Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Locke Confirmation Hearing Round-Up

Commerce Secretary-designate Gary Locke on Wednesday assured the Senate Commerce Committee there will be timely implementation of the transition to digital television and told Republicans that statistical sampling will not be used for apportionment purposes in the 2010 census. His confirmation hearing brought up a range of issues from the monitoring of commercial fishing to cybersecurity. Read more in CongressDaily's PM Edition (subscription required).

Other interesting tidbits:

If confirmed, Locke should pay close attention to challenges currently faced by the Patent and Trademark Office as well as to related bills moving through the House and Senate that could drastically change the patent system, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said. "This is such a key issue for further growth of our intellectual property," Brownback said, noting that it is crucial that legislation does not favor one industry over another. "I don't think that's a wise way for us to grow," he said.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., raised the impending expiration of the Commerce Department's formal oversight role with respect to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the group that Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration has been reviewing ICANN's progress as part of a three-year agreement to extend a contract between them, which expired in September 2006. Nelson said Locke will have to help decide how the U.S. government's relationship with ICANN will evolve.

On the anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting front, Locke said he has long been focused on intellectual property protections. In response to a statement by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., he said bootlegging takes money away from U.S. companies and the nation has to work aggressively to stop the flow of illicit products -- from automobile parts to consumer goods to software.