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  by Mark Uncapher
1. RATING THE CONGRESS ON HIGH TECH ISSUES The Tech Law Journal rated all 435 members of the House of Representatives and all 100 Senators on the basis of their support for high tech. The rating is a 0-100 scale, with 100 reflected a perfect score. The copyrighted publication is edited by David Carney is reprinted with permission and is available athttp://www.techlawjournal.com/welcome.htm The criteria used to rate the legislators were support for encryption legislation (based on co-sponsorship of encryption bills), support for the Internet Tax Freedom Act (roll call vote in the Senate, co-sponsorship of the bill in the House), support for increasing the number of H1B visas for high tech professionals (roll call votes), support for relief for high tech companies from class action securities suits (roll call votes), and membership in the Internet Caucus. In addition to rating all Representatives and Senators, Tech Law Journal produced its own list of the "Top Ten Representatives" and the "Top Ten Senators." This ranking was based on the Scorecard ratings, as well as the leadership demonstrated in pursuing issues that are important to high tech. In each house the top ten list was comprised of seven Republicans and three Democrats. The top Senators are as follows: Conrad Burns (R-MT); Ron Wyden (D-OR); Spencer Abraham (R-MI); Robert Bennett (R-UT); John Ashcroft (R-MO); Patrick Leahy (D-VT); Patty Murray (D-WA); Larry Craig (R-ID); Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Trent Lott (R-MS). The top House Memebers: Rick White (R-WA); Anna Eshoo (D-CA); Chris Cox (R-CA); Bob Goodlatte (R-VA); Billy Tauzin (R-LA); Zoe Lofgren (D-CA); David Dreier (R-CA); Tom Campbell (R-CA); Jennifer Dunn (R-WA); Rick Boucher (D-VA). A more detailed description of the criteria, and the ratings of individual members follows at ITAA E-LETTER #9. 2. WHAT'S IN STORE FROM CONGRESS IN 1999? Impeachment will not be the only topic the 106th Congress takes up. The high tech industry has a vital interest in a number of key issues. The Senate Commerce Committee announced a list of issues that it will take up in the first several months of the 106th Congress. The list is heavy with high-tech issues, including high-speed digital technologies, technological convergence, Internet filtering for schools and libraries, satellite TV reform, Telecom Act changes, FCC reform, FCC reauthorization and FTC reauthorization. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the FCC are on the agenda. Sen. McCain voted against the 1996 Act because it did not go far enough to promote competition, and has been critical of many actions of the FCC in implementing the Act. The announcement stated as follows: "... the Committee will….examine the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) implementation of the Act as well as its administration of all aspects of telecommunications regulation, and consider changes to the law, if any, to the FCC's rules, and to the FCC itself. Under current law both the Department of Justice and the FCC play a role in administering competition policy. The Committee will review both agencies' regulatory efforts in the course of these hearings, and examine what steps may be necessary to strengthen the Commission's ability to promote competition." The Senate Commerce Committee will also take up FTC reauthorization in the opening months of the 106th Congress. The FTC is becoming increasingly important to the high-tech industry. The FTC is currently prosecuting an administrative antitrust action against Intel. It has authority in the area of consumer fraud committed on the Internet. And, it is increasing its authority in the new area of privacy on the Internet. Rep. Thomas Bliley, Chairman of the House Commerce Committee, in a late December speech outlined his agenda for the coming Congress. He noted that "Last Congress, we opened the doors to greater competition and consumer choice by passing the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It is still young, but the new law is already benefiting Americans with competition based on price, quality and innovation. It unlocked the door to a better future." "To build on the Act, we will take a number of important steps: "First, we need greater multi-channel video competition so Americans can choose from an expanding array of programs and providers. One of my legislative priorities in telecommunications will be to reauthorize the Satellite Home Viewers' Act. If we do not act, satellite television companies will be forced to turn off network programming to nearly two million households…Open markets and competition - not more federal regulations and bureaucrats - are what will control cable rates." "I am platform neutral - it doesn't matter to me whether people receive telecommunication services by cable, satellite, streaming, wires, wireless cable or mental telepathy. They deserve a choice, and the lower prices and better services that come from competition. "Second, we must open up the skies to competition by passing my satellite reform legislation. It will lead to lower rates for consumers. My bipartisan bill to break up the international satellite monopoly passed the House but got clogged up in the Senate. We can finish the job next Congress and save consumers, taxpayers and businesses billions of dollars. New satellite products and technologies will result." "Third, the Committee will pass Emergency 911 legislation creating a national emergency number for wireless and wireline calls. We can save lives. I have met with my telecommunications subcommittee chairman, Rep. Billy Tauzin, asking him to move quickly on a new bill. "Fourth, we need to pass legislation to protect privacy on wireless phones. I am putting committee members on notice that we must pass a new bill. "Moving to the exciting world of the INTERNET, the Committee will take steps, including the passage of legislation, to further open up Electronic Commerce, the new marketplace of the 21st Century. Two former Clinton officials offered their own predictions about the Internet's outlook in the new Congress, predicting a flood of efforts in the new Congress to regulate the World Wide Web. Ira Magaziner and Christine Varney were quoted in news accounts that the huge holiday increase in electronic commerce is likely to translate into an equal increase in legislative attempts to govern online content. Magaziner, who resigned in early December as Clinton's senior policy development adviser for the Internet, and Varney, a former Federal Trade Commission member and Clinton adviser who returned to legal practice in 1997, spoke at a forum in San Francisco . Varney predicted that Congress will enact legislation regulating the privacy of personal medical and financial records. Magaziner expressed confidence that the Clinton Administration would remain opposed to the regulation of the Internet. But Magaziner noted that the opposition of the Clinton administration is not always sufficient to derail legislation in this area. Despite the administration's early opposition to the anti-pornography Child Online Protection Act, ultimately it was forced to accept the law as part of the compromise 1998 federal budget. A federal judge has delayed enforcement of the act, which requires commercial Web sites that publish material ``harmful to minors'' to refuse access to anyone 16 and younger. Such publishers would have to guarantee adult-only visits to their sites with the use of credit cards or other age-verification technology. Varney and Magaziner agreed that the Internet industry can do much to influence the legislative debate, both by lobbying their members of Congress and by taking matters into their own hands to make the online experience one that respects the privacy and obscenity concerns of consumers. Both Varney and Magaziner were active in encouraging the Clinton administration to favor self-regulation by Internet publishers ahead of government controls. 3. ITAA BACKS COMPETITION TO ENCOURAGE BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT ITAA came to the defense of the Federal Communications Commission in response to criticism by a key lawmaker. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Communications, issued a sharply worded criticism, dated January 11, of the FCC's interpretation of the Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Burns charged in his letter that the FCC has failed to accept the authority granted to the agency under the Act to encourage investment in deployment of advanced telecommunications capabilities. ITAA took exception to Burns' critique, noting that Section 706 should not be used as a lever to upend other provisions of the Act. In a press release on January 13, 1999 and a January 20th letter to the Chairman of the House Commerce Committee, Thomas Bliley (R-VA), ITAA said the association believes the Burns letter runs counter to the general pro-consumer intent of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. "Section 706 should not be used as a Trojan horse to gut the pro-competitive requirements of the Act. We support the Federal Communications Commission efforts that encourage broadband deployment to consumers by encouraging competition among multiple providers. If the FCC were to grant the so-called 'regulatory relief' sought by entrenched telecommunications providers under Sec. 706, consumers would be the losers." Both in its statement and the Bliley letter, ITAA President Harris N Miller noted that Sen. Burns has established a laudable record on behalf of the Internet and has demonstrated an enlightened attitude on most high tech issues, He said that it was regrettable this particular question reflects a disagreement among friends. ITAA has participated in the FCC's Section 706 proceedings; copies of ITAA's Section 706 proceedings on September 25, September 14 and April 6, 1998 are available athttp://www.itaa.org/isec/pubs/archive.htm. 4. ITAA SEEKS TO KEEP INCUMBENT PHONE COMPANIES FROM BUNDLING SERVICES ITAA filed reply comments before the Federal Communications Commission in the matter of Policy and Rules Concerning the Interstate, Interexchange Marketplace. ITAA supported protecting information technology companies from unfair competition from incumbent local telephone companies who could use their monopoly power to force customers to buy additional services. ITAA wants our company customers to choose from a broad array of competitors. The ITAA comments on December 23, 1998 were in opposition to the positions of several incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) which assert that dominant carriers should be allowed to bundle local telecommunications services with information services. ITAA outlined an argument refuting ILEC claims to support allowing bundling, and concluded that instead, the commission should require ILECs to continue to comply with the rules requiring the separation of regulated telecommunications and competitive information services. 5. ITAA TO CO-HOST INTERNET DOMAIN NAME MEETING ON JANUARY 22 ITAA is continuing to work with other international organizations to help ensure the functioning of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the new entity that will oversee the domain name system. On January 22, ITAA will co-organize a meeting in Washington, D.C. to discuss the formation of the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO) in accordance with the ICANN Bylaws. Other organizations involved include the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Commercial Internet Exchange, and the Council of Registrars (CORE), the International Trademark Association (INTA), the European ISP Association (EURAISPA), and the Policy Oversight Committee (POC). Among the topics to be discussed are:
Following the meeting, draft consensus DNSO bylaws will be developed by outside counsel based on the input from the meeting, including a listing of dissenting views. These draft bylaws will then be circulated extensively to the broad Internet community for review. The January 22 meeting will also determine whether there is a need for follow-up meetings. ITAA hopes the DNSO will be able to submit applications to ICANN in March or April next year. For more information on the DNSO meeting, please contact Pete Smith at psmith@itaa.org. General information on the Supporting Organization can be found in the ICANN Press Release of December 21: http://www.icann.org/icann-pr21dec98.html. 6. ITAA HOSTS TWO GLOBAL ELECTRONIC COMMERCE BRIEFINGS ITAA's active global affairs program co-hosted a briefing on electronic commerce to foreign delegations to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. The briefing was called at the request of the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, who had asked U.S. industry to provide WTO members with a better understanding of electronic commerce technologies. Later in January ITAA will host a members briefing with representatives of the US Trade Representative. At the Geneva event, ITAA took the lead role in a session that addressed the liberalization of telecommunications infrastructure as the key element in facilitating the global growth of electronic commerce. The panelists included W. Kenneth Lindhorst, Vice President of International Public Affairs at AT&T and Ralph Simpson, Director of Professional Services, Cisco U.K. Other companies who participated in the event are: EDS, Bank of America, AOL, Hewlett Packard, NCR, and IBM. The Geneva briefing was co-hosted with the Coalition of Service Industries (CSI) and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). The briefings were well received by the over 100 delegates from over 50 countries in attendance, including Ambassador Rita Hayes, the Permanent U.S. Representative to the WTO. The WTO announced its work program on electronic commerce earlier this year and will provide recommendations to ministers for action in December 1999. E-commerce will also be affected by the next round of international trade negotiations, which will focus on trade in services and is slated to begin in 2000. ITAA will host a briefing with officials from the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) office from 1pm - 2pm on Monday, January 25. The briefing will focus on the World Trade Organization's (WTO) e-commerce work program and the upcoming services round of negotiations slated to start in 2000. The briefing will be provided by Don Abelson, Jonathan McHale and Peter Collins of USTR. Immediately following the meeting, from 2pm - 3pm, there will be an ITAA members meeting to discuss priorities at the WTO and ITAA's future work program. It is anticipated that the work of the WTO on e-commerce and the upcoming services negotiations will be a major focus of ITAA's international efforts in 1999 and beyond. For more information about the briefing, please contact Sheila O'Neill atsoneill@itaa.org. 7. ITAA ECOMMERCE WEBCAST ON JANUARY 21: BUILDING A BETTER PLAN FOR E-COMMERCE ITTA will conduct its first 1999 E-Commerce web cast on Thursday, January 21 from 1:00Pm-2:00PM EST. The program, entitled Building a Better plan for E-Commerce will feature Brian Walsh is founder of bwalsh.com, a networking and communications consulting firm specializing in Internet and client/server product strategies, development and testing, in Portland, Ore. The web cast is free to employees of ITAA member companies, $25 for members of Council of Regional Information Technology Associations (CRITAs) and cost $50 for the general public. On-line sign up is available and additional information is available athttp://www.itaa.org/ecomm/calpro/webcast.htm. The purpose of the program is to help businesses take advantage of Internet's power with a new business model driven by E-Commerce. This business imperative places pressure on several areas of the organization. In particular, a successful E-Commerce project places IT groups in a position of having to integrate new business processes between and among an organization, its suppliers and its customers while at the same time using new technologies and platforms. Managers responsible for the proposed new e-commerce site have to take the good news with the bad. The good news is that there are still lots of opportunity for growth. The bad news is that you have no room for mistakes. While the e-commerce market is still in its infancy, if you're starting now, you're starting late. Simultaneously, management expects to capture new markets through adept use of existing IT capabilities and the Internet. Today's IT managers are responsible for understanding the business drivers, making the product selection decisions and aligning staff and partners to deliver on the promise of E-Commerce. This session will explore: what constitutes a solid business plan, what components make for a reasonable forecast of capital payback and profitability, and how to provide guidance for staff and implementation. 8. OMB TRACKING FEDERAL AGENCY PROGRESS ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE In order to meet a requirement to report to Congress on March 1, the Office of Management and Budget has ordered agencies to submit a report outlining how they used electronic commerce during the last fiscal year and how they plan to execute the government's strategic plan for electronic purchasing and payment. Late last year OMB directed agency heads to submit two-part reports that OMB will compile to paint an overall picture of how government is progressing in using Electronic Commerce for purchasing and payment. In its report to Congress, OMB will provide an agency-by-agency summary of the volume and dollar value of transactions that agencies conducted last year using electronic commerce. In addition, OMB must detail to Congress the progress that agencies are making in meeting the government-wide Electronic Commerce strategic plan released last March by the President's Management Council's Electronic Processes Initiatives Committee. Agencies must describe the major EC initiatives planned for fiscal 1999 and 2000 related to purchasing and payment. In addition, they must indicate how a particular Electronic Commerce initiative supports government-wide policy, describe the financial management impact of the initiative -- if it is material to the agency's financial operations -- and reference an initiative in the agency budget if it involves a major acquisition. 9. RATING THE CONGRESS ON HIGH TECH ISSUES Here is additional background for story #1: The five House criteria are: Encryption:The House held no roll call votes on encryption. The Scorecard used the sponsorship list for HR 695 (Safety and Freedom through Encryption Act) provided by Library of Congress, as of November 19, 1998. Members who sponsored the bill, but later removed their names from the sponsorship list were treated as non-sponsors. Also, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the bill's lead sponsor, kept a list of members who asked to sponsor the bill after the deadline for doing so. These members were coded as sponsors. This list included Mary Bono, Lois Capps, Dick Armey, John Balducci, and Dick Smith. David Lehman, of Rep. Goodlatte's staff, provided this list to Tech Law Journal on November 11, 1998. H1B:The Scorecard used the the recorded roll call vote on S 3736, the "Workforce Improvement and Protection Act" on September 24, 1998. This was Roll Call No. 460. There were 288 votes in favor and 133 votes against. The remainder were also coded in the Scorecard as "no" votes. Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act:The House passed HR 1689 by a recorded vote on July 22, 1998. This was Roll Call No. 318. The vote was 340 in favor and 83 against. Nita Lowey vote "present" and was coded as a "no" vote for the Scorecard. Eleven members missed the vote. Two of these later entered statements in the Congressional Record that they supported the bill (Goodlatte and Hooley). All of these eleven members were coded as "no" votes for the Scorecard. Internet Tax Freedom Act:While this was enacted into law, there was no roll call vote which could have been used in the Scorecard. The bill passed by a voice vote without opposition on June 23, 1998. It passed it again, but an overwhelming vote as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill in October. The scorecard used the sponsorship list for HR 1054 provided by the Library of Congress, as of November 11, 1998. This bill went through several versions and bill numbers as the bill worked its way through the House. However, only HR 1054 had a large number of co-sponsors. Only HR 1054 provided a measure of strong support for an Internet tax moratorium. Internet Caucus:The Scorecard used a list provided by the Internet Caucus, from October 1998. There were eighty-two House members. (Note that several non-voting delegates are members of the Internet Caucus, but were not included in the Scorecard.) Five Senate Criteria: Encryption:The Senate held no votes on encryption in 1998. The Scorecard used the sponsorship list for S 377, the Promotion of Commerce On-line in the Digital Era Act (Pro CODE) provided by the Library of Congress. One might argue that co-sponsorship of S. 2067, the "E-Privacy" bill, should also qualify a Senator as a supporter of encryption legislation. However, the list of co-sponsors of this bill was a subset of the list of cosponsors of S 377, so it would not have made any difference. H1B Visas:The Senate passed S 1723 on May 18, 1998 by a vote of 78 to 20. This was Roll Call No. 141. Two Senators who missed the vote (D'Amato and Faircloth) were coded in the Scorecard as "no" votes. Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act:The Senate passed S 1260 on May 13, 1998 by a vote of 79 to 21. This was Roll Call No. 135. Internet Tax Freedom Act:The Senate passed S 442 by a roll call vote. However, the vote was almost unanimous. All the disputed issues had been resolved in votes on amendments. The Scorecard used one of the key votes on amendments: Roll Call No. 305, on October 7, 1998. The vote was on Amendment No. 3783, offered by Sen. McCain, to extend the duration of the moratorium to four years. It failed by a vote of 45 to 52. The three Senators who missed the vote (Glenn, Hollings, and Specter) were coded in the Scorecard as "no" votes. This vote provided the best evidence of strong support for the concept underlying the Internet Tax Freedom Act. (Note: the House did not pass this bill as a stand alone bill, but both the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which included the language of this bill.) Internet Caucus:The Scorecard used a list provided by the
Internet Caucus, from October 1998. There were twenty-one Senators on the
list.
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