Telecom
FTC Request For More Telecom Power Greeted Skeptically
     Commissioners from the agency charged with protecting the nation's consumers from fraud went to Capitol Hill this week seeking greater authority. FTC Chairman Timothy Muris and three of the agency's commissioners told members of the House and Senate that the FTC should be granted new powers over telecommunications companies, unsolicited commercial e-mail and global Internet fraud. Muris said Congress should expand FTC powers to prosecute individuals who send deceptive e-mails, including those who falsify return addresses. Agency Commissioner Thomas Leary defended the need for more authority over "common carrier" telecom companies, saying those firms, such as the Bell companies, "are less regulated by government fiat and more by competition." But House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. (Billy) Tauzin did not like the idea. The Louisiana Republican said "dual regulation" is not necessary.

Cyber Security
Lawmakers Concerned About Government's Cyber Security
     Two lawmakers key to the cyber-security debate raised concerns about the cyber-security capabilities of the Homeland Security Department, but both agreed that the agency has made progress on the issue. The government is "way behind in protecting this country in the critical area of cyber security," said Texan James Turner, ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. And although the Homeland Security Department is now the top point of contact for cyber security and critical infrastructure protection, he said, it is "not up to speed." Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, defended the decision to transfer responsibility for the federal government's information security from the White House to the new department, calling it "the logical thing to do." The question, Bennett said, is how the new cyber-security division at Homeland Security integrates with the other functions of the department.

Security
Appropriations Subcommittee Approves Homeland Spending Package
     A House Appropriations subcommittee approved a $29.4 billion spending package for the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2004. The bill would exceed by $535 million the spending level enacted in fiscal 2003. The measure also would represent an increase of more than $1 billion over President Bush's fiscal 2004 budget request. Programs for emergency "first responders" would be funded at $4.4 billion, or $888 million more than Bush requested. The legislation would provide nearly $5.2 billion for the Transportation Security Administration, a $360 million increase over Bush's request. Another provision would fund border security programs at $9 billion, or $400 million more than in fiscal 2003. The department's science and technology programs would be funded at $900 million under the legislation, $97 million more than the president's request. The legislation also calls for $918 million to modernize information technology related to the department's border security and customs and immigration operations. It would provide $130 million less than Bush requested for the department's U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program, for a total of $350 million.

Privacy
Critics Of Credit-Reporting Law Oppose Rewrite Of Act
     Consumer and privacy groups continued their uphill campaign against a law governing credit reporting that is set to expire at the end of the year, urging Congress to rebuff the business community's united demands to renew the law. Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, told a House Financial Services subcommittee that Congress should let the 1996 federal pre-emptions to state law in the Fair Credit Reporting Act expire. Representatives from the Mortgage Bankers Association, Well Fargo, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers and the credit bureau TransUnion urged re-extension of those pre-emptions. Subcommittee Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., and Privacy Times Editor Evan Hendricks, who was scheduled to testify, said in written testimony that businesses that furnish credit data should be required to report both positive and negative credit information. They also said credit bureaus need to take greater measures to combat identity theft.

Taxes
Colorado Gov. Raises Privacy Concerns Over Tax Compact
     Colorado Gov. Bill Owens reiterated a call to stop the momentum of a multistate sales-tax plan that ultimately seeks to tax online commerce, arguing that the initiative would erode state tax rights and create potential privacy violations. The two-term Republican told audience members at the Cato Institute that revenue shortfalls in states and localities are propelling an initiative known as the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, which seeks to create a national compact to harmonize sales-tax rules, thus laying the foundation for the taxing of online commerce. Owen said the initiative would diminish the rights of states to control their own taxing authority, adding that it also could force state tax leaders to collect consumer data in order to conduct audits.

Intellectual Property
New Copyright Measures Stir Opposition In The States
     Opposition to the "super DMCA" bills is growing in state legislatures and among interest groups. The legislation, supported by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), looks to toughen penalties for cable and spectrum theft. Opponents say that it is an effort to expand the reach of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and that it could criminalize legal behavior. The Florida version of the bill is awaiting the governor's signature, and another is pending in Georgia. As a result, interest groups such as the Consumer Electronics Association and Electronic Frontier Foundation are crafting letters opposing the bills. At issue are provisions that ban "unlawful access devices," making it illegal to possess or use devices to access copyrighted information but allowing for criminal prosecution even if copyrighted information is not accessed.

Lobbying
High-Tech Coalition Re-Energizes To Tout Trade Deals
     As Congress begins its review of U.S. trade agreements with Singapore and Chile, the U.S. High-Tech Trade Coalition is front and center to help build support. The goal of the 12-member coalition of industry associations is to ensure that the margin of passage for the deals is wider than the margin last year for the bill expanding the president's power to negotiate trade pacts. "We are looking to raise the level of Democratic support relative to" that bill, which the House passed by a razor-thin margin last August, said Joe Pasetti, government relations manager at the Information Technology Industry Coalition, who is managing the trade coalition's activities. "These are the first two agreements to come for a congressional vote" since the votes for that legislation, Pasetti said. "They have many provisions that we strongly support."

Intellectual Property
Corporate Titans See Common Cause In Fight Against Piracy
     Technology, cable and broadcast companies need to work together to stop video piracy from reaching the tsunami-level dimensions that have engulfed the music industry, the top executives of AOL Time Warner, Microsoft, Viacom and Comcast agreed. "Finally, people are getting their minds around the enormity of the problem" of digital piracy over peer-to-peer computer networks, AOL CEO Richard Parsons said at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association conference in Chicago. He and Viacom's Mel Karmazin agreed that fears of digital piracy are slowing the transition to digital television. Microsoft chief Bill Gates did not disagree with that assessment. But he and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, the fourth panelist in the discussion about digital TV and high-speed Internet access, stressed the need for consumer-friendly content.