Excerpted from the Oct. 31 issue of National Journal magazine:
Andrew Noyes is moving to Facebook's lobbying shop as manager of public policy communications. He has covered the technology beat for National Journal Group's CongressDaily since 2006 and launched the Tech Daily Dose blog the same year. He knows that making the leap to private industry is a definite role reversal. Tech lobbyists he once called for quotes are already welcoming him to the "dark side," while fellow reporters tease that they'll want exclusive scoops.
Although Silicon Valley heavyweights Google and Microsoft have sprawling D.C. lobby shops, the social-networking website is just establishing its K Street operations. Noyes, 29, will divide his time between putting out public-relations fires and drawing on his extensive Rolodex to help the company get established in Washington. Facebook hired its first lobbyist in April, and Noyes will become just the third employee in the office.
* Effective Nov. 7, Noyes can be reached at andrew{at}andrewnoyes.net.
Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs ranking member Susan Collins and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., on Friday said a Government Accountability Office report showing that 16 critical federal information technology projects will cost $3 billion more than originally estimated is proof of lax oversight and underscores the need for immediate corrective action. Carper chairs the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security.
The GAO report also notes that the IT investments will likely need an additional $1 billion to be completed on time. Two investments in particular are especially egregious, Carper and Collins said. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the Veteran's Affairs Health Information System Modernization will collectively overrun their original budgets by more than $798 million.
Earlier this year, Carper asked the GAO to study whether the Office of Management and Budget was providing Congress with the true cost of IT investments based on several hearings that revealed agencies often under-report the price tag for federal projects. "At a time when our country faces record deficits and dramatic budget cuts, it is unacceptable that agencies are not telling Congress and the taxpayers the true costs for these large-scale technology investments," Carper said in a statement.
National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith wrote to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and others on Thursday in response to an Oct. 30 letter that sought a meeting to discuss legislation that would force AM and FM stations to pay a new fee to performers and record labels. In the letter, the former Republican senator for Oregon writes that he appreciates their interest "in gaining a greater understanding of the impact that this legislation will have on your local radio stations and the local communities they serve."
Due to laws prohibiting him from lobbying Congress for two years after leaving office, Smith said he requires an ethics waiver that indicates his participation in their planned Nov. 17 meeting is legally and ethically permissible. Smith was defeated by Democrat Jeff Merkley in 2008 after two terms in office and was named head of NAB in September. He said there may be an exception for communications made in congressional testimony and needs confirmation from the Senate that his involvement falls within that, or another exception.
Read more in Tech Daily Dose here and in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
Google launched an application Thursday that allows users to see what data is stored in their accounts, but at least one group says the effort doesn't go far enough. The Google Dashboard is "designed to be simple and useful" and summarizes data for a range of products from e-mail and calendar applications to social networking and video sharing platforms. Consumer Watchdog, a group that has repeatedly thrashed Google for its advertising and privacy protection practices, said the Internet giant should let users opt out of tracking and delete information associated with their computer's IP address from Google's servers.
"If Google really wanted to give users control over their privacy it would give consumers the ability to be anonymous from the company and its advertisers in crucial areas such as search data and online behavior," Consumer Watchdog's John Simpson said in a press release. "The Dashboard gives the appearance of control without the actual ability to prevent Google from tracking you and delivering you to its marketers." That function is Google's "black box and data mine," he said.
Consumer Watchdog said Google should offer a simple "make-me-anonymous" or "don't track" button or icon on its home page, or at the very least in its dashboard, that would prevent search information from being logged at the choice of the user. The group also said that the dashboard, though useful, is not easy to find. Read more about dashboard here.
The Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, New America Foundation and other advocacy groups urged the Obama administration on Thursday to open up negotiations pertaining to a proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The groups wrote to President Obama expressing "deep concerns about the lack of transparency" surrounding the pact, which is the focus of a meeting in Seoul, South Korea this week.
In their letter, they reference Obama's day one memo pledging increased openness and participation in executive decision-making and directing agencies to "take affirmative steps to make information public." The continuing Open Government Initiative indicates a strong commitment to applying the principles in practice but multiple aspects of ACTA fail to meet those standards, they said. Read the text of the letter here (PDF).
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said members of his committee have their work cut out for them as winter recess nears. His panel made a big stride Thursday when it passed a pair of data security bills (see CongressDaily's PM Edition for details) and several measures that have cleared the committee and await floor action. Leahy said the Senate needs to take up a bill that would modify and reauthorize expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Satellite Home Viewer Act before they expire Dec. 31.
He noted he has been working with Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl and other leaders from both parties to help make that happen. Leahy said last month that he wants to work with Majority Leader Harry Reid to schedule, before the end of the year, floor debate on legislation that would overhaul the U.S. patent system. The Obama administration has thrown its support behind the bill. Patent and Trademark Office Director David Kappos recently told a group of IP attorneys that a legislative fix is needed immediately.
A dozen senators, including Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassley, sent a letter to Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stating the bill needs more work before it is brought to the floor. Judiciary ranking member Jeff Sessions and Kyl have questioned the bill's approach to challenging a patent after it is granted.
House Administration Elections Subcommittee ranking member Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., unveiled draft legislation Thursday [see PDF here] designed to increase online voter registration services while preserving safeguards to protect against fraudulent registration tactics witnessed in past elections.
"Americans are increasingly enjoying the convenience of online services provided by both private and government entities and voter registration shouldn't be an exception," they said in a statement, acknowledging the bill is still a work in progress. "Providing states with incentives to implement online programs would not only assist registrants, but would also help state election administrators reduce costs, save time and increase accuracy," they said.
The draft bill would direct the Election Assistance Commission to reimburse states for the cost of creating Web-based voter registration programs. In order to qualify, a program would have to be operated through the Web site of the chief state election official. The state agency would also have to ensure the accuracy, integrity, and security of the information provided by an applicant. That includes flagging registration attempts originating from an automated source or multiple attempts by the same individual.
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl and Financial Services Committee ranking member Spencer Bachus wrote to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this week opposing calls to delay by a year the implementation of a 2006 law that banned Internet gambling in the United States. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act directed the Treasury and Federal Reserve to issue regulations by July 2007. After a lengthy process, the final rules are set to take effect on Dec. 1.
"There is no justification for delaying the compliance date for the long-overdue regulations implementing UIGEA," Bachus and Kyl wrote. If the final rule represented an "unreasonable burden on regulators and the financial services industry," as some lawmakers have claimed, the Treasury and Federal Reserve could have reconsidered the regulations early in the new administration and before the industry began taking steps to comply. This did not happen and the financial services sector did not petition to have the rule amended, they wrote.
Kyl and Bachus said the Treasury and Federal Reserve should carefully monitor the law's effectiveness after they go into effect and consider modifications if necessary. "Delaying the compliance date serves no interest except that of the Internet gambling enterprises that have long evaded American gambling laws and will continue to do so until effective enforcement is in place," they wrote. Read the letter here (PDF).
A high-tech trade group on Thursday is releasing a paper that explains the depth of IT problems that are preventing the Social Security Administration from making data more interoperable and easier to manage. The report from the Computer and Communications Industry Association comes as the SSA's tech advisory board begins a two day meeting to develop a roadmap for systems technology and electronic services to better carry out the agency's mission over the next five to 10 years.
More baby boomers are heading into a system, which is relying on technology that was cutting edge --- back when this generation was putting their children through college, CCIA said in a press release. The SSA has faced criticism from Congress and its inspector general about the accessibility and security of vital data and the agency was granted $500 million under the economic stimulus package to fix its aging IT infrastructure.
In the CCIA paper, "The Promise of Open IT at Social Security," industry analyst Jeffrey Gould recommends that SSA switch to open standards for citizens' data, and that critical citizens' data be stored in standardized data tables that can easily be read and used by any widely used relational database. He also writes that new versions of all critical applications should be translated to modern computer languages that are not tied to a particular hardware platform or operating system. Read more about the paper here.
Texas Reps. Gene Green, a Democrat, and Mike Conaway, a Republican, wrote to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers on Wednesday asking to be included in any discussions regarding legislation that would force AM and FM radio stations to pay a new fee to performers and record labels. Conyers and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy have requested that music and broadcasting executives come together on Capitol Hill Nov. 17 to begin two weeks of negotiations.
Green and Conaway sponsored a resolution opposing the bill and it has garnered more than 250 backers. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., introduced an identical proposal. "We have serious concerns that legislation imposing a new royalty on local radio stations, particularly in this economic climate, will be tremendously harmful to radio stations and their employees, local communities that rely on radio, and recipients, such as charities and non-profits, that receive free airtime for their causes," Green and Conaway wrote.
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