Down To The Wire In Congress

Lawmakers will be closing the books on the 109th Congress this week, so advocates of a trio of technology-related bills have been working feverishly to see that their pet concerns are addressed.

At the top of the list for the tech industry is the research and development tax credit. House and Senate leaders appear to have reached agreement on that issue as part of a broader bill on business tax relief. The compromise could come up for quick votes in both chambers.

On the privacy front, advocates of a measure aimed at "pretexting," or obtaining and selling telephone records under false pretenses, are urging the Senate to clear the House-passed bill to President Bush. And Internet activists and campaign finance watchdogs are seeking passage of a bill to mandate electronic filings for future Senate candidates.

Other topics covered in this week's podcast include improper payments for disaster relief, data security and accounting law.

Techies Ponder Life With Democrats

The 109th Congress is just days from its end, and all of Washington, including the tech industry, is looking ahead to the 110th Congress.

The New Year will bring new chairmen from the newly dominant Democratic Party, but tech lobbyists are not too concerned about all of the change. They are taking comfort in the bipartisan dialogue of key lawmakers like Charles Rangel of New York, who is slated to run the House Ways and Means Committee.

Tech lobbyists expect to have to do more work to get trade deals passed with Rangel as the chairman, but they do not see him as an enemy.

In the Senate, more oversight is expected to be one of the biggest changes under new Democratic chairmen. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said both parties likely would agree that the Republican-led Congress has not provided much oversight of Republican President Bush lately.

Rotenberg predicted that Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who is expected to head the Senate Judiciary Committee, "will be very good at that role." Techies also look forward to patent reform under Leahy's leadership.

The Supreme Court also heard arguments in two tech-related cases this week, one on patent reform and the other on price-fixing in the telecommunications sector. For that news and more from the tech policy front, listen to the podcast.

The Lame-Duck R&D Pitch

Leaders from more than a dozen high-tech groups this week urged Congress to renew the research and development tax credit before adjourning their post-election session.

The United States was the innovator of the R&D credit in 1981 but has fallen behind other nations, industry leaders lamented. They added that U.S. innovation could lag as a result.

The U.S. R&D credit expired this year, and attempts to renew it have failed because of unrelated political maneuvering. Industry officials said the credit should be renewed during the lame-duck Congress because it is not a partisan issue and the election is behind lawmakers.

Other major tech policy news this week touched on anti-terrorism surveillance, e-voting reform and caller-identification spoofing. Listen to the podcast for details.

Election 2006: America Turns Blue

Democrats have regained political power for the first time in 12 years, and their success stretches from Capitol Hill to statehouses and state legislatures across the country.

The Democratic Party rode a wave of voter concern about the Iraq war and frustration over Republican scandals straight into the seats of power in both chambers of Congress. Some Republican lawmakers favored by the technology industry were among the casualties.

They included Sens. George Allen of Virginia and Conrad Burns of Montana, as well as Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, a big booster of health information technology and the research and development tax credit.

Democrats also gained a majority of governorships and state legislatures, and an online fundraising effort for Democratic candidates to become secretaries of state bore plenty of electoral fruit.

Listen to the podcast for more details on the election and the tech outlook under a Democratic-controlled Congress.

The Final Exam For Electronic Voting

Americans go to the polls for a pivotal mid-term election Tuesday, and one of the great unknowns is how well the numerous new machines for recording their votes will work. Election officials are busy making last-minute preparations so that candidates, not e-voting systems, make the news.

Voting-rights activists are going to be closely watching the performance of machines that many of them suspect are unreliable and insecure. According to a report released earlier this month by Electionline.org, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington are the states where problems are most likely to occur.

All of the states except New York, which uses lever-based machines, have deployed fleets of electronic optical scanners and touch-screen devices to satisfy federal law. Maryland and Ohio have been thrust into the spotlight this fall because of technical glitches and human errors that caused delays in primaries in both states.

This week's podcast also covers the growing Washington presence of Google, concerns about searches and seizures of laptop computers and other devices of air travelers, and the software industry's decision to slap lawsuits on peddlers of pirated at the eBay online auction site.

'Google Bombs' On The Campaign Trail

The 2006 campaign is being "Google-bombed." Both liberal and conservative bloggers this week started trying to manipulate the Google search engine so that negative articles about the candidates they oppose appear near the top.

Liberal blogger Chris Bowers of MyDD outlined the strategy first. He said the plan involves purchasing Google AdWords that will place each negative article on the most common searches for each Republican candidate in about 50 targeted races.

Conservative blogger John Hawkins of Right Wing News learned of the strategy and urged his allies to "fight fire with fire."

Experts in political technology disagreed about whether the effort could succeed in time for the election, and Google criticized the effort and said such campaigns to distort search results are unlikely to be effective.

Other technology-related topics in news this week included controversy over campaign "robocalls," the push for e-voting standards, and IBM's patent suit against Amazon.com. Listen to the podcast for details.

Making Money With Musical Ring Tones

You know that favorite tune stored as a ring tone on your cell phone? The recording industry stands to make bundles of money for those ring tones under a new Copyright Office ruling.

The office decided that most ring tones are subject to royalties under the compulsory licensing system of copyright law. The recording industry said the decision helps inject clarity into the music marketplace.

A communications analyst said the market for musical ring tones could have bottomed out without the move. But groups that represent songwriters and music publishers said the royalties could hurt an important new technology income scheme for them.

The tech-related news this week also featured discussions about anti-terrorism surveillance, border security, media consolidation and spectrum for emergency personnel. Listen to the podcast for details.

A Telecom Mega-Merger Without Rules

The push by AT&T and BellSouth to merge their telecommunications businesses in a $78 billion deal moved one step closer to reality this week.

The Justice Department approved the plan without imposing any conditions on it. It said the presence of other competitors, changing regulatory requirements and the emergence of new technologies warranted the ruling.

But the FCC's two Democratic commissioners harshly criticized the decision, and their desire for conditions on the deal delayed debate at the agency by at least a day. The FCC is tentatively scheduled to consider the merger proposal today.

Also in the news this week, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner announced that he will not seek the presidency in 2008. And the FTC charged two real-estate groups with hindering competition from online property brokerages.

Listen to the podcast for details of those stories and more.

The Online 'Grooming' Of House Pages

Much of political America is preoccupied with sex these days -- the cyber sex that former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida reportedly had or wanted to have with congressioinal pages -- and the discussion has prompted some talk of new laws.

The question some people on Capitol Hill are asking is whether Foley's explicit electronic communications with some pages was his attempt at "grooming" them for illegal sexual activities. Cyber-law expert Parry Aftab has been deluged with calls from Hill aides asking about the limitations of federal law in punishing such grooming.

Aftab said federal laws require proof of intent to perform criminally liable sexual acts. She has not decided for herself whether stronger laws against grooming are needed.

Other news on the technology front includes a push to grant telecommunications firms liability for anti-terrorism surveillance ordered by the government, the status of the fight for a permanent Internet tax moratorium, and the FCC's first field hearing on media ownership. Listen to the podcast for details.

Winners And Losers In The Recess Rush

This looks to be the last legislative workweek in Congress before the election, and that means lawmakers are scrambling to finish work on must-pass bills and measures that might win them favor with voters. Other matters are falling by the wayside.

A bill aimed at streamlining the licensing of online music was among the latter. Sponsors of the measure abruptly pulled it from consideration by the House Judiciary Committee this week, acknowledging that it had little or no prospect of gaining approval in the current Congress.

Texas Republican Lamar Smith, the chief bill sponsor, said he believed he had the support to push it through the House but saw no reason to do so in view of the fact that the measure has become bogged down in the Senate.

Also in the news this week: the spying scandal at Hewlett-Packard, the renewed push for a deal on legislation aimed at preventing such spying, and the outcry against a planned merger between AT&T and BellSouth. Listen to the podcast for details on those stories and more.