.S. source said. In recent negotiations of a small experts' group, China worked to strip from the draft a provision stating that recognition or enforcement of a disputed contract could be refused if the court specified in the contract is "not impartial." China also won late approval of language to allow countries to declare that their courts will refuse judgments from a specified country. That could affect U.S. investors, sources said. In the draft treaty, a key area of contention is whether non-negotiated contracts, such as those ostensibly entered into by clicking on Web sites or downloading software, should be covered.

Privacy
Financial Services 'Nervous' Over Lack Of White House Stance
     The Bush administration's lack of a stated position on whether to support an extension of the pre-emption of certain state laws is making the financial services industry nervous. The industry and broader business communities are mounting a major lobbying push to extend the pre-emption of state credit-reporting laws enacted in 1996. The provisions, part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, are set to expire at the end of 2003, and privacy mavens are worried that reauthorization of the law would preclude states like California from passing stricter privacy laws. "I would prefer that the administration would already have acted," said Financial Services Roundtable President Steve Bartlett, a former Republican representative from Texas. "I don't think they are playing footsie. They are genuinely studying the issues," he said, adding that "it makes us all nervous."

Telecom
Study: FCC Too Closely Tied To Its Constituents
     The FCC has an "incestuous" relationship with the industries it regulates, the Center for Public Integrity charged in a new report, hoping to shed light on just how the agency makes important regulatory decisions. "The report is astonishing because it reveals more than ever before just how incestuous the relationship is between the Federal Communications Commission and the broadcasting and cable industries it is supposed to regulate," said Charles Lewis, the center's executive director. Divided into three sections, the report reviews: the data the FCC relies upon to make its key decisions; the number of industry-sponsored trips taken by commissioners and staff over the past eight years; and media concentration in the hometowns of the five commissioners.

E-Government
Consumer Advocates, White House Discuss Software Standards
     Consumer advocates say the Bush administration is studying whether to require that federal agencies purchase more non-proprietary software in an effort to facilitate federal workers' ability to trade electronic documents and to boost competition in the software industry. Ralph Nader, founder of the advocacy group Public Citizen, met with outgoing White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell Daniels and other officials to discuss the government's use of its procurement powers in promoting software competition. Public Citizen has argued that a need for computer users to quickly swap electronic documents has given Microsoft a default monopoly in the market for word processing, spreadsheet and presentation-graphic software. Nader is concerned that "public information" stored electronically in formats like Microsoft's will force consumers to purchase Microsoft or Microsoft-related products.

Courts
House Panel Approves Class-Action Measure
     The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation to move most national class-action cases from state to federal courts. The bill, approved on a 20-14 vote, is designed to move cases to federal court if the total amount of the award is $2 million or more. The measure also would create a "consumer class-action bill of rights" for rewarding and protecting consumers against high payments to class-action lawyers and require that settlement information be written in plain English. Meanwhile, a draft of class-action legislation prepared by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and circulating on Capitol Hill offers several provisions that would make removal of litigation from state to federal court more difficult.