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White House
Techies Hope Bush Will Prioritize Competitiveness
by Heather Greenfield
As President Bush polished his State of the Union speech for Tuesday night, White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters to expect less of a laundry list and more of a speech centered on four "big" issues -- health care, education, energy and immigration.
That doesn't leave much room for specific technology issues, but the industry is hopeful that the focus on energy might lead into some discussion about innovation.
Bush has mentioned energy issues in previous State of the Union speeches, but he has not talked about global warming. Snow hinted that the president believes the key will be using innovation to devise new energy sources.
"Global warming is an issue going higher and higher on the radar screen in politics," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution.
But it's the climate change on Capitol Hill that will be a more immediate challenge as Bush speaks before a Democratic-led Congress for the first time. "They're going to be polite," Hess said. "It is not necessarily dead on arrival. He's going to address issues [on which] he feels he can get bipartisan cooperation."
The technology industry hopes one of those bipartisan issues will be Bush's American competitiveness initiative. He mentioned it last year, and it matches much of what is in the innovation agenda of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also has talked about competitiveness.
"The fact that Pelosi and Reid have expressed interest in those issues, it's fertile ground for cooperation," Information Technology Industry Council lobbyist Ralph Hellman said.
"We are very hopeful and optimistic the president will spend a significant part of the speech focusing on new energy technology," added Lezlee Westine, CEO of TechNet. "There is no question that's a big part of competitiveness."
Karen Knutson, vice president of government relations for the Business Software Alliance, echoed those views. "We are hopeful that the president will focus on innovation and competitiveness, as he did last year, and will look to Congress to also address these issues in the year ahead," she said.
The thought is that a mention in the State of the Union, even by a president with low approval ratings, can help boost an issue to the forefront on Congress' agenda. But a mention does not guarantee action, as was seen with the ACI last year.
Al Teich, director of science and policy programs for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said the ACI "is languishing now as a result of this budget mess." He hopes Bush pushes to increase funding for physical sciences and engineering this year, either by changes to the stopgap spending law for fiscal 2007 or through a budget supplement.
The tech industry also hopes for an increase to the number of visas for highly skilled workers. "We hope the president reasserts his agenda and also hope immigration is on the list," Hellman said. "It was Republicans who killed immigration (reform). We hope it has a better fate in this Congress."
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Editor's Note: The following two stories are part of 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
Senate Commerce Agenda Includes Telecom, Net Taxes
by David Hatch
The Senate Commerce Committee, now headed by Hawaii Democrat Daniel Inouye, has many familiar faces in the 110th Congress.
Most of the lawmakers were on onboard last year, but there are four newcomers: Democrats Thomas Carper of Delaware, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri; and Republican John Thune of South Dakota. Klobuchar and McCaskill are freshmen.
Inouye is keen on moving a series of small telecom bills rather than a comprehensive one (see related story). So far, the committee has announced a Feb. 1 hearing on the state of the telecommunications marketplace that will feature testimony from the five FCC members, including Republican Chairman Kevin Martin.
Alaska Republican Ted Stevens, last year's chairman and the champion of a deregulatory telecom bill that stalled after committee approval, will be the top Republican this session. When Congress reconvened in January, he introduced legislation to expand the base of universal service fund contributors and protect the privacy of consumer telephone records.
During the 2006 debate over telecom legislation, Inouye criticized all three iterations of Stevens' bill even though the Hawaiian was its only co-sponsor. As the committee prepped for action, Inouye submitted 31 proposed changes. Despite their policy differences, the senators have tremendous admiration for each other and consider themselves to be co-chairmen.
Last year, Inouye let Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, take the lead on adding so-called network neutrality restrictions to the telecom bill. Their amendment, rebuffed in committee on a tie, would have prevented high-speed Internet providers from potentially blocking or degrading competing content.
Dorgan and Snowe have reintroduced a stand-alone net neutrality bill this year. Panel member Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is a co-sponsor.
Dorgan also is an outspoken critic of media consolidation who already has flexed his muscle over the FCC's pending review of media-ownership rules. In December, he led a bipartisan effort urging the FCC to complete an inquiry into how television broadcasters can best serve their local communities before the agency tackles media ownership. Martin later heeded the request.
John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is now the No. 2 Democrat on the committee. On Jan. 10, he issued a list of priorities that includes developing a comprehensive broadband policy and overhauling the universal service fund, which subsidizes telecom connections in rural and inner-city areas. Other goals include regulating violent TV content and expanding the FCC's indecency guidelines to subscription television.
Tech priorities for panel member and presidential hopeful John McCain, R-Ariz., include making permanent a temporary moratorium on state and local taxes on Internet access that expires in November. The ban also would prevent localities from taxing at rates higher than those assessed by brick-and-mortar stores.
Republicans John Ensign of Nevada and John Sununu of New Hampshire, along with other panel members, share that concern. McCain and Jim DeMint, R-S.C., have introduced legislation to impose a three-year moratorium on what they say are extraneous taxes imposed by localities on wireless phone service.
Other priorities for McCain include capping the overall size of USF and encouraging cable outlets to offer per-channel pricing, known in industry parlance as "a la carte."
Another influential Republican on Senate Commerce is Trent Lott of Mississippi. He has returned to the GOP leadership, this time as minority whip.
Ensign will continue to push for passage of competitiveness legislation that would boost domestic research and development funding for technology and other areas. Last year's iteration had the backing of Democratic and Republican leaders.
Regarding the big picture, Ensign and his conservative colleagues want to ensure that Congress does not pursue tech-related legislation that causes unintended results. "Whenever he can, he is going to try and rely on market forces to sort out the problems," an Ensign staffer said.
Two Republican telecom powerbrokers -- George Allen of Virginia and Conrad Burns of Montana -- lost their Senate seats last year. Sununu has inherited many of Allen's tech priorities and already has introduced legislation tackling one of them: freeing unassigned or unused television frequencies known as "white space" for new wireless broadband services.
Carper, Klobuchar, McCaskill and Thune are relatively new to tech circles. Neither Carper nor Thune lists communications matters as key concerns on their Web sites, though Thune has offered legislation addressing information technology and tech-related health initiatives.
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On The Hill
Leahy Leads Senate Judiciary Down Oversight Path
by Andrew Noyes
A month before assuming the Senate Judiciary Committee chairmanship, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy made it clear that his agenda for the 110th Congress would be one of intense oversight and pressure for greater accountability from the Bush administration.
Just a few weeks into the new session, Leahy has proven he will not dillydally. The committee already has held hearings on balancing privacy and security, with special attention to government data mining, and on Justice Department oversight.
Plans are under way to hold more officials' feet to the fire over anti-terrorism wiretaps, as well as greater secrecy about government data collection. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who testified last year, already has been grilled by the panel.
The committee membership has remained largely the same, with the exception of two new Democratic additions -- Ben Cardin of Maryland and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island -- and a Republican loss, Mike DeWine of Ohio.
Cardin, a former House member who won the seat vacated by Democrat Paul Sarbanes, urged congressional leaders last year to form a special panel to investigate the National Security Agency's domestic spying program.
Whitehouse, who defeated GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee, told the Rhode Island's Future Web log last September that the president did not have valid reasons to sidestep the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to eavesdrop on individuals.
DeWine, who lost his re-election bid in November, sponsored a bill last year aimed at providing a statutory framework for government spying while protecting American citizens' privacy. Critics called the bill weak and said it was a favor to the White House.
Returning committee Democrats include Joseph Biden of Delaware, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Dianne Feinstein of California, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin and Charles Schumer of New York.
Joining ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania in the minority are John Cornyn of Texas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Charles Grassley of Iowa, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jon Kyl of Arizona and Jeff Sessions of Alabama.
Specter has not spoken publicly about the minority's goals for this session but the behind-the-scenes players remain the same. Michael O'Neill will continue as chief counsel, and many staffers from Specter's chairmanship stayed, spokeswoman Courtney Boone said.
Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies and a former Leahy staffer, predicted an exciting, new era for the committee. "When there's a majority willing to press for the truth, that makes a difference," she said. In the 109th Congress, "there was a majority willing to keep the truth hidden at any cost."
Graves said Cardin and Whitehouse support "defending our country while protecting individual liberties." The absence of DeWine, whose surveillance bill was "particularly bad," is a plus, she said.
One Republican that Graves would have welcomed back is Larry Craig of Idaho. Craig, who served on the panel before Specter's chairmanship, reportedly was bounced by the GOP for co-sponsoring a bill that would have amended the USA PATRIOT Act to ensure greater civil-liberties protections, Graves said.
"It seems as though the minority is still requiring a blood test to be on the Judiciary Committee," Graves said. "They want 100 percent loyalty to the president ... and they'll punish anyone who doesn't fit the mold."
Caroline Fredrickson, who runs the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office, said her group will be working closely in the coming months with Leahy and the committee's "solid Democratic core."
Members have "the same questions they had before the elections that still have not been answered," she said. Members requested a number of documents pertaining to government spying and information-gathering, but the administration has yet to deliver.
"[Democrats] now actually have some leverage, and that means they're not going to be giving up on these questions," she said. The committee must determine whether it will use subpoenas or "moral suasion" to get responses, Fredrickson said.
In addition to privacy issues, updating patent laws is among Leahy's priorities. He no doubt will have support from Hatch, the committee's leader on all things patent-related.
Defending the public's right to know, which Leahy believes has been assaulted by the Bush administration, may be another area for focus. By undermining tools like the Freedom of Information Act, chairman noted during a recent speech, "this government has displayed a dangerous disdain for the free press and the public."
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Health
Sen. Clinton's White House Bid May Boost Health IT
by Aliya Sternstein
The entrance of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton into the 2008 presidential race could be a big boon for e-health reform, as she has been involved with the issue in Congress and will make health care a campaign priority.
According to the Democratic senator's office, Clinton will push for quick action this year on health information technology legislation in the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, of which she is a member.
Early this session, Clinton will reintroduce a health IT bill she co-sponsored with Sens. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn, and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Clinton spokeswoman Sarah Gegenheimer said. Clinton's office expects the proposal will be considered by the HELP committee shortly thereafter.
Her bill would establish standards and quality measures, and authorize grants to guide the development of a nationwide health information network capable of confidentially sharing clinical information among doctors, hospitals, insurers and patients.
"The senator's announcement is unmitigated good news for healthcare IT," said Scott Wallace, president and CEO at the nonpartisan National Alliance for Health Information Technology. Clinton understands the issue, has advocated for broader, smarter clinical IT tactics and will likely "dramatically raise the profile of the issue" during her campaign, he said.
As early as three years ago, Clinton was speaking out on the need for electronic healthcare delivery to make medicine safer, more effective and more efficient, Wallace said.
He added that Clinton realizes fundamental change will not occur by providing more government money or cutting pay for doctors but through an efficient, digital system that better manages patient records, research results, financial transactions and myriad other details.
She will have to focus on clinical IT because information technology is such a major element of systemic change, he said, adding that Clinton's proficiency on health reform issues -- dating back to her work during the first term of her husband, former President Bill Clinton -- is part of what distinguishes her from the current Democratic presidential challengers.
Other proponents of health technology note that the buzz garnered by her online campaign announcement Saturday demonstrates Clinton's ability to reach the masses.
"Clinton has unprecedented access to the American people ... through her innovative use of online citizen media tools, such as live Web chats to talk directly to potential supporters," said Ticia Gerber, vice president of public policy and international programs at the eHealth Initiative.
"Clinton has the opportunity to broaden the [health IT] debate and inform and enliven the dialogue with consumers and patients."
Last week, at a press conference announcing a free e-prescribing tool for doctors, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said Clinton has "a very real interest" in promptly moving along the current batch of health IT bills, including hers.
However, he also said, "We are told that the Democratic leadership wants that to be a second-session project" while Congress tackles other healthcare changes right now.
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Telecom
Strategies For Telecom, Net Neutrality Proposals Emerge
by David Hatch
The Senate Commerce Committee confirmed Tuesday that the chairman will pursue a series of small, targeted telecommunications bills and not sweeping legislation.
"There very likely will not be a comprehensive bill," said Teri Rucker, the spokeswoman for committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.
Some Capitol Hill sources suggested that Inouye is taking the approach to avoid the controversy that stalled efforts by Alaska Republican Ted Stevens, last year's chairman, to pass a major telecom bill. But another observer said Inouye prefers the agility of the targeted approach as a way to move quickly on urgent matters.
"I don't see a broad comprehensive bill like last year. The Bells have gone away," a Democratic staffer said.
AT&T, BellSouth (now part of AT&T) and Verizon Communications were strong proponents of GOP-sponsored deregulatory legislation in 2006 but have backed off from seeking a bill now that the Democrats are in charge. The staffer added that the cable industry appears to be content with the regulatory status quo.
Meanwhile, there are rumblings that Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., is quietly planning a series of hearings on network neutrality. The move could set the stage for a renewed effort by Democrats to regulate high-speed Internet services offered by telecom and cable giants.
Markey is the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee. His office confirmed that hearings eventually would be held on the subject but said no decisions have been made about the details. An industry source said the focus of the planned hearings would be "educational" and "exploratory."
Last year, Markey was among the strongest proponents of adding net neutrality safeguards to Republican-led deregulatory legislation. But the language was rebuffed and the bill sailed through the House without it. Stevens blamed controversy over net neutrality for stalling his counterpart telecom bill, killing any hopes of overhauling the nation's telecom laws in the 109th Congress.
What the lack of comprehensive telecom legislation, at least on the Senate side, might mean for net neutrality remains unclear. Markey has a stand-alone neutrality measure and Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, have reintroduced a similar bill in the upper chamber, but targeted legislation on the subject is generally considered a longshot.
AT&T recently accepted a two-year net neutrality restriction as a condition for FCC approval of its merger with BellSouth. The deal was greenlighted in December, and AT&T's acceptance of the temporary mandate has galvanized the pro-neutrality crowd.
But AT&T spokeswoman Claudia Jones emphasized that despite the condition, the company remains opposed to neutrality regulations, which it considers unnecessary. "We don't think there needs to be any net neutrality laws, period," she emphasized.
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Porn
Sen. Stevens' Internet Proposals Rile Civil Libertarians
by Andrew Noyes
Senate Commerce Committee ranking Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska is trying to advance two Internet issues early in the 110th Congress that did not gain traction in his chamber last year.
A bill that Stevens, R-Alaska, quietly introduced earlier this month is aimed at preventing the carriage of child pornography by video service providers. It includes text that would require Web sites to label sexually explicit material. It also would block access to social networks and chat room at institutions that receive special funding for Internet access.
The labeling provision was pushed by former Sens. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., as well as Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry and Arizona Republican Jon Kyl. Last July, the House passed the blocking provision, which was backed by former Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. That language did not have obvious proponents in the Senate.
The Center for Democracy and Technology called the labeling provision "unconstitutional and ineffective," arguing that a wide range of lawful, socially valuable content could be inappropriately tagged "sexually explicit." The measure would do nothing to protect children from harm and would be "challenged almost immediately upon passage," the group said.
CDT also urged lawmakers to reject the school- and library-focused blocking proposal because it would be unconstitutional: "Teenagers and other children need to be taught about how to comport themselves online, and about where not to go and who not to talk with," the group said.
Lynne Bradley, director of the American Library Association's government relations office, said her group has not taken a position on Stevens' bill, S. 49, but will be "assessing any and all proposals regarding Internet safety with seriousness."
ALA believes that "decisions about if or how to provide access to interactive Web applications are best made at the local level," she said. "Education, not laws blocking access, is the key to safe use of the Internet."
Internet restrictions can inhibit how children learn "essential information literacy skills that go far beyond computer instruction and Web searching," Bradley said. Plus libraries and schools offer a supervised environment where kids can use the Web.
Deborah Rigsby, federal legislation director for the National School Boards Association, said the bill would make life harder for her members. "Our concern is one of local autonomy and control," she said.
Rigsby questioned where funding for the filtering and blocking technology would originate and worried whether the requirement would be seen as a deterrent for prospective participants in the federal e-rate program.
The new bill would triple the monetary fines to as much as $300,000 in some cases for video providers that fail to report child porn on their pipelines. It also would direct the FTC to issue a consumer alert on dangers posed by Internet predators, social-networking sites and chat rooms. Another section would restrict the sale or purchase of children's personally identifiable data by information brokers.
A Senate staffer close to the issue said Stevens is meeting with child-safety advocates, parent organizations, and high-tech and telecommunications industry groups to get feedback.
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Politics
'Tracker Provocateurs' Will Shape 2008 Race, Expert Says
by Andrew Noyes
User-generated online video will play a prominent role in the 2008 presidential campaign, political experts predicted Tuesday at a Washington, D.C., Technology Council conference. As a result, candidates will not be able to control their messages as tightly as in previous years.
"Candidates in the next election are in for a humongous surprise," said Carol Darr, director of George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. Their staff videographers will be joined by "trackers," like the one who filmed former Sen. George Allen, R-Va., making what was perceived as a racial slur on the campaign trail last year.
Also during his re-election bid, Allen volunteers tackled a liberal blogger who was heckling Allen after a campaign appearance. The incident, which was captured on video, earned airtime on network television and permeated the Internet.
The blogger, Mike Stark of Calling All Wingnuts, was branded by Darr as a "tracker provocateur," someone who "won't just sit and wait for a candidate to screw up." Such activists will be poised with cameras on the front lines of the race for the White House, she predicted.
Campaigns will be tasked with keeping their candidates camera-ready at all times to avoid slip-ups that could appear on popular video-sharing sites like YouTube, she said. "But no one can be perfect for 16 hours a day," Darr said.
All of the footage being posted on candidates' official sites also will be "grist for the mill," Darr noted. She advised campaigns not to leave videos on their sites for more than a month. "Anything older than that will be used for opposition research."
Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, who ran the 2004 presidential campaign of now-Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, agreed that the political world is moving away from 30-second sound bites. "They can't fake it 24 hours a day," he warned. In time, voters will see who is and is not authentic, he said.
Trippi worries the change will most negatively impact Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. "Everything [she says] is calculated," he said. "Stuff that you cannot calculate or control is going to happen, and I'm not sure they're the best-prepared team to deal with that."
One-time Republican vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp said new technologies "can sink or save" a politician. For example, questionable instant messages sent to a congressional page ended the career of former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.
Meanwhile, GOP presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney reacted quickly online after a YouTube video circulated that showed him espousing liberal viewpoints during a 1994 Senate run.
The climate has shifted considerably since Kemp's 1970 campaign when "AT&T was the sole source of telephony" and television was the best way to connect with voters, Kemp said.
Politicking also involves more money than in Kemp's day. About $5 billion was spent in 2004 on "everything from presidential campaigns to the proverbial dog catcher," Darr said. She anticipates that $9 billion to $13 billion will be spent on the 2008 elections, and a substantial sum will be dedicated to technology.
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Spectrum
Global Telecom Body Weighs Spectrum Management
by William New, for Technology Daily
The International Telecommunication Union is looking at the management of spectrum this week, and a high-level panel of speakers on Tuesday addressed the future of radio spectrum.
Speakers including Hamadoun Toure, the new head of the U.N. body, stressed the need for balance between societal and commercial interests related to spectrum, and noted its scarcity but also commonality around the world. Many speakers called for global harmonization of spectrum, some worried about radiation and interference, and most agreed there is a need for greater efficiency in its use.
At this week's event, industry representatives have stressed that more certainty is necessary for investment in spectrum, and panelists appeared to agree that more investment is needed to spur innovation and growth.
Intel Vice President Don Whiteside said the best way to address the continuing global "digital divide" is through wireless Internet connectivity, which is tied to ubiquitous, high-speed Internet availability, something Intel is trying to put in every computer using the WiMAX standard, much like it did with Wi-Fi technology.
But he said variation among regions makes it difficult to provide the technology and called for greater harmonization that is done in a pro-innovative way.
Toure, who took office this month, said ITU priorities include continuing to assist member governments to find ways to maximize radio spectrum, such as the best use of new technologies. The ITU also will continue to raise the awareness of government leaders as was done through the ITU-led World Summit on the Information Society.
In addition, he said the ITU will help governments identify the most appropriate approaches for spectrum management, balancing public needs such as emergency services and security with the promotion of technological innovation and commercial interests.
Toure further said ITU will help find ways to accommodate new technologies, such as WiMAX and ultra wideband, which "show promise." Finally, he said, ITU will help coordinate activities occurring at national and regional levels.
Many speakers agreed that spectrum will be as important to the 21st century economy as oil was to the 20th century.
In strong disagreement was Brendan Touhy, communications minister for Ireland, who said societal benefits will be stronger economic determinants. He cautioned against long-term unintended consequences of spectrum use, such as radiation through mobile telephones.
European Union Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a recorded presentation that a "new approach" is needed for the use of radio spectrum that reaches across borders. There is a continued need for rules and harmonization, she said.
Reding aide Frank Greco, deputy head of unit for radio spectrum policy, said flexibility is needed but not "full stop," as it would "bring a great mess." He urged that issues be more firmly resolved at the ITU level in order to avoid different regional implementations.
Other members of the panel were: Italian Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni;Censu Galea
, the Maltese communications minister; Dimitri Ypsilanti of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; Catalin Marinescu, who heads the Romania communications directorate; and Erkki Ormala, a vice president at Nokia.
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Education
Arkansas House Passes Bill To Punish Cyber Bullies
by Michael Martinez
Cyberspace might become a little more cordial if an Arkansas lawmaker gets her way.
The Arkansas House on Monday overwhelmingly passed a measure to require public schools to amend their bullying policies to include malicious electronic activities. The measure, passed by a 91-7 vote, would mandate that schools update rules against bullying to include harassment done over the Internet or through cellular telephones and other electronic devices.
According to the bill, H.B. 1072, online bullies feel "protected by anonymity and by the knowledge that children who are targeted do not want to report cyber assaults because they fear losing their access to electronic devices or having the situation aggravated by adult interference." The measure would extend the state's definition of bullying to include electronic acts, wherever originated.
But civil-liberties advocates have cited major concerns about whether the measure, which was authored by Republican state Rep. Shirley Walters, is legal. In a phone interview, American Civil Liberties Union attorney Holly Dickson said the bill would allow school administrators to regulate student conduct that does not occur on school grounds.
She said the bill would redefine standards outlined by the 1969 Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines. In that case, the court determined that schools can only suppress student speech that causes substantial disruption or interferes with the rights of others.
"This bill attempts to rewrite the definition for 'substantial disruption,'" Dickinson said. "The law itself is problematic in that it tries to rewrite constitutional law."
The Supreme Court last year agreed to hear a free-speech case involving an Alaska student who was suspended for displaying a banner proclaiming "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the banner, which was displayed off school property, was vague, and that a suspension violated the student's First Amendment rights.
According to Dickson, the outcome of the Supreme Court case should help outline legal issues that lawmakers across the country may encounter as they try to tackle cyber bullying. She said she was planning to meet with Walters this week to discuss potential amendments to her measure before it is introduced in the state Senate.
Schools in Arkansas already have tangled with the legal implications of disciplining students over online speech. U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren in 2005 ruled in favor of a pair of students who sued their high school and district after they were suspended for how they depicted athletes and band members on a Web site.
Hendren found that the content posted by the students did not cause a substantial disruption at their school and thus was protected by the First Amendment.
Minnesota lawmakers also are debating measures to curtail cyber bullying. New Attorney General Lori Swanson has said one of her priorities will be to update state's cyber-crime laws.
Earlier this month, she joined state Reps. John Lesch and Joe Mullery and state Sen. Mary Olsen in unveiling a legislative package addressing cyber bullying and various online crimes.
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Correction
Monday's PM Edition incorrectly reported that Edward Markey joined the House Energy and Commerce committee and its Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee in 1985. He joined in 1977.
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Today's Feature:
People Column
A long-time attorney for the Senate Finance Committee is keeping his title and getting a promotion.
Every Tuesday, read the People Column by Heather Greenfield.
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E-briefs
Cyber Security: The leaders the House Energy and Commerce Committee and two of its subcommittees are asking the Government Accountability Office for an investigation into the cyber-security programs at the Energy Department. The letter from full committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., ranking Republican Joe Barton of Texas and three subcommittee leaders notes that cyber-security weakness at Energy could allow "individuals or groups backed by nation-states" to access classified information. The department issued a report with new cyber-security rules after a 2005 attack removed detailed personnel information on 1,500 employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration. In an incident last year, hundreds of classified documents from the Los Alamos National Laboratory were found in a worker's home during a drug raid. The lawmakers note that a year later, "it's unclear whether [the department's] revitalization program is working." They want a GAO report on the security of Energy networks and the success of security improvements.
Education: The United States should consider changing its entire immigration system if it wants to stay competitive in higher education, according to a government-commissioned panel of national leaders. The panel released a report this month recommending that the government rethink its current requirement that student visa applicants prove ahead of time that they will return home after graduation. The panel, representing academia, industry and government, was convened by U.S. Comptroller General David Walker in September to better understand global competitiveness and trends in foreign student enrollment. "The U.S. share of international students worldwide has declined, partly because of expanding higher education options abroad and growing competition from countries with coordinated recruiting strategies." The members said the nation lacks a coordinated plan for recruiting and keeping foreign students. Participants also said high tuition costs may discourage students from coming to U.S. schools.
E-Commerce: The European Consumers' Organization is generally in favor of proposed trade legislation currently being considered by the European Parliament. Technology Daily reported on Monday that business groups like the British Retail Consortium and Confederation of British Industry believe the so-called Rome I proposal could make it impossible for Internet retailers to sell products outside their own countries and would severely damage online business. However, the consumers' organization "welcomes the proposal as a way to modernize a previous convention that outlines the law applicable to contractual obligations and "adapt it to the new reality of e-commerce." The group's legal officer, Nuria Rodriguez Murillo, said that "when consumers are offered to conclude contracts through a Web site, they cannot be expected to know about the law of every country in which businesses are established."
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