Roy Mark

Seven months after the expiration of the Internet access tax moratorium, Congress has yet to reach a compromise on the vastly different Senate and House versions calling for a new ban on connection taxes. Last September, the House passed legislation to permanently extend a temporary ban on Internet taxes that had been in place since […]

WASHINGTON — Offshoring concerns combined with election year politics will make anti-free trade proposals the hot topic for the rest of the 108th Congress, key Capitol Hill staffers predicted Tuesday afternoon at the Electronic Industries Alliance’s (EIA) Spring Conference. With only five months left in the current legislative session, the offshoring debate has tied up […]

Democrats on the U.S. House Select Committee on Homeland Security are calling for the re-establishment of a national privacy czar as part of their SHIELD Act initiative introduced Thursday. The bill would create a chief privacy officer appointed by the president to assure that the technologies procured and used by the government “do not erode […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) hopes to slow the technology offshoring trend with an initiative to provide up to an $8,000 tax credit for information and communications technology education and training expenses. The credit can be used by both employed and unemployed workers, as well as employers. Weller’s Technology Retraining And Investment Now […]

WASHINGTON — After several weeks of complex, policy wonk discussions of telecom reform in the U.S. Senate, it was show-and-tell day for broadband technology vendors Wednesday in the House of Representatives. Sprint provided members of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet with cell phone Internet connections driven by high-speed wireless modems while Current […]

With national elections less than six months away, two key committees of the U.S. House of Representatives are seeking a General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into the security and reliability of electronic voting machines. In a May 14 letter to the GAO, the chairmen and ranking members of both the House Government Reform Committee and […]

A bill circulating through Congress seeks to combat so-called ”upskirt” photos and other types of voyeurism spurred on by cell phones and PDAs with cameras. The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up legislation banning surreptitious video voyeurism after it returns from a May 24-31 Memorial Day break. The legislation would increase personal […]

With the nation’s first anti-spam bill already to its credit, the 108th Congress is now taking aim at spyware, the surreptitious programs that often piggyback into a user’s computer on an otherwise authorized download. Once there, the software can collect personal data and report Internet traffic patterns to advertisers. For Congress, the answer to spyware […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to let wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) to operate in unused spectrum space currently occupied by TV broadcasters. The proposal is aimed at giving consumers an alternative to cable and telecom broadband providers. Allowing unlicensed operations in the TV bands would extend the existing service range of […]

A key provision favored by U.S.-based multi-nationals in a corporate bill has survived a final vote by the U.S. Senate. Part of a much broader, complex bill aimed at halting European Union (EU) trade sanctions, the provision enacted late Tuesday reduces foreign dividend taxes from 35 percent to 5.25 percent for one year. Tech proponents […]

WASHINGTON — If the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decides to classify broadband-providing telcos and cable companies as information services, those firms could ultimately close their networks to competitors, an ISP executive warned lawmakers Wednesday. And that, said Garry Betty, EarthLink’s President and CEO, would turn the 1996 Telecommunications Act “on its head.” Speaking before a […]

WASHINGTON — Unless policymakers act, the next offshoring wave will hit high-end IT jobs and undermine America’s “innovation infrastructure,” U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) warned in a major policy address. With harsh words for Democrats and Republicans, Lieberman said Congress’ response to the challenge has been predictable: “Do Nothing” free-traders shunning any government action and […]