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Doerr Criticizes Bush's Focus On Tax Cut
by Bara Vaida
Well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr stepped into the spotlight this past weekend to criticize President Bush's early emphasis on the income-tax cut he eventually won.
At a breakfast with New Democrats gathered in San Francisco to talk about technology policy, Doerr said the current economic slowdown has not been caused by sluggish consumer spending but rather by a decline in business investment in information technology. Because of that fact, more money in consumers' pockets will not help the overall economy recover, he said.
"We are in a technology recession, and this isn't a consumer problem. The problem is that companies have stopped investing in innovation," Doerr said. The federal government should give businesses a tax write-off on IT investments for one year in order to spur an economic turn-around, he said.
Doerr did not agree with most economists' assessment that the U.S. economy will return to growth in the second half of this year. He does not expect a recovery until mid-2002.
Doerr also expressed unhappiness with the Bush administration's proposed fiscal 2002 budget for federal research and development spending. "It's the worst it has been" since Ronald Reagan was president, he said. When pressed to grade the new administration on its high-tech policy, Doerr said he would like to give Bush another 90 days before offering an assessment.
Doerr also said he believes the 1996 Telecommunications Act should be reopened because facilities-based competition is not occurring, but he did not advocate any particular legislation that is pending in Congress.
TechNet's Day
Meanwhile, Doerr, who actively backed former Vice President Al Gore's bid for president, is planning to visit Washington in September and expects to talk to Bush administration officials about high-tech policy. The visit will coincide with a Sept. 12 reception he is hosting with TechNet, the bipartisan lobbying group he helped found in 1997.
TechNet will be hosting a day of events with lawmakers to promote the group's policy agenda, which includes reforming education and promoting trade. TechNet's other founding members, Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers and former Netscape Communications CEO Jim Barksdale, also are expected to attend the day's events, which include its annual political action committee dinner and awards ceremony for lawmakers who have supported their issues.
In other TechNet events, on Thursday in Silicon Valley, TechNet and VeriSign are hosting a lunch for Attorney General John Ashcroft and Robert Mueller, Bush's nominee to be FBI director. The CEO-only lunch will begin at noon and will include discussions on high-tech crime, unauthorized network access and digital piracy. According to TechNet, Ashcroft is expected to make several announcements on fighting high-tech crime.
On the Move
Rick Lane, the director of e-commerce and Internet technology for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is leaving to become vice president of government relations at News Corp. In his new post, Lane will lobby Congress on telecommunications, copyright matters and other policies affecting the Fox Entertainment Group and other News Corp. companies.
Tom Kalil, the former deputy director of the National Economic Council and technology adviser to President Clinton, has moved to the West Coast to become the special assistant to the chancellor for science and technology at the University of California at Berkeley. Kalil will advise the university on its science and technology curriculum. After leaving the White House, Kalil spent several months as a special fellow at the New America Foundation.
The National Science Foundation has named Judith Ramaley as the foundation's new assistant director for education and human resources. Effective Aug. 1, Ramaley, a biologist who served most recently as president of the University of Vermont, will oversee the office's $800 million annual portfolio, which supports research into learning at all education levels and numerous projects to improve educational performance within challenging school systems and regions.
J. Bradley Jansen, the deputy director of the Center for Technology Policy, has joined the Alexandria, Va.-based Prosperity Institute's Task Force on Information Exchange and Financial Privacy. The group is developing guidelines on individuals' financial privacy rights and is chaired by former Sen. Mack Mattingly, R-Ga. The group expects to release its first set of recommendations by the end of the summer.
Dittus Communications has hired Doug McGinn as a senior director to the firm's technology practice. McGinn had worked for Rainmaker Creative Thinking, an integrated marketing services firm, where he provided senior-level communications consulting to leading technology companies. In addition, he served on the staff of former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp and former Education Secretary William Bennett at Empower America.
The Never-Ending Nominations Cycle
In the administration, Bush announced his intent to nominate Jay Bybee to be the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC,) Tech Law Journal reported. Bybee is a professor at the University of Nevada Law School.
Richard Walker, the director of the Division of Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has left the SEC and returned to the private sector. During his tenure, the Enforcement Division created an Office of Internet Enforcement and began the SEC's efforts against online securities fraud. Stephen Cutler was named as the acting director.
In other SEC news, Bush officially nominated Harvey Pitt to be the SEC's chairman for a term expiring June 5, 2005.
FCC Fills Slots On Universal Service Board
The FCC, meanwhile, announced the appointment of new federal and state members to the Federal State Joint Board on Universal Service. FCC Commissioners Kathleen Abernathy and Kevin Martin were appointed as federal representatives, replacing former FCC Commissioners Susan Ness and Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
Lila Jaber of the Florida Public Service Commission and Thomas Dunleavy of the New York Public Service Commission were appointed to serve as state representatives, replacing Pat Wood, the former chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission, and the late Laska Schoenfelder, a former commissioner of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.
The Money Chase
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., is hosting an evening reception with Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Committee, on July 23. The event is will benefit the Future Leaders PAC, a soft-money committee Lewis created last July.
The reception will be held at the home of Bill Lowery, a partner at government relations firm Copeland, Lowery & Jacquez. The invitation was e-mailed via a Web site called Techissues.net, which launched earlier this year and advertised itself as a news site on technology policy issues.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meanwhile, reports that two of the New Democrat Network's newest members -- Reps. Brad Carson, D-Okla., and Rick Larsen, D-Wash. -- have been among the strongest fundraisers a year-and-a-half before the next election. Carson has raised $306,000 and has $225,000 in the bank. Larsen has raised $265,000 and has $235,000 yet to spend.
Both candidates, who say that technology is important to their districts and that they are working closely with New Democrats on tech issue, had tough races in last year's election, and early fundraising numbers could help ward off challengers in 2002.
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