Taxes
Senate Votes For Four-Year Moratorium On Internet Taxes
     The Senate approved a four-year ban on Internet access taxes, ending a six-month impasse over the legislation. But the vote sets the stage for a battle with the House, which approved a permanent Internet tax moratorium last September. "This proves the Senate can come to a good result on a complex issue that affects millions of Americans and every state and local government," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said of the Senate compromise bill, shortly after it passed, 93-3. Alexander had been a leading opponent of the underlying legislation offered by Sen. George Allen, R-Va. But he voted for the bill after striking a deal hours earlier with Allen, Commerce Chairman John McCain R-Ariz., and several other senators on language that would preserve states' ability to tax traditional telephone services as they migrate to the Internet. The senators also agreed to extend for four years a grandfather clause that allows 11 states to continue to tax Internet access.

White House
President Bush Reiterates Call For Broadband Deployment
     All Americans must have access to high-speed Internet access to receive "the information that is transforming our economy," President Bush said in a speech on technology policy initiatives. "...It's the flow of information and the flow of knowledge [that] will help transform America and keep us on the leading edge of change, and we got to make sure that flow is strong and modern and vibrant," he said. He repeated his call for universal deployment of broadband technology by 2007. Bush noted that while 24 million Americans subscribe to broadband, more than triple the amount in 2000, America is "way short" of his goal of universal access. "We rank 10th amongst the industrialized world in broadband technology and its availability," he said. "That's not good enough for America. Tenth is 10 spots too low as far as I'm concerned." Bush has referred to broadband four times within the last month, beginning on the day presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts released an economic plan citing broadband as the first of four central tenets.

Intellectual Property
Industry Groups Seek More Global Action To Halt Piracy
     Entertainment and software industry association chiefs urged the federal government to commit more manpower toward enforcing a more active, international regime of intellectual property protection, but a key senator rebuffed the action plan. "We can earmark some money, but we can't meet the needs that you outlined," said Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Stevens made pointed comments that urged the industry heads to join the government in using the resources they already have. He compared digital global piracy to train robbery and said the United States largely eliminated that scourge only when industry collaborated with government officials to combat the problem. In particular, he urged industry officials to use a coordinating body called the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council. "We're aware of that agency, and perhaps we haven't used it most efficiently," admitted Jack Valenti, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association.

Intellectual Property
Senate Judiciary OKs Series Of Intellectual Property Bills
     The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a package of intellectual property bills. The committee voted to give prosecutors another tool to fight the piracy of movies and music by approving without debate a bill, S. 2237, that would expand the Justice Department's authority by allowing it to file civil copyright-infringement cases against copyright wrongdoers. The committee also approved by voice vote a bill, S. 1932, to get tough on people who secretly record films in theaters or steal music or software over the Internet. Prison sentences would range up to 10 years, and fines could be imposed as well. The committee also endorsed without debate a bill, S. 2192, to clarify patent laws in order to encourage cooperative research efforts for developing technology and combating diseases. In addition, the committee endorsed by voice vote a House bill, H.R. 1561, that would raise fees for the Patent and Trademark Office and let the agency keep all of the money it collects from such fees.

Privacy
Lawmakers, FTC Officials Clash Over Approach To 'Spyware'
     House lawmakers and FTC officials clashed over whether legislation can effectively combat the adverse effects of software that secretly records the actions and information of computer users. "I think that targeted legislation here at this time would be very difficult if not impossible to define," FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson said at a hearing before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. But if the FTC does not want Congress to intervene on the "spyware" matter, then the agency needs a detailed plan for combating the issue, said Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking Democrat Jan Schakowsky of Illinois. "The problem is not one of legal authority; it is developing and proving a case in federal court," said Howard Beales, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "The FTC has failed to stop the proliferation of spyware and adware, and that is my [concern]," said California Republican Mary Bono, author of a bill,H.R. 2929, that would require companies utilizing spyware to inform consumers of the practice and receive permission before loading the software onto computers.

On The Hill
Sen. Ensign Pessimistic About Debate Over Stock Options
     A Senate sponsor of legislation to block new accounting rules on employee stock options said he is pessimistic about the legislation's prospects in Congress and about the impact the new rules could have on the U.S. high-technology industry. "We will unfortunately lose this battle," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said at a Forum on Technology and Innovation policy workshop. "Unless the House pulls off a miracle," he said, legislation to overturn new accounting rules being drafted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is unlikely to prevail. "I was much more optimistic three months ago," Ensign said. With 60 days remaining before FASB issues its final rule, he urged supporters to pressure the accounting board to clarify and improve its requirements for counting stock options as expenses on company balance sheets. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also supports the current rule on stock options, which allows companies to just mention them in footnotes rather than counting them as options, values and expenses. He said the issue has been unfairly linked to accounting scandals and corporate governance reforms.

Security
Process For Aid To States Continues To Disturb Lawmakers
     Members of a House Homeland Security subcommittee expressed frustration with the processes for allocating federal funds to local communities and for the delays in sending money to "first responders" to emergencies. "Federal dollars are not going to those who need it most," full committee Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., said at a hearing of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Subcommittee. The Homeland Security Department's domestic preparedness office "has done a good job of allocating grant funds quickly," he said, but concerns abound because the money states receive is based on an "arbitrary, political formula" rather than risk of terrorism. Suzanne Mencer, director of that office, said her staff has "attempted to balance both issues." The office doubled its fiscal 2005 budget request for money to send to urban areas and gave the secretary flexibility for distributing those funds, she said.