TechCentral: The Week Ahead
Click over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a look at the week ahead, plus plenty of other stories to keep you in the know.
This Week's Highlights:
The Benton Foundation and the Public Airwaves Coalition are sponsoring a discussion Monday entitled “Public Interest Obligations in the 21st Century: Where Do We Go From Here?"
The session, which takes place at noon at the National Press Club, is billed as a look at the new broadcast disclosure rules and the issues raised in the FCC’s “localism” proceeding. Among the featured guests are the two Democrats on the FCC, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps – who were in the minority when the FCC’s GOP majority voted in December to relax media ownership rules.
Adelstein will also be on hand when key telecom and technology players gather for the annual conference of the Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet this Tuesday and Wednesday.
Other scheduled speakers former White House Internet director David Almacy; National Telecommunications and Information Administration senior adviser Eric Werner; former Rep. Rick White, R-Wash., and Columbia University Internet expert Tim Wu.
And new media experts from the presidential campaigns of former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani are also slated to speak.
Discussion topics at the two-day session – to be held at the Renaissance Washington Hotel -- range from the impact of increased U.S. broadband penetration to the power of technology to change politics and government.
Meanwhile, On The Hill...
As the House tries to resolve the standoff with the Bush administration over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this week, FBI Director Robert Mueller will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday to provide an update on the law enforcement agency’s operations.
Last year, Mueller tried to assure the panel that new controls were being implemented to curb abuses in the issuances of so-called national security letters, which allow FBI agents to probe telephone, computer, and bank records in terrorism cases without court warrants. That topic could reemerge at this hearing, an aide to Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said.
On the other side of the Hill the same day, the House Judiciary Committee holds an oversight hearing on the Homeland Security Department. That follows Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s Tuesday appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee to discuss the department’s proposed FY09 budget.
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