Week ending May 12, 2000
ITI Applauds Five-Year Extension
On Wednesday the House of Representatives passed a five-year extension of the Internet tax moratorium. The five-year extension will begin when the current three-year moratorium expires at the middle of next year.
ITI apprised House members that it anticipates scoring the vote in its annual High-Tech Voting Guide that will be released later this year.
ITI Praises Bi-Partisan Efforts to Reduce Congressional Review Period
Senators Bennett (R-UT) and Reid (D-NV) this week introduced a bi-partisan bill that will let changes to computer export control regulations to be implemented more quickly. The bill would reduce from 180 days to 30 days -- the amount of time Congress has to review changes to computer export controls. If approved, the bill would be retroactive to January 1, 2000.
A similar to one introduced earlier this year in the House of Representatives by Congressman Dreier (R-CA) and Congresswoman Lofgren (D-CA), may be offered as an amendment on the House floor next week.
ITI, through the Computer Coalition for Responsible Exports has long sought changes to the current computer export control regulations and has endorsed the reduction in the congressional review period.
ITI Encourages Congress to Log-On to Agenda
Members of the House Republican Leadership on Wednesday outlined their eContract 2000. The contract includes principles supported by the IT industry including minimal government intervention. Some of the specifics issues discussed at Wednesday's launch include passage of permanent normal trade relations with China, raising the annual limit on H-1B visas for high-tech workers, and enacting digital signatures legislation. For a complete copy of the eContract go to http://www.freedom.gov/econtract/. The House New Democrats are expected to release their E-Genda early next month.
ITI voiced its strong support for the proposals in the eContract and believe that the issues and principles contained in the document will be able to receive bi-partisan support in Congress.
ITI Helped Organize Tech Demos and Panel
On Monday, the House Democrats hosted a technology demonstration for its Members and small business owners from around the United States. The demo was attended by over two dozen Members of the House Democrat Caucus. ITI helped put together the event that included demonstrations by a number of ITI member companies. In addition, three ITI companies were represented on the e-commerce panel that was moderated by Congresswomen Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).
The House Commerce Committee approved legislation that bans imposing access charges on calls to Internet service providers. The full House is expected to vote on the measure later this month. For years ITI has supported the ban on Internet access charges and will encourage both the House and Senate to pass the legislation.
ITI to Lead Workshop
During the APEC Senior Officials Meeting in Brunei at the end of May, ITI will host a workshop aimed at developing a formal consensus, within APEC, on implementation of ITI's One Standard-One Test, Suppliers Declaration of Conformity regulatory model as it relates to safety and radio interference regulations on computers and peripherals. The workshop is part of APEC's Standards and Conformance Subcommittee project to eliminate redundant testing and certification for IT products.