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Competitiveness
Obstacles To Consensus Remain In Innovation Path
by Heather Greenfield
Industry interests that are lobbying for an agenda designed to make America more globally competitive are cheering the most tangible action on that agenda in years.
The Senate passed a broad competitiveness bill, S. 761, this week, and the House passed two smaller measures, H.R. 362 and H.R. 363, that address mathematics and science education and basic research.
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Today's Competitiveness Coverage
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"Anytime you see action, you have reason to be optimistic, and we've seen action this week," said Robert Hoffman, co-chairman of Compete America and a lobbyist for Oracle. He noted the large majorities of lawmakers in both chambers who voted for the measures outlined in the competitiveness agenda of both Democrats and Republicans.
But Kara Calvert, director of government relations for the Information Technology Industry Council, warned: "That's just the first step in the process. Getting it across the finish line will take a lot from House and Senate Democrats, Republicans and the White House." She is waiting to see how the more comprehensive Senate measure can be reconciled with the House bills.
Several tech lobbyists described how remarkable it was that all the key committee chairmen in the Senate endorsed broad legislation but said it is unclear whether the House will do the same.
Another factor that could hinder the legislation is disagreement from the Bush administration and some Republicans on what math and science education programs should get more funding. The White House would rather divert funds to programs under the 2002 education law known as the No Child Left Behind Act rather than boost some education programs that the National Science Foundation operates.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., moved to strike a provision strengthening NSF's education and human resources directorate, but that amendment was rejected 24-74. It is an issue that could resurface as the bills are reconciled.
Another difference involves telecommunications issues included in the Senate bill but not the House-passed measures. Danielle Jafari, senior director of government affairs at the Telecommunications Industry Alliance, said TIA will be lobbying to make sure grant programs for NSF that would direct $200 million toward telecom research stay in the legislation.
The bills represent roughly half of the four items identified in the competitiveness agenda. The remaining items are immigration reform aimed at allowing more highly skilled foreigners to work in the United States and a permanent research and development tax credit.
A day after the Senate vote, Calvert wasted no time meeting with House members about the urgency of allowing highly skilled immigration for competitiveness.
Tech lobbyists are optimistic about green card reform and more H-1B visas if the Senate debates comprehensive immigration reform the last two weeks of May, as scheduled by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. To do that, the Senate will need a bill in the next two weeks.
"The next couple weeks will be very telling," Hoffman said. "We hear there is conceptual understanding of what an immigration bill would look like."
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Competitiveness
Senate Innovation Bill Survived Flurry Of Objections
by Heather Greenfield
The Senate competitiveness bill faced dozens of amendments and last-minute opposition from the White House Office of Management and Budget before being passed this week.
Overall the measure and its House counterparts, also passed this week, aim to provide thousands more certified mathematics and science teachers and research grants for young scientists. They also would dramatically boost basic research funds.
"The more intelligent investment our government and private sector makes in both robust research programs and students developing their technical talents, the brighter the prospects become for domestic innovation and the workers who make it happen," said Mike Kennedy, Motorola's senior vice president and chairman of the Electronic Industries Alliance.
There is broad support among Democrats and Republicans about the need to make the country more competitive via such actions. The Senate voted 88-8 for its legislation, S. 761, and less than two dozen members voted against the House bills, H.R. 362 and H.R. 363.
But the specific measures raised some concerns, especially in the Senate.
Wayne Allard, R-Colo., was among the eight Republicans voting against the Senate bill, and he is a member of the Republican High-Tech Task Force. A spokesman for Allard said he supports some programs within the bill but is concerned about the cost.
"America cannot be competitive anywhere if it's burdened by extraordinary deficits," Allard said. His office cited a Government Accountability Office estimate of the cost of the bill as between $16 billion and $60 billion over five years.
Jim DeMint, R-S.C., voted against the legislation after trying unsuccessfully to prohibit congressional earmarks within it.
Two senators also tried to use amendments to better align the bill with the Bush administration's competitiveness goals. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., voted nay after his amendment to discontinue the Advanced Technology Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology failed.
John Sununu, R-N.H., ultimately supported the bill but tried unsuccessfully to block authorizing funds to strengthen education and teacher training programs at the National Science Foundation. A Democratic lawmaker said the Bush math and science education initiatives focus funding more on curriculum.
Two Senate Democrats won approval of amendments designed to improve science and technology curriculum.
Mary Landrieu, D-La., added state grants to enhance elementary science curriculum on conventional and emerging energy sources and uses. And Max Baucus, D-Mont., directed states to design tech curriculum for preschool to college students based on needed worker skills.
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Education
Group Urges Commitment To STEM Education
by Aliya Sternstein
Ending a week of action on bills to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, a higher education association released a report Thursday that proposes helping underrepresented students pursue graduate study in those fields.
While the recommendations do not offer anything different from what many lawmakers, businesses and researchers already are urging, the words represent another voice making the case that STEM improvements would boost competitiveness, said James Brown, co-chairman of the STEM Education Coalition.
The paper, issued by the Council of Graduate Schools, calls for government, higher education and industry to collaborate on initiatives, which include: creating incentives for students to obtain graduate degrees in STEM fields; shortening the time required to complete degrees; and reforming the immigration system so the world's top talent can pursue graduate study in the United States, thereby contributing to U.S. innovation.
"It's good that they emphasized the need to reach out to students that are underrepresented in the STEM fields," Brown said. "This is an aspect of the competitiveness debate that needs more attention."
On Tuesday, the House passed two pieces of legislation that would increase funding for science education. On Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill that would authorize money to enhance elementary and secondary mathematics, science and technology education. (See related stories)
Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Pelosi's innovation agenda emphasizes ensuring that minorities and women pursue advanced degrees in STEM fields.
"One way to get all students into STEM fields is to make sure they have a highly trained STEM teacher," which is the goal of one of the bills passed this week, he said. As the bill moves to conference, lawmakers are pondering modifications that would give students an increased financial incentive to teach in high-need schools, which tend to have a large number of minority students.
Republican Sen. Michael Enzi of Wyoming said in a statement: "Graduate programs across America are leading the world in critical research and innovation, but other countries are beginning to catch up. Unless we address this issue head on, this competition will only increase in the future."
"It's clear competitiveness is at the top of the new leadership's agenda and that STEM education is the central component of the response," Brown said. "The House and Senate will be working out the differences between the bills this summer, and I think the STEM community will be happy with the finished product.
He noted that Congress still has to work on appropriations and on science education changes to the 2002 education law known as the No Child Left Behind Act.
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Civil Liberties
Washington Is Set To Enact 'Shield' For Media, Blogs
by Michael Martinez
Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire on Friday is expected to sign into a law a measure to shield journalists -- including bloggers in the news business -- from being forced by the government to disclose confidential sources.
The bill, H.B. 1336, would make Washington the 33rd state to enact such a "shield law." The District of Columbia offers similar protection.
Under the Washington proposal, people engaged in the "regular business of news-gathering" would be protected from being compelled to reveal confidential sources who wish to remain anonymous, regardless of what type of technology they use to distribute their content. Bloggers employed by news-gathering entities would be protected. Independent bloggers could be considered as entities several ways, such as becoming limited liability corporations.
Bruce Johnson, an attorney at the Seattle-based firm Davis Wright Tremaine, helped draft the bill. He said it would draw a fair line between bloggers who are operating as journalists and those who are purely "hobbyists."
He said the cost of business licenses in Washington should not preclude many bloggers from applying for them.
The Washington law also includes another technology-related wrinkle -- it would shield reporters from attempts to seek telephone or Internet records and other information for the purpose of identifying their sources. Johnson said the provision would be particularly useful in cases where parties try to use such techniques to sidestep the shield law.
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said she hopes Washington's new law will help spur momentum in other states and on Capitol Hill. Shield legislation stalled during the 109th Congress but is expected to be revived this session.
Dalglish said she is not aware of any state shield laws that explicitly exclude bloggers -- even though many of them were authored before the blogging boom of recent years.
She noted that Alabama's statute is particularly unique. Sports Illustrated lost a defamation case in 2005 when a federal court ruled that the state's shield law does not protect magazine reporters.
Massachusetts, Missouri and Texas all are currently considering shield laws. Dalglish recently testified in support of the Texas proposal. "I haven't gotten any frantic e-mails about it yet," she said.
Few state-level shield laws have been tested by questions about whether they should apply to bloggers. Apple Computer sued last year to unmask the sources of bloggers who leaked information about an unreleased product. The company dropped the suit after a California appellate court ruled against Apple in May 2006.
Johnson said the legal landscape is still evolving, but the growing number of states with shield laws is making it harder for federal lawmakers to ignore the issue. "Each state law is an additional brick in a building that may turn into a federal shield law," he said.
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Labor
Experts See Security At Tech Facilities As Strong
by Aliya Sternstein
While no workplace is immune to security breaches, an incident on the scale of last week's Virginia Tech tragedy likely would not occur at a technology firm, some personnel experts say.
Philip Deming, a human-resource security consultant, said tech companies "tend to be a bit more sophisticated" in their overall security posture than manufacturing or nonprofit organizations because of their focus on competitiveness. When Deming was providing services to the online retailer Amazon.com, he witnessed the priority that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos placed on protecting his knowledge assets -- both physical and human.
Cho Seung-Hui, the shooter at Virginia Tech who killed 32 people and then himself, had a history of stalking complaints and mental health problems. That kind of rampage probably would not have happened at a tech company, Deming said.
He noted that tech companies perform due diligence on potential hires because "they may want to know if that person has worked for a competitor or is going to be stealing information. They're not looking for prior violence, but they would find that out."
Deming said any tech company likely would have done a background investigation, and Cho's harassment of females, had it occurred in a corporate setting, would have violated company policy. Had his erratic behavior on campus been as evident on corporate property, Deming added, the company would have had reason to terminate him or bar him from the workplace.
A Hewlett-Packard spokesman said in a statement that HP's emergency preparedness plans "include different vehicles for alerting employees and for providing information." The company does not discuss specific details of internal security. Microsoft officials said the software company regularly reviews its campus security policies but also does not discuss them publicly.
Precautions at tech facilities will not prevent all attacks, however. Four days after the Virginia Tech incident, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston was murdered by an on-site contractor.
Asked about that, Deming said, "You can only do so much in terms of vetting" outside workers.
Technology Daily obtained a message to employees from NASA Administrator Michael Griffin that said Houston police officials complimented "NASA's handling of the incident by internal security forces, citing the manner in which the incident site was surrounded and contained by NASA security personnel."
The memo, dated Tuesday, added that NASA will "review the entire incident, with the intent of producing an 'after-action report.'"
Yet Chris Knight, chief steward of the NASA Ames Research Center Federal Employees Union and an Ames intelligent systems division employee, contends that NASA's "security policies have remained unchanged -- cars are randomly inspected for bombs, but those inspections are very unlikely to find handguns or any other small weapons."
He noted that a 2004 homeland security presidential directive soon will require most contractors to undergo more detailed background checks.
"I have to wonder if these background checks might have some impact on identifying employees with a history of violence or other problems that may place other employees at risk," Knight said, adding that "the events last week raised my level of concern, and I'm considering what might be the best approach to ensuring the safety of employees."
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On The Hill
Lawmakers Focus On Campus Safety, Broadband
by Theresa Poulson
Public-safety experts and higher education administrators convened on Capitol Hill this week to discuss ways to improve college campus security after the Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32 people plus the gunman. The shooting also was on the minds of lawmakers, who introduced legislation aimed at strengthening safety in schools.
One new technology-related bill, S. 1228, would require all colleges and universities to develop emergency-response procedures and campus notification systems that would be tested regularly. Another measure, S. 1217, seeks to increase safety at elementary and secondary schools in addition to college campuses.
Also on the security front, lawmakers introduced legislation, S. 1223, that aims to ensure television and radio broadcasters can provide public information during disasters.
Increasing the availability of high-speed Internet was another hot topic this week, as the United States dropped three slots in one global broadband ranking. Lawmakers introduced three separate broadband measures.
One bill, H.R. 2054, would update the universal service fund for subsidizing communications service to include contributions from local and Internet telephone providers. Carriers also could use the fund to subsidize broadband access (see separate story).
A Senate measure, S. 1190, would create a grant program to fund public-private partnerships for broadband access in rural areas. And a House measure, H.R. 2035, would revamp the broadband loan program under the Rural Utility Service to focus on truly rural areas.
Other new technology-related measures are:
-- H.R. 2060, which would nullify the March 2 decision of the Copyright Royalty Board to require Internet radio services to pay higher royalties (see separate summary, plus a brief below);
-- H.R. 2046, which would repeal the new ban on Web gambling (see separate story);
-- H.R. 2034 and S. 1218, which would provide incentives for adopting health information technology (see separate summary);
-- S. 1202, which would require notification of data breaches that pose a significant risk of identity theft;
-- S. 1208, which aims to better protect Social Security numbers;
-- S. 1216, which would extend the existing laser visa program to allow certain nationals of Mexico temporarily entering the state of New Mexico to travel up to 100 miles from the border;
-- H.R. 2041, which would authorize the establishment of border inspection areas in Michigan and Canada;
-- H.R. 2006, which calls for strengthening the security of the visa-waiver program;
-- And H. Res. 338, which would encourage increased cooperation between the United States and the European Union to strengthen the trans-Atlantic market.
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Today's Feature:
Executive Summary
After years of talk about innovation and competitiveness, this week saw the most floor action since the president released his American competitiveness initiative and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced her innovation agenda.
Every Friday, read the Executive Summary by K. Daniel Glover.
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E-briefs
Television: The debate over video-franchising rules in Florida has been heating up in the final weeks of the Sunshine State's legislative session. A measure to let video providers apply for statewide franchises was put before the state Senate on Friday for a vote on third reading. If passed, the bill will be forwarded to Gov. Charlie Crist. Debate on the bill was still going at press time. Video-franchising legislation died in the Florida Senate last year after the House passed it. Supporters of this year's measure believe it has a better chance because the state's cable industry has not opposed it.
Crime: A Sarasota, Fla., man was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday for conspiring to commit securities fraud and e-mail fraud stemming from a stock-manipulation scheme involving four publicly traded companies. The Justice Department said the firms involved were China Score, eDollars, Emerging Holdings and Masslick. The government seized more than $3 million from bank accounts associated with Stephen Luscko and his three co-conspirators, who were previously sentenced. The Securities and Exchange Commission also has filed civil charges against several involved in the scam. The co-conspirators allegedly controlled shares of the companies' stocks and falsely manipulated the prices and volumes for each firm by making false and misleading statements in press releases and mass e-mails. After "pumping" the price of each company's stock, they "dumped" the shares, realizing $6.8 million in profit, Justice said.
Business: AT&T used its annual stockholders meeting in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday to announce the retirement of Edward Whitacre. At 65, Whitacre is the longest-serving CEO in the telecommunications industry. He has been chairman and CEO since 1990, when the company was Southwestern Bell, the smallest of the so-called Baby Bells. "I have had the extraordinary privilege to lead this company for 17 years, and I leave with complete confidence in the future of our great company," Whitacre said. When Whitacre leaves June 3, Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson will become CEO. Stephenson began his career with Southwestern Bell in 1982. He held a series of leadership positions in finance before becoming senior vice president of performance and then consumer marketing. "Our focus will not change," Stephenson said. "We're dedicated to the same vision, strategy and focus on growing and improving the business, and giving customers great products and services."
Intellectual Property: A House bill aimed at overturning a March 2 decision to raise Internet radio royalties would result in a windfall of more than $50 million to mega-corporate webcasters like Clear Channel and Microsoft at the expense of the recording industry, the royalty collector SoundExchange said Friday. The measure, H.R. 2060, also would gut "fair-market rates" that the Copyright Royalty Board set and would force musicians to return royalty payments they already received, the group said. "The idea that this bill would help small webcasters or artists is ludicrous," SoundExchange Executive Director John Simson said. Less than 2 percent of all royalty payments in 2006 came from small webcasters, he said. The legislation would "arbitrarily reverse the painstaking work of the CRB, the three-judge panel created at the request of the webcasters three years ago," Simson said.
Science: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has released a Nanoelectronics Standards Roadmap for review by the nanotechnology community. The group said Thursday that the roadmap provides a framework for industry standards to use when transitioning electronic applications of nanotechnology from the laboratory to commercial use. A meeting on the roadmap initiative, which began in early 2003, is scheduled to for May 22. Nanotechnology focuses on matter at the atomic and molecular levels.
International: The European Union continues to target successful U.S. companies with antitrust complaints and fails to respect antitrust decisions in other nations and U.S. intellectual property, a speaker said Friday at a Capitol Hill briefing organized by the National Taxpayers Union. "The most egregious example of how the European Commission uses its power to affect business in the United States is its crusade against Microsoft," said Thomas Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. "The European Parliament and European Commission should leave American businesses alone and instead focus on reforming their own economic system to allow for greater profit and financial success." Dan Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, said he is concerned that the United States could make the mistake of following the European Union and having a value-added tax, which is applied at each stage of the production process.
Telecom: The European Commission will need to consider changes in technology and consumer usage when reforming telecommunications rules, a top official said Friday. "Europe's digital economy is growing strongly as more and more households embrace convergence between fixed, mobile and Internet services," EU Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement. "The challenge of this year's reform of the EU's telecom rules will be to respond to this rapidly changing technological environment while enhancing at the same time effective competition," she said. The commission simultaneously released statistics on the use of technology by European households. It found that nearly 20 percent of households purchase bundled telecom packages, and almost 30 percent are connected to the high-speed Internet. Households also increasingly opt for mobile telephones, and 17 percent of Europeans have a home Internet connection for phones, the survey revealed.
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President -- John Fox Sullivan, 202-739-8468
Editor in Chief -- Louis Peck, 202-739-8481
Editor -- K. Daniel Glover (bio)
Assistant Editor -- Theresa Poulson
Senior Writers -- David Hatch (bio), Heather Greenfield (bio), Andrew Noyes (bio) and Aliya Sternstein (bio)
Special Correspondent -- Chris Strohm (bio)
Staff Writer -- Michael Martinez
Senior Business Affairs Manager -- Chris Hamby
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