Security
U.S. Will Not Be Able To Read High-Tech Foreign Passports
     The United States will not be prepared to read high-tech passports of foreign visitors this fall, even if Congress does not extend the deadline for certain foreign countries to have the imbedded biometric technology. "We will not make that deadline," Elaine Dezenski, acting assistant secretary at the Homeland Security Department's border said at a hearing this week. Dezenski said the department would not have enough passport readers deployed to every port of entry by Oct. 26, 2005. That date reflects a one-year extension approved by Congress last year requiring every country participating in the "visa waiver" program to have facial recognition technology imbedded into passports or other travel documents by this fall. Many of the 27 countries in the program have said they would once again need another extension to meet the October deadline.

Privacy
Experts Push For Changes To Anti-Terror Law Provisions
     Internet technologies are likely to make Americans' telephone and e-mail communications more readily accessible to law enforcement authorities without much accountability - unless Congress updates the nation's privacy and anti-terrorism laws, privacy experts said this week. They testified at a sparsely-attended hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, which focused on key provisions of the anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act. These provisions, which are set to expire this year, updated U.S. law to reflect technological developments. The sections set to expire address law enforcement's ability to search and seize voice mail, Internet service providers' rights to contact law enforcement for help if they are being subjected to computer hacking, and the ability for law enforcers to access electronic evidence nationally and speedily across several legal jurisdictions.

Security
White House Objects To Measure On Funding Formulas
     The Bush administration is objecting to a House bill crafted by the House Homeland Security Committee chairman to revamp the funding formula for the nation's emergency "first responders," including a carefully negotiated provision to increase funding for border states. The Homeland Security Department said while it appreciates that the bill offered by Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., would provide greater flexibility to allocate funding on the basis of risk and threat rather than population factors, the department opposes Cox's new formula "for a number of reasons," according to a department document. Cox's panel approved the first responder bill this week. "As chairman, I am in solid agreement with the administration," said Cox about the formula. "While the legislation does not completely eliminate formula distributions, it is 99 percent risk-based." The department said it supports the bill's minimum funding level of .25 percent for each state, but opposes applying the minimum amount to all three "first responder" grant programs.

Budget
Bush Science Adviser Defends R&D Budget Plan
     John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, defended the Bush administration's investments in research and development and called for better tools to analyze the expenditures in the future. In remarks delivered at a forum sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Marburger responded to critics who argue President Bush is falling short in his commitment to basic research in his fiscal 2006 budget proposal. "The sequence of R&D budgets during President Bush's administration very clearly shows a strong commitment to science and technology," Marburger said. "The 2006 budget increases total R&D investment by $733 million to a new high of $132.3 billion, which is 45 percent greater than FY 2001's $91.3 billion." Marburger challenged grim conclusions by research funding advocates who point to a falling percentage of federal investment in R&D compared to gross domestic product figures.

E-Government
GAO Finds Government IT Watch List Ineffective
     The watch list of information technology projects maintained by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is not sufficiently used as an evaluation tool, according to government auditors. Because OMB does not require follow-ups on projects and does not maintain a centralized list of those that are at risk, the Government Accountability Office found that OMB does not know whether the projects on the list are being managed effectively. The report found that OMB compiles the watch list by polling 12 OMB analysts, each responsible for the IT projects of several agencies. Follow-ups to the watch list are at the discretion of the OMB staff responsible for reviewing each agency's budget submission, according to the report. GAO said OMB does not know whether the watch-list projects were being managed effectively.

Telecom
Bell Firms Charged With Favoritism
     A key House lawmaker skewered Bell companies for favoring wealthier customers over lower-income neighborhoods as they deploy video services. Concerns about "redlining" by Bell companies took center stage before a House panel, underscoring the controversy surrounding the phone industry's push into cable's terrain. Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, ranking Democrat on the House telecommunications subcommittee, criticized Verizon Communications and SBC Communications for targeting wealthier customers in the firms' initial video deployments. He said their plans would "widen rather than bridge the digital divide" and urged them to include low-income areas in their early rollouts.

Digital Television
Key Chairman Reinforces Transition Deadline To Broadcasters
     The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has insisted that broadcasters accept that Congress is likely to pass a fixed deadline by which all television must become digital. Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, has proposed that all broadcasters cease analog transmission and transmit only digital television by Dec. 31, 2006. He added that legislation to that effect would be introduced within three weeks. He is open to delaying that date "a little bit," but not by two or three years, he said. Under current law, analog signals cease when 2006 comes to a close, or when 85 percent of consumers receive digital signals, whichever is later. Barton said at the National Association of Broadcasters' annual convention that "if we leave the law, and do the do-nothing solution, and that is certainly something Congress is capable of doing, as the various regions of the country start to reach" the 85 percent threshold, consumers with analog sets will lose their signals -- and there will be no massive public relations effort and no subsidies to ease the transition for low-income households.

Courts
High Court Rules Investors Must Link Fraud To Stock Losses
     The Supreme Court ruled that investors must prove a causal connection between the drop in a company's stock price and alleged fraud before investor lawsuits can move forward. The unanimous decision was a major victory for publicly-traded technology companies, whose shares are often volatile because they are some of the most popular securities instruments of day traders. Studies cited by the technology CEO lobbying group TechNet in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case show that companies in the technology industry are the target of 40 percent of all private securities litigation. In the opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, the high court said the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled erroneously because its decision was not supported by precedent, conflicted with all the other appellate court rulings on the matter and went against the goal of the nation's common law and securities laws.