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New Coalition Seeks Permanent Tax Ban
by Ted Leventhal
Consumer groups, Internet service providers and technology companies have formed a new group to advocate on behalf of legislative measures to keep the Internet tax-free.
The group, the Consumer Internet Access Coalition, consists of more than 30 tech companies, public-interest groups and trade associations advocating a permanent moratorium on taxing Internet access.
The coalition's corporate members include: Amazon.com, America Online, eBay and Yahoo; the telephone firms AT&T, BellSouth, Sprint and Verizon Communications; wireless providers and equipment manufacturers; and even non-tech companies like General Motors and Procter & Gamble. In addition to tech trade associations, the coalition includes Americans for Tax Reform, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Taxpayers Union and the Seniors Coalition.
The coalition's spokesman is Dave McClure, president of the U.S. Internet Industry Association.
The group is backing a Senate bill, S. 150, that would impose a permanent ban on all Internet-access taxes. The coalition opposes alternative legislation on Internet taxation introduced by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Tom Carper, D-Del.
After Sen. George Allen, R-Va., and Alexander failed to reach a compromise on their bills last week, the group heightened its campaign. "The Alexander-Carper bill would not tax the Internet but tax consumers," McClure said in a statement. "Alexander claims that his legislation will keep Internet access free for another two years, and that's simply not true."
'Outsourcing' Bills And Other 'Goofy Things'
This election year we can expect "a lot of goofy things coming out of Congress," Virginia Republican Tom Davis, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, told an audience at the National Press Club on Monday. "But one of the goofyist is the idea that everything the government buys must be produced in the U.S.A."
Several House and Senate bills would bar companies that have "outsourced" U.S. jobs overseas from receiving government contracts or grants.
"For the record, I'm a purist," Davis said. "The government should get the best value for the taxpayer dollar, period. When we set aside this and that, it raises the cost of acquisition. ... I'm for getting the best deal for the taxpayer.
Protectionist measures invite retaliation from our trading partners, quickly undermining our global economic position, Davis added. "Twenty-five percent of the world's wealth is in America, but that could quickly shrink to 5 percent if we only trade with ourselves."
Davis said the public should "have faith in American ingenuity" to produce more jobs than will be lost during this economic transition. "If we start tampering with the procurement process, we will find out very quickly that it will be a net loss for America," he said.
A computer-security expert on a panel last Tuesday sponsored by the encryption-software vendor PGP also took aim at outsourcing critics, attacking those who raise security fears over foreign software programmers and customer service call-center operators.
"I don't think it makes a difference whether software is written in Bangalore [India] or Redmond, [Wash.]," former White House cyber-security adviser Richard Clarke said. He called for independent analysis of all software written in the United States and overseas, noting that analysts now can identify common security flaws inserted accidentally or intentionally.
The jobs issue is important, Clarke said, "but people are adding the security dimension to make the issue more sexy. It's a phony icing on the cake."
Movement In The Private Sector
Alfred Mottur, a former senior counsel to Ernest (Fritz) Hollings, D-S.C., on the Senate Commerce Committee, has joined Brownstein Hyatt & Farber as senior counsel. Mottur's experience includes telecommunications and technology legislation and regulations.
As senior counsel to Hollings during his tenure as committee chairman, Mottur was responsible for all telecom legislation, policy and hearings in the committee. Before moving to Capitol Hill he was with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, representing clients before Congress and the administration on telecom, intellectual property, Internet and other issues.
Mariana Pacheco, the deputy director of the trade bureau with the Embassy of Columbia in Washington, has joined Mottur in the private sector. She is now with the trade and government relations practice of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg.
Pacheco held the rank of counselor with the Columbian Embassy for four years, including 10 months as director in charge. Earlier she worked as a U.N. development project consultant in Columbia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She also has taught international economics and international relations theory in Columbia.
And Amy Calhoun, a former vice president with the Washington public-relations firm Stanton Communications, has been named the firm's new managing director. Calhoun led the firm's technology practice, representing clients like Connectiv, Sprint and W.L. Gore & Associates. In 2002, she was appointed to the board of the Washington, D.C., Technology Council.
Awards All Around
Industry groups last week praised several lawmakers for their leadership on tech issues.
The Information Technology Industry Council on Thursday named Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., as its Legislators of the Year. Lieberman and Goodlatte were praised for their leadership on technology education and training for America's workforce, emerging technologies, and incentives to keep critical industries in the United States.
On Wednesday, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) named Sen. George Allen, R-Va., its "Cyber Champion" of 2003 for his "outstanding leadership and commitment to policies that promote a safe and legal digital world." A statement from BSA's CEO Robert Holleyman praised Allen for his work on cyber security, the high-speed Internet, trade and e- commerce.
Meanwhile, Phil Bond, the Commerce Department's undersecretary for science and technology, and Lu Gregg, president of the Foundation for the Study of America's Technology Leadership, will host the annual Student Technology Roundtable at the Carnegie Institution in Washington on March 16 as part of national Excellence in Science, Technology and Mathematics Week.
The roundtable draws together the winners of top student science contests, parents, teachers, scientists, business leaders and government officials to discuss "the next generation of American innovators and their future in the competitive global economy."
As part of the event, National Medal of Technology recipients Calvin Carter and Leo Manzer will host a question-and-answer session on science and technology issues with 400 middle- and high-school students from Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
The Lobbying Lowdown
Federal filings compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine.com noted more security-related filings.
Techvision21 registered Friday to represent Send Word Now on "communication for emergency preparedness and response," and the Carmen Group registered to lobby for Advanced Technology Systems on tech spending at the Defense and Homeland Security departments.
And O'Brien & Associates filed to represent the Internet company Internap for House and Senate debate over spending on Internet and cyber-security technologies.
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