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Crime
House Passes Series Of Bills Aimed At Web Crime, Porn
by Andrew Noyes
The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed legislation that would create a special counsel within the Justice Department to coordinate prosecution of child-exploitation cases across the federal government and to bolster regional task forces on Internet crimes against children.
The measure, passed on a 415-2 vote, would authorize more than $1 billion over eight years for grants; new federal agents dedicated to child-exploitation cases; and more forensic capabilities.
Florida Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who sponsored the measure, H.R. 3845, told reporters at a press briefing that her bill "addresses an issue that is central to the vision" of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
"Parents cannot stand over their kids' shoulders 24/7," Wasserman Schultz said, noting that Internet safety and fighting child exploitation deserve strong, comprehensive action from the federal government. The "safety net" in the legislation is part of that process, she said.
Republicans Paul Broun of Georgia and Jeff Flake of Arizona voted against the bill. Broun's spokesman, John Kennedy, said his boss did not back the measure because "it is duplicative of programs that already exist" at Justice.
Broun, who was elected in July to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Republican Charlie Norwood, also is a "small-government guy" who took issue with the sizeable amount of money authorized to fund the bill's Web safety efforts, Kennedy said.
The House also passed legislation that would make it a crime for adults to lie about their ages online in order to lure minors for sexual conduct. The vote on that bill, H.R. 719, was 417-0.
Two other bills targeting child pornography are expected to be passed later in the day. One bill, H.R. 4120, would fix a perceived loophole in the federal law that let a man in the home state of bill sponsor Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., escape prosecution.
The other measure, H.R. 4136, seeks to bolster the government's arsenal in child porn cases by including money-laundering as a prosecution tool. The bill would make it easier to prosecute those who knowingly and repeatedly view child porn.
On Tuesday evening, meanwhile, the House passed measures that would require the FTC to expand its Internet safety agenda and that would continue federal funding of the nationwide i-Safe program.
The vote on the FTC bill, H.R. 3461, was 398-6. The legislation would authorize $10 million for the initiative in 2008 and would require the commission to issue an annual online safety report.
The i-Safe bill, passed by voice vote, would preserve a Web safety curriculum that reaches millions of children nationwide. At Wednesday's briefing, California Democrat Linda Sanchez, who sponsored the measure, H.R. 4134, touted i-Safe's "proven track record for teaching kids how to be safe on the Internet."
"We can't let the information superhighway become the information super-nightmare for our kids," she said. The program, which teaches lessons about the dangers of online predators and cyber-bullying, is the "'don't take candy from strangers' [warning] for the digital age."
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Labor
Senate Panel OKs Bill To Expand Telework Eligibility
by Andy Leonatti, CongressDaily
Citing the need to reduce long commutes and traffic congestion, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a bill make more federal employees eligible to work from home or other remote sites.
The bill, S. 1000, was adopted by unanimous voice vote. It would make all federal employees eligible to telework unless they fall under categories that would prohibit it. Current law makes all federal employees ineligible to telecommute unless granted permission.
Employees who handle secure materials, work in protecting national security or the intelligence field, or have a job requiring their physical presence still would be ineligible.
The issue of security and privacy surrounding federal employees was heightened in 2006 when a laptop computer containing the personal information of 26.5 million veterans and military personnel was stolen after a Veterans Affairs Department employee took the computer home to complete work. The computer was later recovered but not without spurring numerous congressional hearings on data security.
A substitute amendment, which was approved by voice vote, set the definition of telework in the legislation as working away from the office at least 20 percent of each pay period.
Co-sponsor Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said the bill would help ease traffic congestion in cities, leading to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption. He added that the bill is "going to be even more helpful to rural America."
The measure would require that every federal agency designate one full-time employee to serve as a telework managing officer. Those managers would be responsible for implementing telework plans and would serve as liaisons between employers and employees who telework.
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., praised the bill, saying that it would help federal agencies "overcome the inertia" that has prevented them from implementing a proper plan.
During a hearing before the committee earlier this year, Stephen O'Keeffe, CEO of the Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership that provides telework education, told members that the average federal employee spends 245 hours a year commuting to and from work. O'Keeffe added that telecommuting two days per week could yield a 98-hour reduction in annual commuting time and save $55.52 per month on gas at $3 per gallon.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is working on similar legislation.
A survey of 25 federal agencies by that panel found no consistent definition of telework. According to the Office of Personnel Management, 111,549 out of 1.8 million federal employees telecommuted in 2006.
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Crime
Nevada Lawmaker Blasts Fight Against E-Gambling
by Michael Martinez
A House Democrat on Wednesday blasted the federal government's recent efforts to curtail Internet gambling.
Shelley Berkley, whose district includes Las Vegas and southern Nevada, told the House Judiciary Committee that that United States has caused consternation among its closest trading partners by insisting that online gambling is illegal.
According to the World Trade Organization, the United States has violated trade rules by banning some online wagering but still allowing online bets on horse races and in state lotteries. The tiny island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, which depends economically on Internet gaming, brought the dispute before the WTO.
Last year, meanwhile, President Bush signed into a law a measure blocking the financial industry from processing bets to e-gambling sites. And the Justice Department has pursued several recent cases against the operators of e-gambling businesses.
Berkley has introduced a bill calling for a comprehensive study on Internet gambling and the impact of the federal ban. She told the committee that lawmakers must have access to unbiased information on the topic to make informed decisions. "The reality is that this study should have been conducted before the ban on Internet gambling was passed," she said.
Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., began the hearing by describing gambling as a "social evil." Berkley disputed that claim. She said her family grew up in Las Vegas surrounded by the gambling industry, and supported the local economy allowed them to thrive.
But Conyers contended that Berkley's experiences should not be used to measure the effects of gambling on American society as a whole. "You are not ordinary," he told her. "You are quite special."
Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte, one of the key architects of last year's anti-gambling legislation, said Internet gaming can have more of a negative impact on a family than a casino built next door. He said a study into the issue would be appropriate only after the new law has been implemented and enforced.
In October, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Board released a proposed rule to implement the statute. An open comment period will last until Dec. 12.
Legislation already has been introduced by Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., to repeal the law and establish a system to allow and regulate online gaming. "These types of bills are premature at best," Goodlatte said.
U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway, whose Missouri district initiated a case against the gambling Web site BetOnSports, told the panel that Justice considers all forms of Internet gambling illegal. She said it poses an unacceptable risk for minors and compulsive gamblers.
Hanaway also said Congress made it clear that the new statute did not overturn laws that existed when the United States entered into trade agreements.
But Joseph Weiler, a law professor at New York University, said the United States unquestionably has violated trade obligations. He said U.S. authorities have threatened corporations and individuals for commercial activities that the United States guaranteed it would allow to its trade partners.
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Television
Cable Industry Preps For Fight Over New Regulations
by David Hatch
The cable television industry is seeking to derail efforts by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to use a new finding that operators have achieved market dominance in order to justify fresh regulations.
During a Wednesday conference call with reporters, Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, asserted that Martin's real aim is to pressure cable systems into offering per-channel pricing, known as a la carte.
McSlarrow said tighter regulation is not warranted by the marketplace and was not requested by Congress. He promised litigation if the FCC adopts restrictions his association opposes.
The finding is contained in the latest iteration of the agency's video competition report, to be released at its late-November public meeting. The FCC concludes that cable is available to more than 70 percent of homes and that more than 70 percent of households subscribe to it. The 1984 Cable Act permits the agency to promote a "diversity of information sources" if the "70/70" threshold is reached.
The statistics are based on "outside resources and data services that the commission relies upon, and so it wasn't just our finding," Martin told reporters Tuesday.
NCTA countered that only the first prong has been met. "Part of the problem here is that we don't know how they arrived" at their conclusion, McSlarrow said, complaining that the agency has not circulated proposed rules subject to public comment.
Martin will use the determination to fuel new regulatory measures to be considered this month, sources said. Those include a proposal to reduce rates that cable systems charge independent programmers purchasing capacity on leased access channels and stricter program-access rules banning exclusive content arrangements.
Martin, meanwhile, is circulating a plan to reinstate the cable cap, which prohibits systems from commanding more than 30 percent of the multi-channel video marketplace.
In 2001, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia remanded the limit to the FCC, saying further justification was needed. Martin now says he has the evidence to restore it. It is unclear when the agency would vote on that item.
Several sources suggested that Martin is promoting cable regulation to counterbalance criticism from Congress, the public and watchdogs over his effort to relax media-ownership rules. "It certainly is a part of his overall calculations," said David Kaut, a telecom analyst at the investment firm Stifel Nicolaus.
In a Wednesday letter to the FCC, NCTA noted that the agency concluded last year that cable systems had only reached 56 percent market penetration. The association cited three separate firms that assess cable below the 70 percent mark.
Even if the threshold were met, NCTA argues that Congress intended for the 70/70 rule only to impact leased access channels. The industry group also complained that the rule is outdated because it stems from a law that predates the Internet and the entry of telecom companies into the video market. Direct-broadcast satellite, now a major competitor, also was in its infancy then.
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Civil Liberties
Rights Advocate Laments Moves Against Online Speech
by Andrew Noyes
Barriers to free expression on the Internet are escalating as the medium becomes more prevalent around the globe, a representative from the human rights group Amnesty International warned Wednesday at a high-tech conference in Brazil.
Dissidents in some countries continue to be harassed and imprisoned for spreading democratic beliefs online, Amnesty's Nick Dearden said, and "if we're not careful, [the Internet] could be turned into a tool of repression and limitation rather than liberation and openness."
Dearden's comments came at an Internet Governance Forum session on "openness," one of five general themes of the Rio de Janeiro meeting, which is being webcast this week. Other delegates from civil society and Internet policymakers also spoke on the panel.
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More Net Governance Coverage
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According to Dearden's group, China is believed to hold 60 cyber dissidents for their political commentary; the Syrian government jailed a half-dozen people who used the Internet to call for political reform; and several recent arrests have been reported in Thailand.
Last year, Amnesty pressured American technology firms like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo for greater transparency in how they censor or restrict access to information and help governments curtail Web speech. Yahoo executives last week were grilled by the House Foreign Affairs Committee for the firm's role in the prosecution of Chinese journalist Shi Tao. On Tuesday, the company announced a settlement with his family to end a lawsuit that was filed in a U.S. court.
"I fear very much that for many governments across the world, human rights are slipping down the agenda," Dearden said. Officials routinely cite the Internet's facilitation of child pornography, fraud and terrorism for crackdowns, "but I haven't heard much of freedom of expression."
It is not enough that countries "agree in principle that freedom of expression is a good thing," Dearden said. There "has to be a creation of political will around defending political expression on the Internet."
The cross-section of stakeholders at the forum should "collectively commit to these human rights standards as an essential basis of the Internet, not as one theme amongst many," he added.
Human rights attorney Mark Kelly called for the creation of an international framework that would bring equilibrium to civil rights and political pressures, as well as incorporate protections for intellectual property rights.
Peter Dengate Thrush, the new chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers that manages the Web-addressing system, noted that his group is mindful of human rights issues but said compliance with such principles "is a journey, not a destination."
David Gross, the State Department's international communications and information policy chief, said the issue of openness is "one of the closest to my heart." Free flow of information is crucial to the Internet's evolution "and how that's determined in each country should be determined in a democratic fashion."
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Security
Rep. Thompson Tackles Hot Security Issues In Speech
by Chris Strohm
House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson said Wednesday that he does not support giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants but would be willing to delay a mandate for scanning all cargo containers set to enter the United States.
In a broad-ranging speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Mississippi Democrat also said it now costs about $6 million to build one mile of fencing along the southern border and that the Homeland Security Department severely underestimated how many transportation industry workers will be required to get new identification cards that contain biometric identifiers. Thompson addressed several hot-button security issues during his speech and while answering questions from audience members.
"The good news is that despite what you hear, we as a country have been safer since 9/11," he said in a reference to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "But it's a work in progress."
Wading into an issue that has flared recently for presidential candidates, Thompson said New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, was wrong to propose driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Faced with mounting opposition to the idea, Spitzer reversed course Wednesday.
A group of House Republicans, including Homeland Security ranking member Peter King of New York, introduced legislation Tuesday to withhold federal highway funding for states that issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
Thompson said he believes immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. "Most communities have decided to continue to see it as a federal responsibility, and I agree with them."
On another front, Thompson said he would not oppose changing a congressional mandate that requires all cargo to be scanned at foreign ports within five years. Thompson fought to include the mandate in legislation enacted this year, arguing that it is technologically possible. But he said he is flexible if the results of a cargo-scanning study show the need for a delay.
He added, however, that "for us to have goods coming to this country and we don't have a clue as to what's in the container is unacceptable." He asked industry to help the Homeland Security Department meet the mandate. "If we can put people on the moon ... I'm convinced that in real time we can screen cargo and track it all the way to this country," he said.
With regard to other security programs, Thompson said it costs about $6 million to build one mile of fencing along the border.
He also said that about 2 million workers will need new transportation worker identification credentials. The department has previously told his committee about 1 million workers would need the credentials. Thompson claimed that between 10 percent and 40 percent of workers who apply for credentials could be denied.
"If that happens, there will be a significant challenge for us as a country to come up with workers," he warned.
Thompson also said he does not believe Congress will debate comprehensive immigration overhaul until a new administration comes into office.
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Politics
The Art Of Politicking Via Online Social Networks
by Heather Greenfield
The political world is moving online, and the New Politics Institute wants to make sure liberal causes and candidates understand the new realties, so it held a forum Wednesday to share best practices in online social networks.
"On some fundamental level, politics has always been about social networks," institute Director Pete Leyden said, noting that unions historically motivated friends and co-workers to vote.
The online element is just more like social networks on steroids, panelists agreed. "Now we have the infrastructure to share this with friends in a terribly, terribly efficient manner," said Chris Kelly, chief privacy officer for the Facebook social network, which has become a popular forum for political groups in the 2007-2008 election cycle.
Ben Rattray, the CEO of Change.org, said online social-networking is a great way to raise money. He offered the example of his friends who care about global warming but don't know what to do. He said when a friend announces support for Greenpeace and invites others to donate, it gives a direction, impetus and urgency.
Because social-networking tools can easily show how many people have contributed, Rattray said it helps show people they will be part of something bigger.
Cheryl Contee, a vice president at the Fleishman Hillard public relations firm, said a starting point is learning what already is being said about campaigns or candidates. She advised them to search their names on Facebook, photo-sharing sites, search engines like Google and Technorati, the YouTube video-sharing site, and Digg, which lets users vote for their favorite content.
Rattray said it is important to "go beyond the 'Field of Dreams'" mentality online, saying that just because you build a site, people will not come. "The most common way to build a network on MySpace is to get an intern to friend 70 people a day," Rattray said.
John Hlinko, CEO of the new media consulting firm Grassroots Enterprise, said it is critical to look at what content gets spread and actually read it before sending a message. "You've got to hit them in the gut [or] the heart," he said. "Make them laugh or make them angry."
A media marketer said people often delete e-mails if they are too frequent, and she asked at what point you risk losing friends on social networks by contacting them too often. Hlinko said content matters, not frequency, and "cut and paste" e-mails whose bottom line is fundraising do not work.
Social-networking is just one of the four new media tools the institute is highlighting in hopes to give liberal campaigns an edge. Leyden said the institute is releasing a report Wednesday that tells strategists this election cycle could hinge on a using Web video, mobile telephones, targeted marketing and social networks.
Leyden said the institute chose to focus on social-networking at the event because it is the most undeveloped of the tools -- though maybe not with his audience. Most of the people there indicated that they heard about the event on Facebook.
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On The Hill
Defining Journalism Is Still Key In The 'Shield' Debate
by Aliya Sternstein
A report about legislation to protect journalists' secret sources that was prepared for lawmakers raises new questions about whether bloggers would be covered under the bill.
The Oct. 18 Congressional Research Service report -- a summary and analysis for lawmakers -- notes that the 109th Congress' proposals for a "shield" law did not apply to bloggers, but it does not mention bloggers in its discussion of current proposals. The report states that "the bills in the 110th Congress expand the definition of 'covered persons.'"
The Senate measure, S. 2035, would guard people "engaged in journalism," where journalism is defined as "the gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting, or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public."
The House-passed legislation, H. R. 2102, would guard people who engage in journalism "for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain." CRS states that "after lengthy debate," the House Judiciary Committee approved the bill "despite reports of concern expressed by some members that the definition of 'journalist' remained unclear."
CRS authors said they did not give thought to specifying bloggers in writing the report. "We do define a covered person," a CRS researcher said Tuesday. "There was no need, we felt, to mention bloggers in particular because [the definition] would include other people as well."
Blogger Matt Stoller of Open Left criticized the House bill for defining journalists "as a class of people who make money publishing rather than defining journalism as an act of public service done by amateurs, professionals and hobbyists alike."
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said her organization urged legislators "to not get bogged down in the technology used to communicate information," so it makes sense that CRS did not allude to bloggers or the Web in its report. Kurt Opsahl, the senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, agreed that if a person is engaged in journalism, the means of expression should not matter.
Yet Todd Gaziano, director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, said the question of whether the legislation should specifically reference bloggers points to a bigger flaw within the idea of a federal shield law for the press.
"If this were an unqualified great idea, I think Congress would be comfortable extending it to everyone from student newspapers to bloggers," he said. "It certainly does help journalists and in a few marginal cases promotes the free flow [of information]. It also promotes illegal conduct."
Other professions could make similar arguments, Gaziano said. For example, bankers could push for a bankers' shield law, maintaining that: "We're not the police. It's not our policy to report on massive flows of cash, and it really hurts our business."
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Wired In Washington
It's Exam Time For Broadcast Chieftain David Rehr
by David Hatch
When David Rehr left the National Beer Wholesalers Association in 2005 to head the National Association of Broadcasters, industry watchers said his prowess as the television industry's chief lobbyist eventually would be tested. Now it's exam time.
Rehr's biggest challenge will be shepherding television stations through their historic shift to digital signals without disenfranchising sizable chunks of the U.S. population. A failing grade on that issue alone could have lasting repercussions for him and the association, a point that even NAB officials concede.
But he can't focus entirely on that task because broadcasters are simultaneously seeking to ease limits on owning television properties, block the XM and Sirius satellite radio networks from merging, and prevent tech companies from harnessing unused TV spectrum. Broadcasters also want to derail bills that would force radio stations to pay royalties to artists and labels.
And there is more: Legislation is pending to create additional low-power FM stations in urban markets, which NAB contends would interfere with terrestrial radio signals. NAB also opposes efforts to reverse a court decision barring FCC penalties on "fleeting" utterances of profanity during live broadcasts.
"This is somewhat unprecedented, the size and the scope of these issues," acknowledged Jack Sander, NAB Joint Board chairman and a senior adviser to Dallas-based Belo.
"The effectiveness of the new NAB team will surely be tested," said Andrew Schwartzman, president and CEO of the Media Access Project, a public-interest law firm. "We will know a lot more about David Rehr when this is over."
NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton downplayed the heavy agenda, noting that the association's previous chief, Eddie Fritts, juggled as many challenges. "When has NAB not been a high-profile trade association?" he asked. But Fritts had a background as a small-market radio broadcaster, while this is Rehr's first broadcast gig.
Rehr, apparently too busy with his agenda, was unavailable for comment.
Rehr has a few victories under his belt, most notably on helping to stave off restrictions on televised pharmaceutical ads. But an array of simmering issues -- including efforts to reinstate a rule requiring broadcasters to air opposing viewpoints about controversial topics -- could boil over.
While the association appears to have silenced attempts to expand the FCC's authority to regulate graphic television scenes, the issue is likely to re-emerge.
Congress also has held several oversight hearings this year examining efforts to educate Americans about the nation's leap to digital television, with more expected next year as the early 2009 deadline approaches.
Some observers think Rehr miscalculated by waiting too late to announce the industry's $700 million ad campaign about the switchover, inviting congressional scrutiny. "I think we have accelerated the visibility of what we were going to do" in response to the scrutiny, Sander said, while strongly defending Rehr's overall leadership.
NAB's growing list of adversaries includes Silicon Valley heavyweights that want to use dormant TV spectrum to offer wireless, high-speed Internet access. Broadcasters warn that interference with digital TV signals would result.
And if the XM, Sirius deal is green-lighted by the FCC and Justice Department, as some analysts predict, Rehr might have to explain his April pronouncement at the annual broadcasters' confab in Vegas: "This merger will not be approved." NAB officials said the comment reflects the radio industry's desire to block the deal.
To its critics, the association has taken contradictory stances by opposing concentration in the satellite radio sector while supporting concentration for its members. "The broadcasters are completely disingenuous in some ways," a Senate staffer said.
"The difference is there's not one broadcaster in America who controls every station within its market," Wharton countered, noting that a combined entity would dominate satellite radio nationwide and in individual cities.
Despite the challenges, industry watchers said NAB should not be underestimated. Indeed, Rehr won accolades for turning the beer wholesalers' political action committee into a powerhouse.
According to the Federal Election Commission, NAB's PAC has donated $300,000 during the 2007-2008 election cycle to federal candidates and other PACs. While Rehr has close ties to the Bush administration, he has been careful to play both sides of the aisle, Sander said.
Despite serving as a punching bag for some lawmakers, NAB has a reputation for emerging victorious because politicians want to curry favor with local stations, especially during election years when they are reliant on news coverage and political advertising.
"The NAB, historically, is much better at stopping things than getting things through," Schwartzman noted. "And that's the posture they're in" with most of these issues.
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Today's Feature:
International Roundup
The European Commission announced Tuesday that it will investigate Google's proposed merger with the DoubleClick online advertising firm.
Every Wednesday, read the International Roundup by Winter Casey.
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E-briefs
Telecom: The House on Tuesday passed by a vote of 406-1 legislation that would require Internet telephone providers to offer 911 capabilities so emergency dispatchers could identify callers' phone numbers and locations. The bill, H.R. 3403, also would require that Web phone providers be given access to telecommunications networks that enable the provision of E911. The measure puts the providers "on the same legal footing as wireless carriers and gives providers the same access as wireless, at the same rates, terms and conditions," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. The measure would prohibit states from using their 911 funds collected from a fee on phone bills for any purpose other than improvements to the emergency system. It also would establish a nationwide migration plan to an Internet-enabled network and would alter an existing grant program to direct money to public-safety answering points for Internet-enabled emergency networks, Barton said.
Campaigns: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was scheduled to visit Google corporate headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., on Wednesday, and he will unveil his innovation agenda at a town-hall meeting there. Obama's plan calls for encouraging the deployment of modern communications infrastructure across the United States, ensuring the full and free exchange of information through open Internet outlets, and improving the country's overall economic competitiveness, among other things. Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig wrote on his blog Wednesday that he supports Obama and that the technology plan is one of the reasons why he is a good candidate. "As the technology document released today reveals, to anyone who reads it closely, Obama has committed himself to important and importantly balanced positions," Lessig wrote.
Business: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox on Wednesday defended his agency's proposed rules to restrict shareholder proxy access, arguing that they would help restore legal certainty to the issue after a series of conflicting court rulings. CongressDaily reports that in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Cox said his agency was forced to act on proxy rules after an appeals court invalidated the SEC's interpretation of rules that had been in use since 1990. He said a Supreme Court decision to reverse a separate ruling involving a federal agency that changed its interpretation of rules further complicated matters. "In this escalating state of confusion, the only rule across America at the moment is every litigant for himself," Cox testified. Among other things, the SEC's preliminary rules would allow only investors holding 5 percent of a company's share for one year to submit proxy access plans.
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