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Editor's Note: The top three stories today begin a series on the key technology players and issues before the committees of the 110th Congress. The package will run over the next two weeks.
On The Hill
House Commerce: John Dingell At The Helm Again
by David Hatch
Michigan Democrat John Dingell, the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is a recognizable face in Washington and on the panel. A congressman since 1955, he ran Commerce from 1981 until the Democrats lost control of the House in 1995.
For years, Dingell was viewed as closely aligned with the Bell telephone companies, but as they consolidated and moved beyond their core local phone businesses, his opinions also evolved.
Last year, during the protracted battle over Republican-backed telecommunications legislation, Dingell came out swinging against AT&T, BellSouth (now part of AT&T) and Verizon Communications, which sought to eliminate local franchise restrictions and prevent regulation of their growing high-speed Internet businesses.
"This bill threatens real harm to consumers, to our communities and to citizens of the Internet," Dingell said during committee action on the measure. "Many people will be worse off after this bill than they are today. I urge a no vote."
Yet in 2001, Dingell teamed with then-committee Chairman W.J. (Billy) Tauzin, R-La., on a bill to let the Bells offer nationwide Internet access. The FCC later granted much of the relief they sought. A longtime telecom powerbroker, Dingell also was central to passage of the watershed 1996 Telecommunications Act.
Following the mid-term election, he outlined an ambitious agenda for 2007. Among the priorities: fresh telecom legislation with a more deregulatory focus; further examination of television "indecency," a perennial concern; and renewed efforts to overhaul the multibillion-dollar universal service fund that subsidizes telecom services in rural and impoverished areas.
The second-highest ranking Democrat on Commerce is Henry Waxman of California who is usually more focused on health and clean air than telecom, industry observers said. He supports retaining and strengthening the FCC's limits on media ownership, which are now under agency review, and voted against last year's telecom bill.
On the Republican side, a notable new face at Energy and Commerce is former House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who served on the panel before becoming speaker in late 1998. Known for his strong Bell support, Hastert voted for last year's industry-endorsed legislation.
Other key players include Rick Boucher, D-Va., who will head the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee. He was in line to run the Telecommunications and the Internet panel had Edward Markey, D-Mass., selected another committee. (See separate story)
Boucher split with Dingell and Markey by voting for Barton's bill, though he aligned with them on the need for tougher Internet regulation. Boucher and Lee Terry, a Republican panel member from Nebraska, collaborated on USF legislation last year and plan to renew that effort.
Democrat Bobby Rush of Illinois, who co-sponsored last year's telecom legislation with now-ranking committee Republican Joe Barton of Texas, will head the Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee.
California Democrat Jane Harman, an advocate of increasing funding for emergency responders to improve communication across jurisdictions, rejoined Energy and Commerce this year after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected Harman's bid to head the Intelligence Committee. Harman was on Commerce from 2001 to 2002.
The Democratic newcomers to the panel -- John Barrow of Georgia, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, Baron Hill of Indiana, Darlene Hooley of Oregon, Charlie Melancon of Louisiana, Jim Matheson of Utah and Anthony Weiner of New York -- have limited tech backgrounds.
Matheson has sponsored bills designed to shelter children from Internet porn and mandate videogame ratings. In 2006, he backed Democratic efforts to enact Internet regulation.
Weiner previously introduced minor telecom bills addressing wireless and broadcast issues. He also sits on the House Judiciary Committee, which has some jurisdiction over telecom and copyright matters.
Hill returns to Congress after reclaiming the seat he lost in 2004. He has served on the New Democrat Coalition, which promotes a high-tech economy and job growth. Harman, Hooley and Melancon are coalition members.
Barton now finds himself heading the panel's minority after shepherding his telecom bill to the floor, where it passed 321-101. Other returning GOP members include Fred Upton of Michigan, who relinquishes the telecom subcommittee chairmanship, and Charles (Chip) Pickering of Mississippi. Both Pickering and Upton played key roles in negotiating last year's legislation.
New Mexico Republican Heather Wilson, who voted against passage of Barton's bill, remains on the panel after a razor-thin election victory.
Also back on the GOP side are: universal service supporter Barbara Cubin of Wyoming; Nathan Deal of Georgia, a proponent of per-channel pricing for cable, and Cliff Stearns of Florida, who is considered friendly to broadcasters.
Stearns previously offered legislation to relax the media-ownership limits, though he recently supported upping the television indecency fines.
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On The Hill
Rep. Markey's Hand Will Rock The Telecom Cradle
by David Hatch
Rep. Edward Markey faced a perplexing choice late last year. He could head the House Resources Committee and inherit the prestige and large staff that comes with running a full committee, or he could chair a subcommittee, albeit a high-profile one that involves a subject matter he appears to relish.
Markey chose the latter, putting him at the helm of the Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee for the second time. He ran it from 1987 to 1994, when finance also fell under its rubric, and was its senior Democrat from 1994 to 2006. Markey joined Commerce and the subcommittee in 1977.
What the telecom panel lacks in stature it makes up for in influence. It is effectively the cradle of telecom policy for Congress, and for a mere subcommittee, it is a fundraising magnet. The communications/electronics sector represents Markey's biggest source of political dollars from 1989 to 2006, having filled his coffers with $1.6 million, according to the watchdog Center for Responsive Politics.
Markey has been mum about his 2007 agenda and his office declined to comment. But he is expected to continue pushing for restrictions barring telecom and cable giants from potentially controlling the content flowing over their high-speed Internet lines. He also opposes any further FCC relaxation of the nation's media-ownership limits.
"Unless we continue to revere localism and diversity, we risk encouraging a new round of 'communications cannibalism' in mass media properties," he warned during a speech this month. Localism refers to the notion that broadcasters should generate locally produced news and public affairs content.
Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., recently told reporters that Markey will take the initial lead on telecom matters with an "activist" role. Markey, known for his blunt rhetoric and stances critical of industry, plans to hold an FCC oversight hearing in February involving all five agency regulators, though it has not been announced.
Michigan Republican Fred Upton ran the subcommittee in the 109th Congress and is the top Republican now. He helped craft deregulatory telecom legislation that the House easily passed last year. Panel member Charles (Chip) Pickering of Mississippi also helped with that bill. He co-chairs the Congressional Wireless Caucus and is a member of the House Republican High-Tech Working Group.
Other key tech players on the telecom subcommittee include Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., who are jointly seeking to overhaul the universal service program that subsidizes telecom connections in rural areas.
New to the subcommittee is former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. He let Markey offer on the floor last year language aimed at guaranteeing a "neutral" Internet. Hastert took the step even though he and other GOP stalwarts opposed the measure.
When Markey revs up network neutrality again, he is expected to have the support of Republican subcommittee member Heather Wilson of New Mexico, who sided with him in 2006 in opposing the GOP's telecom bill. Other subcommittee members who support net neutrality regulation include Democrats Boucher, Anna Eshoo of California and Jay Inslee of Washington.
Democrats new to Commerce and the subcommittee are Jane Harman of California, an advocate of improving emergency communications, and Baron Hill, who regained the Indiana seat he lost two years ago. Lois Capps and Hilda Solis of California and Gene Green of Texas are new to the telecom panel but already were on Commerce.
In addition to Hastert, the only other Republican fresh face is Mary Bono of California, who has been on the full Commerce Committee.
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On The Hill
House Consumer Protection Panel Plans Busy Tech Year
by Andrew Noyes
The House panel charged with protecting consumer interests is prepping for a busy year, and it will have some new members who likely will bring new issues with them.
In the 109th Congress, the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection held hearings on Internet governance; digital sanitization of movies; privacy issues pertaining to Social Security numbers and e-commerce; violent and explicit videogames; and "fair use" of copyrighted material.
It is unclear whether new Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., will pursue a similar tech-driven agenda. He has not publicly outlined his priorities for the panel, and attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.
Rush has shown an interest in technology and telecommunications issues. Last year, he co-sponsored a measure aimed at lowering cable television prices and was active in the network neutrality debate, which centered on whether owners of high-speed Internet system operators should be able to charge for faster access to some content.
Several of Rush's colleagues have outlined their priorities. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, who previously was the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, will push legislation to protect consumers' personal information and privacy.
She previously advocated legislation that would have required that information collectors have reasonable security policies and procedures for collecting and storing personal data. The bill also would have required nationwide notice in the event of data breaches.
Schakowsky also crafted key elements of a measure to protect telephone and Web records from fraud. She will emphasize that measure again this year, an aide said. Stronger protections for Social Security numbers and legislative steps to curtail secretly installed computer spyware also are on her radar.
Returning subcommittee Democrats Edolphus Towns of New York and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who also chairs the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee (see separate story), will be valuable in steering the panel's work.
Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher, a longtime friend of the high-tech sector, joined the subcommittee this year. He has played a prominent role in debates over music licensing, patent reform, anti-piracy technologies and other issues.
Darlene Hooley of Oregon also came aboard. She previously co-sponsored legislation on identity theft and privacy, and was the ranking Democrat on a House panel on science research. Other new subcommittee Democrats are: John Barrow of Georgia; G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina; Jim Matheson of Utah; Charlie Melancon of Louisiana; and Anthony Weiner of New York.
Former Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., will lead the minority. One of his key priorities is reintroducing a bill against identity theft that made it through the full committee last year but never saw floor action, he said in a statement.
California Republican Mary Bono, who has been a leader in the spyware crackdown, also remains on the subcommittee. She plans to reintroduce a bill targeting online fraud. "Consumer protection is a priority for the congresswoman and she's pretty tech-savvy herself," spokesman Jason Vasquez said. "She understands there needs to be mechanisms in place that protect consumers as the evolution of technology continues."
She is joined by: Michael Burgess and Ralph Hall of Texas; former House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois; Sue Myrick of North Carolina; Charles (Chip) Pickering of Mississippi; Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania; George Radanovich of California; Mike Rogers of Michigan; Lee Terry of Nebraska; and Kentucky's Ed Whitfield, who used to chair the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
The Center for Democracy and Technology will be watching the subcommittee closely because consumer protection is a core component of its legislative agenda. (See separate story) "There is no more urgent public policy task in the Internet space than to ensure trust in the online world," CDT said in a statement on Monday.
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Lobbying
Latest Breach Revives Call For Action To Protect Data
by Heather Greenfield
The Cyber Security Industry Alliance is calling on the new Congress to pass comprehensive data-security legislation after another massive data breach reported last week.
TJX, the parent company of stores including Marshalls and TJ Maxx, announced that hackers broke into a system that handles credit- and debit-card transactions. The company has refused to say how many customers were affected.
Liz Gasster, president and CEO of CSIA said the episode "has the potential to be a very large breach," and the fact that the company is based in Massachusetts, one of 15 states without breach laws, highlights the need for national legislation.
Several data-security bills were introduced last session, some addressing protections for data housed by commercial companies and others addressing sensitive data stored by various government agencies. The legislation outlined requirements for notifying affected consumers in the event of a security breach and sometimes mandated preventive measures like encryption.
Various committees, including the House Government Reform and Financial Services panels, held hearings, but none of the legislation became law.
"The real boogeyman for why data security didn't pass was jurisdictional issues," Symantec lobbyist Kevin Richards said.
He said new House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., has floated the idea of a task force made of members of the various committees to overcome the jurisdictional battles and pass legislation.
"That's something we're very optimistic about and would encourage," Richards said.
So far this session, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has introduced a bill, S. 239, that would require federal agencies to disclose data breaches, and Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., has introduced a measure, H.R. 516, that also just addresses the security of government data. It would require encryption for all sensitive data housed by government agencies and also outline security requirements for government workers and contractors with access to the data.
"The biggest priority is to pass a comprehensive data-security law that applies to all entities," Gasster said. "A lot of proposals focus on the private sector. I think it's important for the law to apply equally to the government and the private sector."
Gasster said it does not make sense for security standards and procedures to change depending on where the data rests because it certainly does not matter to an identity-theft victim. She said it is especially unfair to consumers when a government agency fails to secure sensitive data.
"We can choose to do business with a company," Gasster said. "When we do business with the government, we don't have a choice."
Like Gasster, Richards hopes to change the debate from not just one of notification after breaches but prevention of breaches. "There should be incentives for companies that do the right thing," he said. "If they encrypt information and data is unusable, they shouldn't have to report a breach."
Gasster hopes the TJX breach will help Congress put "jurisdictional differences aside" and pass legislation this session.
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Lobbying
Internet Basics Should Be Congress' Focus, Group Says
by Andrew Noyes
Internet censorship, consumer privacy and government surveillance are among the hot topics the Center for Democracy and Technology will be tracking in the 110th Congress. The watchdog group outlined its policy recommendations at a press briefing Monday.
Jim Dempsey, CDT's policy director, said his group is emphasizing a "back-to-basics" strategy they hope lawmakers will follow. Policymakers must "recall the essential nature of the Internet and recall what made it so successful," he said.
CDT wants Congress to remember "not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg," Dempsey said. A number of proposals emerged last session that would have undermined the Internet's fundamental principles and harmed its future growth, the group said.
Dempsey said "the Internet is not immune from policy" and the development of the medium has been "remarkable" for commerce, democratic participation, community-building, creativity and innovation.
But too many lawmakers on Capitol Hill and at lower levels of government have taken the view that the Internet is "a problem to be solved rather than a valuable resource that needs to be grown and sustained," CDT Executive Director Leslie Harris added.
CDT fought proposals in the 109th Congress that would have mandated the labeling of Web sites with material deemed inappropriate for kids; forced Internet service providers to retain customer Web-surfing information; and required institutions that receive special funds for Internet access to ban children from chat rooms and social-networking sites.
Harris is disturbed that some "outrageous bills" that did not pass last session are already back in play. For example, former Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, introduced a measure, S.49, that reportedly includes Web-labeling language.
The best way to safeguard youngsters online is through a concerted Internet literacy campaign paired with the promotion of parental empowerment devices, Harris said. "Until Congress is willing to do that, we believe it's not really serious about trying to protect kids online," she said.
The notion of "intermediate liability" also concerns CDT. The group said that a bill from last year to saddle social-networking sites with new monitoring requirements is likely to re-emerge. Other efforts to make content and service providers liable for user-posted material are expected.
Ari Schwartz, CDT's deputy director, said attempts to update the nation's privacy laws may materialize in the 110th Congress, but the issue is "not on the short-term agenda" for any of the committees with jurisdiction.
Legislation to raise penalties for distributors of secretly installed computer "spyware" is in the works, Schwartz said, but a data-breach notification bill may be first out of the gate. The issue was previously ensnared by committee turf wars, but House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., wants to unify various committee efforts, he said.
CDT also is monitoring: congressional attention to the Bush administration's domestic electronic spying program; the push for "network neutrality," a requirement that high-speed Internet firms treat like content equally; and digital copyright and "open government" issues.
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Intellectual Property
Key Issues Remain For WIPO Broadcasting Treaty
by William New, for Technology Daily
After the first of two meetings in a do-or-die year for a treaty on the rights of broadcasters and cable firms at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the pact's fate is far from certain, according to officials.
Members of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights met Wednesday through Friday but were unable to resolve key differences that could prevent the holding of a full-fledged diplomatic conference later this year.
Failure to resolve broad disagreements at the second committee meeting in June could lead next September's WIPO general assembly to scuttle plans for the diplomatic conference in November 2007. The negotiators are seeking to define the rights of broadcasters and cable companies over their broadcast signals and what if any rights they have after the fixation of the signals.
At last week's meeting, committee Chairman Jukka Liedes of Finland tried to focus negotiators on his own informal draft proposals on problematic provisions. The committee was slow to warm to the approach and to his proposals. Much of the meeting was conducted in informal session, out of earshot of non-governmental, industry and intergovernmental groups.
Liedes will take comments from governments this spring and produce a new draft by May 1.
The retransmission by third parties of broadcasts over computer networks is another "very hotly contested issue," as Michael Keplinger, WIPO deputy director-general for copyright and related rights, described it to reporters Monday. He also said the members are seeking protection for technological measures for broadcasters, such as encryption.
Keplinger, who joined WIPO in December from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said he is "reasonably hopeful" there will be a diplomatic conference.
Some groups were critical of the meeting. Manon Ress of Knowledge Ecology International said: "This meeting set new standards for a lack of transparency, justified by some delegates as a rational way to deal with pressure from broadcasters. There was an Orwellian air to the event, as the chair and others claimed that the 'ultimate' signal protection would include post-fixation exclusive rights for decades."
Participating officials said little progress was made on specific provisions. The European Union is seen as a key driver of the process, seeking to protect its traditional broadcasters.
The National Association of Broadcasters also plays a key role but now is outnumbered by major U.S. technology and telecommunications companies concerned about giving overly strong rights that could interfere with competition and new technologies in the marketplace and the home. AT&T, Intel, Verizon Communications and numerous high-tech trade associations attended.
Webcasting, sought most by the United States, and simulcasting will be addressed after this treaty's completion.
In his statement, U.S. delegation lead Paul Salmon of the PTO suggested a focus on "what do broadcasters need at a minimum to protect against the unauthorized interception and transmission of their signals."
But he added, "An agreement without identifiable benefits for broadcasting and cablecasting organizations will be a pointless exercise, particularly if it derogates from existing protections and sets negative precedents."
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E-Commerce
Small, Online Firms Protest Europe's Cross-Border Plan
by Winter Casey
Three groups representing United Kingdom business sectors warn that trade legislation expected before the European Parliament on Monday could make it impossible for Internet retailers to sell products outside their own countries and would severely damage online business.
The British Retail Consortium said the "badly drafted law puts Internet sales at risk, endangering consumer choice," and "could force Internet companies to comply simultaneously with the different legal regimes of all 27 EU member-states."
The group has written to EU Commission Vice President Gunther Verheugen about the so-called Rome I proposal, which they say would require Internet traders "to defend any legal action brought against them by a customer in the country from which the product was ordered, under the legal system of that country."
"If the law is passed in its current form, Internet sales across European borders would, at best, be seriously stifled and, at worst, killed off completely, especially for smaller businesses," Alisdair Gray, the Brussels, Belgium, director for the consortium said in a statement. "This would damage both retail entrepreneurs looking to expand and consumers."
The legislation "undermines attempts to deliver a completely free and open market for consumers within the European Community," Gray added.
Groups said the European Commission failed to implement a regulatory impact assessment. The Confederation of British Industry, known as CBI for short, said businesses and especially small firms or those that trade online "will find the legal minefield so daunting they could opt not to do business in the European Union."
The plan would "bog companies down in a legal quagmire," CBI said.
"The proposed legislation was sold as a simple legal tidying-up exercise when the European Commission embarked on the process but has turned into a major operation," CBI Deputy Director-General John Cridland said in a statement. "It will produce substantive new law and turn accepted cross-border trade principles on their head. The practical impact is likely to be immense for firms who trade across the European Union.
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Matthew Knowles, a spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "EU legislators have got to start waking up to the vital role that small businesses play in the economy. Shackling them with the threat of having to deal with 27 different legal systems for customer complaints could severely damage economic growth, and is likely to harm the choice and quality of service that they provide to consumers."
Knowles noted that a new EU services directive "will make it far easier for small firms to trade across borders. It is incredible that the European Commission is now threatening to undo all that good work by bringing in these utterly unworkable plans, which will only discourage businesses from trading across the EU. The proposals should be thrown out immediately."
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Editor's Note: On The Download is Hotline's weekly dispatch on politics, multimedia and the Internet.
On The Download
Candidates Keep E-Mail Lists Active After Election Day
by Shira Toeplitz
Sen. Ted Kennedy resoundingly won re-election this year in his home state. But since November, the Massachusetts Democrat's e-mails have kept coming as if Kennedy's still running, sending messages to his Internet community up to once a week.
So far his efforts have not been in vain: Kennedy just had his strongest week ever online. He sent an e-mail asking supporters to sign a petition on Iraq, and in just two days his e-mail list increased by more than 15 percent. Kennedy's e-mail brought in 85,000 signatures for his petition, 35,000 of which were new addresses.
Kennedy is unlikely to seek higher office, and he is not in full fundraising mode for his hypothetical 2012 campaign. But many candidates, winners and losers alike, maintain their e-mail lists to raise money, awareness or keep their online communities active for future runs for office.
"I think that it is fair to infer that people who continue to send e-mail are either interested in pursing public offices again or want to be identified with issues that they want to continue to promote," said Becki Donatelli, the president of Campaign Solutions, a Republican Internet firm.
Kennedy is not alone in using e-mail lists since his campaign ended.
-- Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., regularly sent e-mails to his list from the end of his 2004 campaign until he announced his presidential bid for 2008 a few weeks ago.
-- The Volunteer Political Action Committee of former Senate Majority Leader. Bill Frist sent a holiday e-mail around Christmas, about two weeks after he left the White House field. He reportedly is seriously considering running for Tennessee governor in 2010.
-- Former Gen. Wesley Clark sends e-mails at least once a month to his online community, and while people are increasingly less convinced he will go for the White House in 2008, his site ranked higher than any other candidate sites during last summer.
-- Former Rep. Mark Green, the failed GOP nominee for Wisconsin governor in 2006, sent an e-mail in late December marking the holidays. A Democrat took his House seat in 2006, and many think Green could recapture it for Republicans this cycle.
-- Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican rumored to be a potential candidate for vice president, sent an e-mail last week about his State of the State address.
-- Dina Titus, who unsuccessfully made a bid for Nevada governor, continued to send e-mails to her list in December. Titus said she is keeping her options open about a bid for Nevada's 3rd District House seat.
Titus, also Nevada's Senate minority leader, said she continues to use her list for legislative initiatives and to inform state Democrats about the early Nevada caucuses.
"We worked very had to build that base during the campaign," Titus said. "And I feel like it's a good way to keep in touch with my hard-core supporters ... so they'll be there if I run for re-election or plan to run for something else."
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Today's Feature:
Issue of the Week
As lawmakers get set to tackle the fiscal 2008 budget, e-government funding may not be their top priority, but policy experts say both parties should support funding for information technology projects when those programs are discussed.
Every Monday, read the Issue of the Week by the Technology Daily staff.
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E-briefs
Executive Branch: The FBI erred in its failure to notify anyone in the House about questionable e-mails sent to a former page by former Florida Republican Mark Foley, according to a new report from the Justice Department's inspector general. The report also revealed that FBI and Justice employees misled the media by claiming that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the watchdog group that first provided the FBI with the e-mails, had not been cooperative, The Washington Post noted Monday. In a statement, the FBI said it would carefully examine the report for "any changes to existing policies or procedures that may be warranted." The investigation also determined that the e-mails were reviewed by three separate FBI entities, and that agents acted "quickly and appropriately" in assessing the information and giving it to the cyber-crime squad, which decided not to pursue a criminal case.
Net Governance: The Internet's key oversight agency on Friday posted its first annual report online in accordance with commitments it made last year to achieve greater transparency and accountability. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers posted the 50-page report for review and established two means to facilitate public comment -- a forum for the Internet community to submit comments and suggestions and a new Web log that lets individuals share their views about the report. The report details ICANN's new agreement with the Commerce Department for administration of Web addresses ending in .com, its strategic plan for the next three years and its operating plan for 2006. In a letter included in the report, ICANN President Paul Twomey called the report "a work in progress" and said "there is no doubt it will improve in content and structure with time."
Education: Education Secretary Margaret Spellings joined Israeli Education Minister Yuli Tamir and other world leaders Sunday at a conference in Herzliya, Israel, to discuss science and technology education among several education challenges. It was the first year education was part of the agenda at the annual conference on Israel's national strength and security. "Whether in Texas or Tel Aviv, today's students must become lifelong learners who are fluent in math, science and foreign languages, the common currencies of today's global economy," Spellings said. She cited three key struggles that education systems face in the pursuit of excellence: cultivating human capital, arming students with the skills demanded by the modern economy, and using technology to customize instruction. Spellings applauded Israel's comprehensive science and technology education program, which prioritizes math, logic and critical thinking. The curriculum reaches more than 2,000 American students through online lessons in math and science.
Privacy: Despite the recent legal uproar over Hewlett-Packard's use of "pretexting" and other deceptive techniques to obtain information about board members and reporters in order to expose news leaks, 42 percent of companies currently do not have written guidelines against such methods, a new poll by Deloitte Financial Advisory Services indicated. The survey also revealed that among the more common types of probes, fraud and human-resource investigations appear to raise tricky legal or ethical questions about investigative methods. "The reality of the situation is that many companies don't know the boundaries between pretexting and legal investigative techniques," said Ernie Brod, Deloitte FAS' director of forensic and dispute services. About 230 financial executives responded to the survey during a recent webcast aimed at educating them on the legal and ethical ramifications of pretexting.
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