G. Edward DeSeve, who is coordinating efforts at the Office of Management and Budget to implement the economic stimulus package, refuted what he argued are false reports of fiscal misuse and wasteful spending in a Tuesday evening blog post. His list of "10 Recovery Act Myths" came on the heels of last week's unprecedented release of information on Recovery.gov and increased interest in the specific types of projects being funded.
Among the myths is a report that $11 million in stimulus funds are being used to build a bridge connecting two Microsoft campuses in Redmond, Wash. DeSeve argues that only about half of that amount is being used for this project, which he called "a vital transportation project strongly supported by both state and local officials in an area that supports over 44,000 jobs." It emerged as the region's top priority after a rigorous, competitive review, he said.
Here are the rest of DeSeve's favorite half-truths and falsehoods:
• Funds are being used to renovate a train station that hasn't been used in 30 years.
• Funds are being used for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minnesota.
• Funds are being used to install a guardrail for a dry lake bed in Oklahoma.
• Funds are being used by the U.S. Forest Service to breed bugs in Connecticut.
• Funds are being used to purchase a freezer for fish sperm in South Dakota.
• Funds are being used to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Illinois.
• Funds are being used to purchase 22 toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest.
• Funds are being used to study how children perceive foreign accents.
• Funds are being to provide a tax credit for golf carts.
Read his detailed explanations here.
The high-tech sector is growing restless as it awaits President Obama's appointment of a White House cybersecurity coordinator. In one of the most recent displays of that frustration, the trade group TechAmerica wrote to Obama urging him to name "a qualified, credible, senior level official... at the earliest possible opportunity." While he tends to other priorities, bad actors around the world are not sitting idly by, the Friday letter stated. "Those that would seek to harm America by exploiting our digital infrastructure continue to increase their efforts," the group said.
Ideally, the cyber czar would have relevant experience in both government and industry in order to truly reflect the shared roles and responsibilities in cybersecurity, TechAmerica President Phil Bond wrote. The letter came on the heels of a series of meetings in Washington in which industry executives sought to impress upon members of Congress and administration officials the importance of strong cooperation between industry and governments at the national and international levels in securing cyberspace.
Also on Friday, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman outlined his plans for cybersecurity legislation, which will support the naming of a White House coordinator. Lieberman's backing for the adviser, which some have called a cybersecurity "czar," puts him at odds with the top Republican on his committee, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. But he said he is in talks with Collins over the legislation and hopes to get her support for a bill they can introduce as co-sponsors by December.
Read more about Lieberman's speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee Chairwoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ranking member Susan Collins wrote to President Obama Monday urging him to appoint members to the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, CongressDaily reported Tuesday. The letter urged Obama to "fulfill the pledge you made earlier this year to reconstitute the board and accelerate the selection process of its members."
A fully engaged and independent privacy panel in the Executive Branch is particularly important as Congress works on reauthorizing expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and other issues, they wrote. Their message followed a similar effort in April by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who called the board "a critical government component" vital to "ushering in a new era of responsibility." Read the Harman-Collins letter here (PDF), the CongressDaily story here and an earlier report on the privacy panel here (subscription required).
From the White House on Friday:
During his speech in Cairo on June 4, the President announced that the United States would "launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries." As the latest step in delivering on this commitment, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation announced this week a call for proposals for a Global Technology and Innovation Fund. This fund will help catalyze and facilitate private sector investments that promote access to and growth of technology in OPIC-eligible countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. OPIC will provide financing ranging between $25 million and $150 million in total capital for each selected fund.
The Global Technology and Innovation Fund is part of an on-going U.S. government effort to expand partnerships that advance economic opportunity and job creation - including in Muslim-majority countries. Specifically, the sectors of interest for prospective funds may address issues that can have a transformational impact in these regions such as technology, education, telecom, media, business services and financial technology and clean-tech.
More information is available here.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology meets Thursday and Friday at the National Academy of Sciences building to discuss, among other things, the role of science and technology in foreign policy and development assistance. Scheduled speakers include Kerri-Ann Jones, assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs at the State Department and Nina Fedoroff, the department's science and technology adviser.
PCAST members will also be briefed on a report from the National Research Council called "A New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring the United States Leads the Coming Biology Revolution." Speakers include Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Phillip Sharp, and Thomas Connelly, executive vice president for DuPont. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) federal programs and education initiatives will also be discussed.
President Obama's former senior cybersecurity adviser Melissa Hathaway, who resigned effective Aug. 21 after working for months on a comprehensive review of the government's ability to identify and thwart high-tech attacks, opened up about her experience in an interview with Federal News Radio. Hathaway said her decision to leave had as much to do with fixing her work-life balance as it did with not getting the cyber coordinator role Obama began talking about early in his tenure.
"I knew when the president gave his speech I wasn't going to be named," she said of the cyber post, which was mentioned in Obama's late May speech. "I helped put names on the list and establish evaluation criteria for the person... The person needs to have a strong background in not just national security policy, but also economic security policy." She said her impact from outside government can be meaningful and she has hung her own shingle.
Hathaway plans to work with cybersecurity industry players and with Harvard University and MIT on research and writing.
The General Services Administration on Tuesday announced a new application that allows government employees to shorten their Web addresses. Go.USA.gov lets officials create short .gov URLs out of any .gov, .mil, or .si.edu URLs. As of 5:30 p.m., Go.USA.gov has shortened 249 URLs that have been clicked 14,299 times.
A handful of the most popular Go.USA.gov links:
• NASA satellite images of autumn foliage at Lake Superior and Lake Michigan
• Recovery.gov, the government's economic stimulus accountability Web site
• A 2009 flu prevention public service announcement contest
• U.S. earthquakes from the last seven days
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's healthcare public option page
In related Web news, the White House unveiled a new Spanish site and Twitter feed.
The New York judge overseeing Google's pending $125 million settlement in a copyright-related class-action lawsuit was tapped by President Obama on Tuesday for a spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who requires Senate confirmation, is also known for ruling that Cablevision's planned remote storage digital video recorder would violate copyright. Cablevision appealed and the Second Circuit agreed with the cable operator. Programmers petitioned the Supreme Court to take the case but they were rebuffed this summer. The high court's refusal to hear the case was considered a big win for cable industry innovation.
Meanwhile, Chin has scheduled a Wednesday status hearing on the Google case, which stems from the company's plan to create the world's largest digital library and bookstore. The effort -- and the deal Google reached with authors and publishers -- has raised eyebrows within industry, at the Justice Department and on Capitol Hill. In advance of the hearing, the Open Book Alliance, a group whose members include Amazon.com, Microsoft, the Internet Archive, Yahoo and others, called on Google and its partners to detail how they expect to remedy perceived flaws the original settlement.
The top Republican on a House Science Committee panel thinks the Obama administration is dragging its feet when it comes to pursing its scientific integrity and transparency agendas. Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight ranking member Paul Broun, R-Ga., wrote to White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren in July and again Friday requesting details about recent events at several agencies that could reveal "a troubling pattern" of political motives clashing with scientific debate.
Broun requested a plan from the administration to reconcile the discrepancies associated with the events with the administration's principles of scientific integrity and transparency as outlined in President Obama's Jan. 21 and March 9 memos to agency heads. To ensure whistleblower protections, Broun asked for a plan to guarantee that negative employment actions will not be taken against individuals who present information contrary to the administration's policy goals.
"As additional issues regarding scientific integrity continue to mount, I sincerely hope your office's recommendations will ensure this administration's actions will match its rhetoric," Broun added.
President Obama on Thursday issued a proclamation recognizing National Cybersecurity Awareness Month saying that throughout October "we rededicate ourselves to promoting cybersecurity initiatives that ensure the confidentiality of sensitive information, the integrity of e-commerce, and the resilience of digital infrastructures." Obama announced a focus on cyber issues early in his presidency and in May vowed to handpick a White House official to oversee that mission. The post remains vacant.
The proclamation points out that Americans are "constantly adopting new and innovative
technologies" and that exposure increases the public's thirst for computers, smartphones, and other digital solutions at work and at home. "In the Information Age, the very technologies that empower us to create and build also empower those who would disrupt and destroy," he wrote. "Cyber attacks and their viral ability to infect networks, devices, and software must be the concern of all Americans."
The Senate passed a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month on Tuesday but the House has yet to act.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pledged an administration-wide effort to combat the growing problem of texting-while-driving on Thursday, noting that President Obama had signed a same-day executive order directing federal employees not to engage in the practice while driving government vehicles or private vehicles on government business. He also outlined a department-wide effort to restrict the use of cell phones and electronic devices by rail, truck, interstate and school bus drivers, according to Fox News Channel.
Speaking at a national distracted driving summit, LaHood said "every time you take your eyes off the road or talk on the phone while you're driving -- even just for a few seconds -- you put your life in danger." LaHood citied National Transportation Safety Board research showing nearly 6,000 people died in crashes in 2008 that involved distracted or inattentive drivers. On any given day last year 800,000 vehicles had someone using a hand-held device at the wheel, the study showed.
Other speakers at the two-day conference included Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who urged the administration and auto and phone industry associations to endorse a bill he introduced in July that asks states to ban texting while driving or risk losing a quarter of their annual federal highway funding. He said texting is more dangerous than drunk driving. Read more about the conference here.
A group representing NBC, News Corp., Time Warner and other content providers is circulating nationwide a letter to President Obama and Vice President Biden asking the administration to pursue policies supportive of creators' rights. The broader dissemination of the document, which will be sent by the Copyright Alliance to the White House this fall, follows a swift internal response by members. Within a few days, the document garnered nearly 7,000 electronic signatures, officials said in a press release.
With artists encouraging participation within their personal networks on blogs and Twitter feeds, the letter already has been signed by creators in all 50 states and representing a full spectrum of creative disciplines. Signers include authors, photographers, songwriters, graphic designers, filmmakers, musicians, publishers, jewelry designers, Web designers, photojournalists, illustrators, video game developers, architects, cartoonists, composers, playwrights, animators and others.
"Increasingly, creators are finding their work misappropriated, reproduced and distributed without their knowledge, consent or benefit by those who believe intellectual property should be free for the taking," Alliance Outreach Director Lucinda Dugger said. Alliance Executive Director Patrick Ross added he believes the administration understands and values the contributions creators make but more needs to be done. "We'll be watching with optimism," he said. The letter is available here.
When President Obama tapped George Mason University professor Victoria Espinel as the first White House intellectual property enforcement coordinator Friday, lawmakers and industry stakeholders let out a collective sigh of relief. The announcement was months in the making, and Espinel, who previously served as assistant trade representative for IP, had been considered the top candidate for the job for some time.
One reason for the delay was that administration officials were conflicted over where to put the IP czar. Eventually they settled on OMB, after ruling out the Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council, USTR and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, sources familiar with the process said. OMB oversees strategic planning, interagency coordination and budgeting, and it is seen as a successful coordinator of programs that span multiple agencies.
The fact that Espinel, who is expected to easily win Senate confirmation, would land at OMB is ironic, since that is where 2005 legislation offered by Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, placed the head of a proposed IP enforcement network. At the time, the idea was panned by critics, who thought OMB would be a peculiar locale for the post. Read the entire "Issue Of The Week" from CongressDaily's TechCentral here (subscription required).
[Updated 4:11 p.m.] The White House announced Friday its long-awaited intellectual property enforcement coordinator. Victoria Espinel, who previously served as assistant trade representative for IP, has been the top candidate for months, but the administration was unsure of where to put her. Officials reportedly ruled out placement within the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council and National Security Council, and now the Senate-confirmed IP czar will be housed at OMB. One of the IP coordinator's first agenda items will be drafting a strategic plan to identify "structural weaknesses, systemic flaws or other unjustified impediments" to cracking down on IP crime, according to the 2008 legislation that created the job (CongressDaily / subscription required).
Here's the official White House personnel announcement:
Senate Republican High Tech Task Force Chairman Orrin Hatch on Monday slammed President Obama's same-day speech about innovation, arguing that his words did not match his policy proposals and in several instances "go in exactly the opposite direction." Obama's address at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y., was hailed by a range of technology industry stakeholders as a bold step toward achieving economic recovery and maintaining American competitiveness.
Obama articulated his support for making permanent a research and development tax credit, which is proposed in his FY10 budget request, by noting that it would help companies afford the high cost of developing new ideas, technologies and products. "What he failed to say, though, is that he and congressional leaders squandered the best chance in a generation to do this by not including a permanent extension in this year's stimulus bill," Hatch said. "Instead they opted to expand government social programs."
Also among Obama's talking points was the importance of a lower tax rate on capital gains to spur investments in start-up businesses. He said zeroing out the tax for investments in certain businesses is essential because they are engines of innovation and produce 13 times more patents per employee than large companies. Hatch countered that the FY10 budget "calls for a devastating tidal wave in the form of a capital gains rate increase that will totally swamp the small island of tax relief that he has proposed."
President Obama on Thursday named the recipients of the 2009 National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honors bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists, engineers and inventors. Recipients will receive their awards Oct. 7 at a White House ceremony.
"These scientists, engineers and inventors are national icons, embodying the very best of American ingenuity and inspiring a new generation of thinkers and innovators," Obama said in a statement. "Their extraordinary achievements strengthen our nation every day -- not just intellectually and technologically but also economically, by helping create new industries and opportunities that others before them could never have imagined."
Recipients of the National Medal of Science are:
Dr. Berni Alder, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Dr. Francis Collins, National Institutes of Health
Dr. Joanna Fowler, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Dr. Elaine Fuchs, The Rockefeller University
Dr. James Gunn, Princeton University
Dr. Rudolf Kalman, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Dr. Michael Posner, University of Oregon
Dr. JoAnne Stubbe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. J. Craig Venter, J. Craig Venter Institute
Recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation are:
Dr. Forrest M. Bird, Percussionaire Corp.
Dr. Esther Sans Takeuchi, University at Buffalo, SUNY
Team: Dr. John E. Warnock and Dr. Charles M. Geschke (Adobe Systems)
Company: IBM Corp.
House Cybersecurity Caucus co-chairs Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, urged President Obama last week to swiftly appoint a permanent cybersecurity coordinator within the White House. In a Thursday letter, the pair said the absence of such an official "impedes the ability of federal agencies to move forward in updating and strengthening their aging cyber policies," while complicating efforts to collaborate with private institutions that also play a critical role.
The appointment of a cyber czar was among a number of recommendations offered by the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Commission on Cybersecurity, which Langevin and McCaul co-chaired, and the administration's own comprehensive review of the government's cybersecurity infrastructure. Both reports also said the creation of a national security strategy for cyberspace is needed and the lawmakers lauded Obama for getting the ball rolling on that front.
"Foreign aggressors and criminals have been able to penetrate inadequately protected U.S. computer networks," the letter stated. "Those attacks have provided access to vast quantities of valuable information, and while our most sensitive U.S. military communications remains safe, economic competitors and potential military opponents have not hesitated to exploit opportunities presented by our lack of robust cybersecurity protections." The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has scheduled a Monday hearing on the topic.
President Obama on Thursday nominated National Institute of Standards and Technology Deputy Director Patrick Gallagher to serve as the agency's top dog. In his current position, Gallagher provides high-level oversight and direction for NIST, which is a branch of the Commerce Department that develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology. He received his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Pittsburgh in 1991 and joined NIST in 1993 as an instrument scientist at the agency's Center for Neutron Research. He later became director of the center where he served until assuming the role of NIST deputy director in 2008.
From 1999 to 2001, Gallagher was a NIST agency representative at the National Science and Technology Council and he remains active in the area of U.S. policy for scientific user facilities and has chaired the Interagency Working Groups on neutron and light source facilities under the Office of Science and Technology Policy, according to a White House personnel announcement. NIST's FY 2009 resources total $1.6 billion, including $819 million in appropriations from the omnibus bill; $610 million from the stimulus package; $48 million in service fees; and $125 million from other agencies.
Cross-posted from NationalJournal.com's Health Care page:
Curious Americans are turning to the Internet to learn more about health care reform. In the past 90 days, Google searches for keywords like "healthcare reform bill," "House health bill" and "healthcare bill" have risen by more than 5,000 percent. Those words return a plethora of results -- blogs, news organizations, interest groups and government pages -- but if the White House wants to have the authoritative site on the debate, it needs to refine its strategy, experts warn.
For starters, the administration has struggled to debunk misinformation that other groups spread through viral e-mails and campaigns. The White House set up a "Reality Check" site, but it's unlikely you'll end up there after a simple Google search using the most popular health care-related keywords. "I don't think [the Reality Check site] is really well optimized and is helping the campaign," said Michael Fleischner, an expert on search engine optimization. "If we were to type in the most common terms that people are searching on, we would expect [that site] to come up, and [it's] not coming up."
Susan Crawford, President Obama's special assistant for science, technology, and innovation policy, selected Wednesday evening -- as her boss began the most important speech to date of his presidency -- to return to the micro-blogging platform Twitter. While Crawford's message (see above) simply noted she was watching Obama's health care address to a joint session of Congress from a couch in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building it's worth noting that it was her first tweet in 71 weeks.
Other White House high-tech gurus who used to use Twitter -- like Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra -- have not resumed tweeting since joining the Obama administration. Crawford's message is also significant because One Web Day, an annual event she founded in 2006 to encourage Internet users to show how the medium impacts their lives, is right around the corner. The Sept. 22 celebration has attracted a global network of partner organizations and individual activists. In 2008, One Web Day organizers documented volunteer-driven events 34 cities around the world.
Privacy watchdogs on Wednesday gave the Obama administration an "incomplete" for consumer privacy; an "A" for medical privacy; a "C+" for civil liberties; and a "B" for cybersecurity. The scores from the Electronic Privacy Information Center and a coalition of consumer, educational, library, labor and technology stakeholders were unveiled at a National Press Club event that organizers hoped would act as an "early warning system" for the administration.
The rankings follow a December push by the Center and the Privacy Coalition for then-President-elect Obama to tackle identity theft, security breaches and the commercialization of personal data. The letter lauded Obama's early commitments to strengthen the FTC, to protect sensitive information and make sure homeland security databases are used in limited ways. A similar evaluation is expected soon from the American Civil Liberties Union.
"The administration has made progress in some areas, but it is clear that there is more to do to address the public concerns about privacy," EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said in a press release. EPIC Associate Director Lillie Coney said the Obama team can improve its grades by appointing "pro-privacy" commissioners to the FTC; making the work of the Homeland Security Department more transparent; requiring federal agencies to comply with the Privacy Act; and extending the Privacy Act to social networking services.
Read Wednesday's CongressDaily AM Edition for more on the topic (subscription required) and click here for EPIC's full report card.
White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra told reporters at a high-tech summit Wednesday that the Obama administration will announce its long anticipated cybersecurity coordinator "in the not-too-distant future." "I've had the pleasure of interviewing a number of candidates that I think are top notch," he said. "I don't think we're in a position to say that we have a candidate picked yet but I'm hopeful." President Obama in late May pledged to handpick his cyber czar -- a position recommended by recent legislation and an administration report.
House Cybersecurity Caucus co-chairs Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, pressed the administration before August recess to move quickly in appointing a high-level official to coordinate agencies' efforts to identify and guard against attacks on public and private sector IT networks. Their statements came on the heels of the news that Melissa Hathaway, acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils, was resigning effective Aug. 21.
Christopher Painter, the National Security Council's cyber chief, has been helping Chopra and Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra with cyber planning since Hathaway's departure. Chopra called Painter, a former leader of the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, "an incredibly talented guy." For his part, Kundra has held recent meetings with industry stakeholders -- particularly from the financial services sector -- on strategies to bridge the gap between government and private sector IT security efforts.
NextGov's Gautham Nagesh reports that the Obama administration issued a solicitation in August for a contractor to archive the increasing amount of information published online that qualifies as presidential records. The White House wants an automated process to capture, extract and store information posted by employees in the Executive Office of the President on publicly accessible Web sites, including social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, according to the solicitation posted on FedBizOps and dated Aug. 21. The contractor will be responsible for archiving comments on pages the White House creates and messages sent to the office on those sites.
The notice specified the contract applies to offices subject to the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which requires the White House to preserve the president's records and communications. It notes that the White House already is capturing and restoring communications on several social networking sites, including MySpace and Vimeo. The system must be easy to organize and search captured information, and the contractor would be responsible for ensuring the records are transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration in an acceptable format. NARA did not respond to a request for comment by the time this story was posted. Read the full story here.
The Obama administration and watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on Wednesday settled four ongoing cases regarding public access to White House visitor records. The most significant development, CREW said early Thursday, is the commitment by the administration to affirmatively post visitor records online on an ongoing basis, bringing a historic level of transparency to the White House. Visitor records are created by the Secret Service as part of its statutory responsibility to protect the president, vice president, their residences, and the White House generally.
"The Obama administration has proven its pledge to usher in a new era of government transparency was more than just a campaign promise," CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said in a statement. "The Bush administration fought tooth and nail to keep secret the identities of those who visited the White House. In contrast, the Obama administration - by putting visitor records on the White House Web site - will have the most open White House in history." Because of the policy change, CREW dismissed its lawsuits, which were filed after the Bush and later the Obama administration refused to provide White House visitor records in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.
In the Bush era, CREW wanted to review the log of visits by Christian conservative leaders and lobbyist Stephen Payne. The administration argued the records were presidential records, not agency records of the Secret Service, and therefore exempt from the FOIA's mandatory disclosure requirements. U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth disagreed, ruling twice that the records are subject to the FOIA and not within any of the claimed exemptions. After Obama took office, CREW sought records of visits to the White House by health care and coal executives. The government initially refused to turn over those records.
The National Archives is well on its way to loading the electronic records of President George W. Bush into its digitized collection, the agency charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records said Wednesday. To date, more than 85 percent of the total volume has been ingested. The incorporation of Bush administration records is the second stage of five increments planned for the electronic records archives. The Presidential Records Act gives the Archives legal custody of the records and the task of responding to special access requirements at the end of an administration.
On Jan. 20, 2009, when President Obama was sworn into office, the Archives received the Bush records -- and in an unprecedented move, the data was delivered directly to ERA's facilities on storage area network hardware. The transfer was made possible by a partnership between the Archives, ERA contractor Lockheed Martin, and White House IT personnel. In the following months, Archives IT specialists began loading about 77 terabytes of data into the ERA system (roughly 35 times the amount of data received from the Clinton administration).
The project should be complete by late September, officials said in a press release. Use of the system is limited to Presidential Libraries employees who are processing records and responding to special access requests as needed. Presidential records become subject to Freedom of Information Act requests five years after the end of an administration. "Given the volume of electronic records we received from the Bush administration, our ability to have most of our prioritized sets of records available for staff access is a significant achievement," Assistant Archivist Sharon Fawcett said.
From NationalJournal.com's Under The Influence blog:
After individuals went on Fox News and took to the Internet last week complaining they'd received unsolicited e-mails from the White House, the administration said it would change how it collects addresses. That's a good idea, e-mail experts say, because the White House has plenty of room for improvement. "I would grade their e-mail collection process as an F," said Marco Marini, CEO of ClickMail Marketing, citing privacy and e-mail campaign effectiveness concerns.
The box at the top of WhiteHouse.gov allows anyone to subscribe by simply typing in an e-mail address and ZIP code. What's stopping my friend, or political opponent, from signing me up, Marini wondered? Adding an e-mail confirmation step would be "very easy to implement and would save a lot of headaches," he said. Most sites that users must register for -- from newspapers to banks to stores -- send a confirmation to the e-mail addresses provided before beginning to use the address to communicate with the user. Though the White House said it was changing its e-mail collection process, Marini's basic suggestion is not among the changes made.
"We are implementing measures to make subscribing to e-mails clearer, including preventing advocacy organizations from signing people up to our lists without permission when they deliver petition signatures and other messages on individual's behalf," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said in a statement last week. The White House's online director, Macon Phillips, followed that up with a blog post reiterating their suspicion that outside groups were signing up individuals without their permission and saying that changes had been made.
GovernmentExecutive.com reports that it's unclear whether President Obama's campaign proposal to post copies of all government contracts online has the support of Congress or is even logistically viable. Kenneth Baer, communications director for the Office of Management and Budget, said Wednesday that Obama continues to support the principles of a bill he introduced while in the Senate that would have added vastly more information to USASpending.gov.
In June 2008, then-Sen. Obama and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., introduced a follow-up to their 2006 Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act, which created USASpending.gov. The 2008 legislation -- ballyhooed at the time because it was co-sponsored by Obama's Republican rival for the presidency, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- received high-level support but never moved out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. An identical bill in the House also floundered.
A Senate Democratic source familiar with the legislation said in an e-mail that the bill failed to move because "OMB and others questioned whether it was possible to do everything that the bill tried to do, and Sens. Obama and Coburn didn't [or] couldn't address the concerns that were raised in time. "While many of the original sponsors continue to support the legislation's intentions, "there is no plan to reintroduce the bill," the source said.
Read the full story here.
White House New Media Director Macon Phillips provided an update late Monday on the White House's "Reality Check" Web site, saying the offering -- meant to provide facts about health reform -- has itself become "the target of fear-mongering and online rumors that are the tactics of choice for the defenders of the status quo." In a post on the official White House blog, Phillips provided an update on e-mail distribution issues and made a pitch for citizens to suggest new topics to be covered on the Reality Check site.
"It has come to our attention that some people may have been subscribed to our e-mail lists without their knowledge - likely as a result of efforts by outside groups of all political stripes- and we regret any inconvenience caused by receiving an unexpected message," he wrote, emphasizing the administration has not and will not add names from a commercial or political list to the White House list. Phillips pointed out there's a link to unsubscribe from e-mails at the bottom of each message and WhiteHouse.gov has boosted the security of its mailing list and will continue to safeguard users' information.
With respect to suggestions for topics to cover on the Reality Check site, Phillips said the administration has seen an "incredible response" from visitors who are using the tools provided on the site to share videos and other content. The e-mail address set up last week to solicit ideas is now closed (see earlier Tech Daily Dose post) and all feedback should be sent through: whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/contact. Read more of Phillips's blog post here.
The White House has closed down a short-lived electronic tip box -- flag@whitehouse.gov -- that was created to collect "fishy" claims about President Obama's healthcare plan after privacy concerns were raised. E-mails to that address now bounce back with an error message that reads: "The e-mail address you just sent a message to is no longer in service. We are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform via http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck." Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, challenged the effort shortly after it was launched in early August even though the administration claimed it was not collecting any of the tipsters' names. He argued the White House had not made clear what steps were being taken to purge names, email addresses and other personal data.
The current White House policy on persistent Internet tracking cookies continues to apply to all federal agencies and to those agencies' use of third-party applications, whenever personal information is collected on the agency's behalf, two administration officials reaffirmed Tuesday in a blog post. OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Associate Director Michael Fitzpatrick and White House CIO Vivek Kundra used the White House's official blog to address the issue after some articles hinted the government is creating special exemptions for third-parties from existing privacy rules.
The administration is revisiting the ban on using persistent cookies on federal Web sites and has asked for feedback on the issue. "The policy won't change until we've read the public comments that have been submitted to ensure that we're considering all sides of the issue and are addressing privacy concerns appropriately," they wrote. "It is clear that protecting the privacy of citizens who visit government Web sites must be one of the top considerations in any new policy." Read the full blog post here.
High-tech industry giants such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle will intensify their opposition this fall to an Obama administration proposal aimed at limiting what critics insist are offshore tax breaks, according to CongressDaily's PM Edition. This showdown over the tax deferral on corporate revenue derived from overseas operations is a major lobbying battle that will stretch well into 2010.
"This is the linchpin in American competitiveness," Phil Bond, president of TechAmerica, the nation's largest high-technology advocacy group, said at a news briefing Tuesday. "The tax provisions around overseas income are critical to allowing our companies to go overseas to compete and succeed." With the United States representing only 5 percent of the world's population, domestic companies need to reach global markets, he emphasized, adding: "We do not think that it is a good trade to sacrifice long-term jobs for short-term revenue. And we'll be making that point on the Hill."
Read the full story here (subscription required).
The White House launched a new Web page Monday that "focuses on what reform really means for you and your family" and "debunks some common myths along the way," President Obama's New Media Director Macon Phillips wrote on the official White House blog. Click here to read more.
A bipartisan panel of scientific and regulatory experts called on the White House and federal agencies Wednesday to make specific changes to clearly distinguish scientific questions from policy disputes. The report from the Science for Policy Project, which is co-chaired former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and former Science editor Donald Kennedy, was released on the eve of the first meeting for the Obama administration of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
The report recommends requiring new information when regulations are proposed by agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, and enhancing the credibility of federal advisory committees to ensure the integrity of science in regulatory policymaking. Many recommendations are relevant to ongoing efforts by agencies to implement President Obama's March memorandum on scientific integrity. The White House has reviewed an interim version of the report to inform forthcoming guidelines on scientific integrity and regulatory reform.
"The fundamental theme of the report is that the administration needs to put in place procedures to try to distinguish science questions from policy questions," Boehlert said in a press release. "Often, policy disputes are cast as fights over science. This damages the credibility of science and obscures the real issues that ought to be debated." The SPP paper coincided with the release of a memo from OMB Director Peter Orszag and Obama's science adviser John Holdren asking agencies to build on federal science and technology priorities reflected in the stimulus package and the FY10 budget in their planning for the next fiscal year.
Read more about the Orszag-Holdren memo in CongressDaily's AM Edition here (subscription required).
President Obama's Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra was on the West Coast on Tuesday speaking to the Churchill Club, Silicon Valley's premier business and technology forum. The event was hosted by the Center for Democracy and Technology and TechNet. Watch a video of his speech above.
President Obama on Wednesday traveled to Elkhart, Ind., to unveil $2.4 billion in competitive grants to spur manufacturing and deployment of next-generation batteries and electric vehicles. During his remarks, he emphasized the historic commitment to innovation made as part of the $787 billion stimulus package. He said the stimulus creates jobs by "doubling [the nation's] capacity to generate renewable energy; building a new smart grid that carry electricity from coast to coast; laying down broadband lines and high-speed rail lines; and providing the largest boost in basic research in history."
His goal is to ensure the continuation of America's leadership position in the breakthrough discoveries of the 21st century. "That's what we do best in America -- we turn ideas into inventions, and inventions into industries," Obama said. The United States led the world in the 20th century because of its innovation leadership, he said. "Today, the competition is keener; the challenge is tougher; and that's why innovation is more important than ever." Obama added that the United States has lagged behind China and Japan for too long in the production of next generation of clean-energy vehicles.
House Cybersecurity Caucus co-chairs Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, pressed the Obama administration on Tuesday to move quickly in appointing a high-level White House official to coordinate agencies' efforts to identify and guard against attacks on public and private sector information technology networks. Their separate statements came on the heels of the news that Melissa Hathaway, acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils, was resigning effective Aug. 21.
"I greatly appreciate Melissa Hathaway's service and her dedication to ensuring the security of our nation's cyber infrastructure," Langevin said. "She has helped us make significant progress towards that goal, and I wish her the best in the future." He added that several months have passed since Hathaway completed the administration's cybersecurity review and he is hopeful President Obama will appoint a cyber coordinator soon. In May, Obama vowed to handpick such an official who would report to the National Security Council and National Economic Council.
McCaul called Hathaway's departure "a loss to our efforts to better protect our nation's cyber networks." "I hope the administration will proceed with deliberate speed to fill this important position," he said. Langevin and McCaul also served as co-chairs of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency. That panel's report informed much of Hathaway's deliberations and spurred several hearings on Capitol Hill. Read more congressional reaction to Hathaway's resignation in CongressDaily's PM Edition here (subscription required).
Internet greeting card company someecards.com unveiled a batch of new sendables in honor of President Obama's 48th birthday on Tuesday. The card above may resonate with the Tech Daily Dose audience and someecards.com was kind enough to allow us to post. Click here to send the e-card yourself.
Melissa Hathaway, top cybersecurity adviser to the director of national intelligence and the principal author of the Obama administration's 60-day review of the U.S. government's cybersecurity posture has resigned, a National Security Council spokesman told Tech Daily Dose late Monday. Hathaway, who was senior adviser to former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell in the Bush administration and held the same post under Dennis Blair in the current White House, will depart effective Aug. 21. "We are grateful for her dedicated service and for the significant progress she and her team have made on our national cyber security strategy," the NSC official said.
Cybersecurity has been touted as a major priority for President Obama, which is why shortly after taking office he directed the NSC and Homeland Security Council to conduct the top-to-bottom review of federal cyber efforts and to recommend the best way to secure critical networks. In late May, the White House released the report and announced the creation of a cyber security coordinator who will have direct access to the president. "The president is personally committed to finding the right person for this job, and a rigorous selection process is well underway," the NSC spokesman said. Hathaway was initially thought to be a top contender for the job.
CongressDaily recently reported that two frontrunners to become cyber czar are Howard Schmidt, former White House special adviser for cyberspace security, and Frank Kramer, an assistant Defense secretary under President Bill Clinton. Other names floated included Microsoft Vice President Scott Charney; Obama transition team technology adviser Paul Kurtz; and former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. Davis said in June he was neither interested in returning to government nor being a candidate for the position. Read more here (subscription required).
President Obama signed on Friday into law a temporary extension of a federal program that awards R&D grants to small businesses on the day it was set to expire. As a result, the Small Business Innovation Research program has been prolonged until Sept. 30, 2009 as lawmakers work on differing versions of reauthorization bills. Senate Small Business Chairwoman Mary Landrieu said the temporary relief ensures that the SBIR effort "will continue creating cutting-edge technologies and high-paying jobs" but a permanent reauthorization of that and the Small Business Technology Transfer program is critical.
"We have been working hard [with the House] to reach a fair compromise that will reauthorize and strengthen the SBIR and STTR programs and that will guarantee that these programs remain for truly small businesses," she said in a statement. The version that passed the Senate recently reauthorizes the programs for eight years while capping awards for start ups that are majority-owned and controlled by multiple venture capital firms. The House bill extends the programs for only two years and places fewer restrictions on the allocation of funds. A 2003 ruling made small businesses that receive substantial funding from venture capitalists ineligible for the programs.
A federal advisory group of the nation's leading scientists and engineers will meet for the first time under the Obama administration next week (see agenda here). The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology will convene Thursday and Friday to set priorities for the year and hear from some administration science and tech all-stars. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren and co-chairs Harold Varmus and Eric Lander will kick off the meeting, which will focus largely on healthcare and energy.
President Obama's Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Department of Health and Human Services National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal and Blumenthal's advisor John Glaser will first discuss health information technology. Then National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Director Elizabeth Nabel and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Director Carolyn Clancy will tackle comparative effectiveness research.
PCAST members will them move on to a discussion of energy and environment with Robert Sussman, senior policy counsel for the Environmental Protection Agency and Shere Abbott, associate director of environment for OSTP. They'll wrap up day one with an address from Energy Secretary Steven Chu. On Friday, Holdren will give an overview of OSTP activities and various PCAST committees will report on economic development; innovation and technology; international security; science, technology, engineering and mathematics; education; healthcare and life sciences; and energy and environment.
President Obama's pick to head the National Archives and Records Administration in the increasingly digitized era is David Ferriero, director of the New York Public Libraries -- one of the largest public library systems in the United States and one of the largest research library systems in the world. In his current post, Ferriero is responsible for collection strategy; conservation; digital experience; reference and research services; and education, programming, and exhibitions, according to the White House personnel announcement. The NYPL has 2,600 full-time employees and a budget of $273 million.
The National Archives, best known as the keeper of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, recently unveiled a draft update to its strategic plan through 2016 that includes new ideas for electronic records management and language pertaining to the creation of a new National Declassification Center. In late May, Obama instructed his national security adviser, James L. Jones, to consult with agency heads and submit recommendations to him on how and whether to revise a 1995 executive order that created new standards for classifying government documents. NARA also houses a new office intended to mediate disputes under the Freedom of Information Act.
Public comments on whether the Obama administration should abolish or alter its policy barring federal Web sites from tracking users' Internet behavior are due Aug. 10, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on Monday. "The goal of this review is for the federal government to continue to protect the privacy of people who visit federal government Web sites while at the same time making these Web sites more user-friendly, providing better customer service, and allowing for enhanced Web analytics," the notice states. Feedback can be submitted at Regulations.gov and Whitehouse.gov/open or by e-mail at oira_submission@omb.eop.gov and fax (202) 395-7245.
The Office of Management and Budget is considering a three-tiered approach to the use of Web tracking technologies on government sites: (1) Single-session technologies, which track users over a single session and do not maintain tracking data over multiple sessions or visits. (2) Multi-session technologies for use in analytics, which track users over multiple sessions purely to gather data to analyze Web traffic statistics. (3) Multi-session technologies for use as persistent identifiers, which track users over multiple visits with the intent of remembering data, settings, or preferences unique to that visitor for purposes beyond what is needed for analytics.
The White House on Monday made a push to reach the one million follower mark on the micro-blogging Web site Twitter (see above). At 11:30 p.m., it had 795,343. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., President Obama's challenger on the campaign trail in 2008, hit the one million milestone earlier this month (and released an official statement about it too). FYI: Obama's personal Twitter page has attracted more than 1.8 million followers.
Now a half-year into the Obama administration, two White House posts viewed as critical to the high-tech and intellectual property sectors remain vacant -- and lawmakers and industry stakeholders are getting antsy, CongressDaily's TechCentral "Issue Of The Week" reports. President Obama's picks for the cybersecurity and IP coordinator jobs have all but been finalized; individuals familiar with situation said, yet no personnel announcements have been made. "A lot of people are frustrated about this because there was so much pomp and circumstance around it," said one high-tech watchdog. A White House spokesman declined to comment on either post.
In May, Obama was joined by members of Congress, Cabinet secretaries and technology executives when he announced the cyber czar position in conjunction with the release of a 60-day review of the nation's cybersecurity posture. He pledged to handpick his cyber chief, but since then, little has been said about the post. Getting the IP enforcement coordinator in place has proven difficult despite the fact that the top candidate has been known to insiders for months. Unlike the cyber czar, the IP official is a Senate-confirmed post and the White House isn't sure where to house the individual. Read the full story here (subscription required).
The number of datasets on Data.gov has increased from 47 to more than 100,000 - with new sets being added continuously, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag announced Friday in a blog post. The Web site was launched in May by White House Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra to provide raw feeds of government information from a range of agencies and departments. Since its launch, Data.gov has received more than 18 million hits. "The early response has been very positive. Individuals and organizations are not only viewing the data, but are also improving upon our work by analyzing and repurposing the information," Orszag wrote.
He also gave a shout out to the Sunlight Foundation, which recently launched Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge to elicit from the public the most innovative applications based on the data available on Data.gov. One of the submissions is FlyOnTime.us -- a Web site that uses data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, available on Data.gov, to let consumers to see estimated versus actual arrival times for flights on major commercial carriers. Kundra has also been been working with state and local governments to encourage them to open the warehouses of public data. California, the District of Columbia and Utah have already taken up the challenge. Click here for more.
White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren and other key administration officials and staff will participate in discussions about their work and careers prior to a National Design Awards luncheon on Friday. The awards were launched at the White House in 2000 to celebrate design in various disciplines from architecture to product design. First Lady Michelle Obama will host the annual gathering.
• Chopra will discuss the future of interaction design with Jeff Han of Perceptive Pixel Inc. and Andrew Blauvelt of Walker Art Center. This program is free to the public and no advanced registration is required. Hirshhorn Museum, Auditorium (Independence Avenue at Seventh Street S.W.)
• Holdren will discuss the future of technology and sustainability with Amory Lovins and Bill Moggridge. This program is free to the public and no advanced registration is required. National Museum of the American Indian (Fourth Street and Independence Avenue S.W.)
• Other participating Obama officials include White House Acting Communications Director Anita Dunn, who will discuss the relationship between current events and the design process; White House Deputy Social Secretary Ebs Burnough; and Neill McG. Coleman, general deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
President Obama on Wednesday nominated Dennis Hightower, an entertainment industry veteran, to become deputy secretary at the Commerce Department. Hightower has more than 30 years of experience in global marketing, strategic planning, operations and international general management, according to the White House personnel announcement. Most recently, he served as CEO of Europe Online Networks S.A., a privately held broadband interactive entertainment company based in Luxembourg.
From 1987 to 1996, Hightower led multi-billion dollar enterprises as president of the Walt Disney Company's television and communications operation and president of consumer products for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Hightower also recently served on the boards of directors for Accenture, Domino's Pizza, Lightfleet (a start-up high-tech firm), and Brown Capital Management. He formerly served on the boards of the Gillette Company, Northwest Airlines, PanAmSat Corp., Phillip-Van Heusen Corp., TJX, and as a member of the Price Waterhouse Chairman's Advisory Council.
Additionally, Hightower taught at Harvard Business School, where he focused on leadership, building emerging markets and global general management. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran and was a member of the Defense Business Board. Hightower was an Army officer for eight years, rising to the rank of Major by age 27, according to his bio.
President Obama and key advisers appealed to liberal bloggers during a conference call Monday evening, urging them to support the administration's healthcare reform agenda. Obama was joined by David Axelrod, healthcare guru Nancy Ann DeParle and White House Online Programs Director Jesse Lee. The call marked Obama's first serious interaction with the progressive blogosphere since taking office, bloggers who were invited to participate said. Obama gave brief remarks about the healthcare reform debate, noting that the blogs can cut through the conventional wisdom and debunk myths about this legislative battle. He also pressed them to keep the pressure on members of Congress in the run up to August recess because the default position in DC is "inertia."
Obama took questions from John Amato from Crooks and Liars; Jonathan Singer from MyDD; David Dayen from D-Day; Cheryl Contee from Jack and Jill Politics; Gerald Weinand, formerly of Turn Maine Blue; and Joan McCarter from DailyKos, according to a post by Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog. On the call, the president outlined his criteria for reform: (1) Does it cover all Americans; (2) Will it drive down costs over the long-term; (3) Will it improve quality; (4) Are prevention and wellness included; (5) Does it contain insurance reforms on issues like pre-existing conditions; (6) Does it provide relief to small business; and (6) Is there a serious public option? He warned that House and Senate bills may not have all of the above but the conference committee will be critical.
Listen to a recording of the entire call with liberal bloggers here.
Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday commended the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board for enhancing the amount of information available about the distribution of economic stimulus funds on Recovery.gov. The Web site's new offerings -- a map that details how states are putting money to use and a series of maps that show how funds are moving out to contractors, grantees and loan recipients -- will provide citizens "an unprecedented look at their taxpayer dollars at work," Biden said in a statement. He said he looked forward to seeing the amount of content on the site grow as implementation of the stimulus continues because "unprecedented transparency has been one of the hallmarks of our implementation of the Recovery Act."
Meanwhile Earl Devaney, the man who oversees Recovery.gov, unveiled the "Chairman's Corner" on Thursday -- an online report to the American people about how things have gone and what to expect in the future. He said there's a central reporting system in the works for recipients of Recovery Act funds to submit quarterly reports on their use of the money. Under a separate contract, he's working on the next generation of Recovery.gov. Later this summer, he'll be ramping up accountability to more thoroughly review problems or allegations of impropriety (complete with electronic and telephone hotlines).
More than a month after rumors started swirling, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy confirmed Tuesday that former Google Head of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs Andrew McLaughlin has begun working for the Obama administration as a deputy chief technology officer. CTO Aneesh Chopra already had one deputy, Beth Noveck, who focuses on open government issues. In June, Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy criticized McLaughlin's selection, claiming it would violate the intent of President Obama's ethics rules.
McLaughlin, who served on Obama's transition team as a member of the Technology, Innovation and Government Reform Policy Working Group, is not the only new addition to the OSTP team. Deborah Stine, who previously worked as a science and technology policy specialist at the Congressional Research Service has been hired as executive director of the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Policy. She previously served as associate director of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy at the National Academy of Sciences and before that was director of a graduate fellowship program at the National Academies.
PCAST is co-chaired by Obama's science adviser and OSTP Director John Holdren; Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and Harold Varmus, president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie are also on the panel.
President Obama's Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra unveiled a new blog on Monday that will facilitate a discussion about an Internet-based dashboard he unveiled last month that makes available in a single location details about every major IT project of the federal government. The interactive Web site lets the public see each initiative's goals, schedule, cost outlays, key personnel, contractors used, and where the effort stands in real time. Since its June 30 launch, the IT dashboard has received more than 20 million hits and the White House has gotten an "encouraging response" from members of Congress and the public," Kundra wrote.
"We want to hear from you about what works and what doesn't with the site. Is there a more innovative approach that an investment should consider? Does the contract data look incorrect to you? Is there an application that we should add? This is a site to serve you, and to do that, we need to hear from you," he said. Answering that call, the Sunlight Foundation has already offered a detailed critique of the IT dashboard here.
On Saturday, President Obama will deliver a speech in Accra, Ghana and the White House is making sure Internet and mobile phone users around the world can get involved. In a message on the social networking site Facebook, administration officials said individuals will be able to submit questions, comments, and words of welcome in English or French via SMS text messages. SMS participants will also get live highlights from Obama's trip. The president will answer some questions following his speech in a radio broadcast.
Use a local SMS short code in:
-Ghana (1731) -Nigeria (32969) -South Africa (31958) -Kenya (5683)
-Long numbers for mobile registration pan-Africa: 61418601934 and 45609910343.
(Note: This SMS platform is not available in the United States)
Additionally, the White House will host a live Facebook-based chat during Obama's speech at http://apps.facebook.com/whitehouselive. On micro-blogging site Twitter, the White House asks participants to use the hashtag (#obamaghana) to find and share reactions related to his visit. The administration publicized Obama's June 4 appearance in Egypt using a range of high-tech platforms. The Cairo speech was translated into 14 languages on America.gov and spurred a flood of activity on Twitter.
President Obama often refers to the clear-cut benefits of striking a healthy balance between transparency and national security, such as upholding the Constitution. More ambiguous are the financial savings derived from increased transparency, NextGov's Aliya Sternstein writes in TechCentral's latest Issue Of The Week. In fact, even some open government proponents say Obama's transparency agenda may initially cost taxpayers more money. Specifically, the administration's ongoing review of classified information policy to address the problem of over-classification likely will result in some short-term overhead expenses. The cost-range is hard to assess, partly because the federal budget is not structured to provide that sort of empirical data, said Steven Aftergood, who directs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, a nonpartisan think tank. But in the short term, "any change in policy is likely to result in increased costs, including changes that favor more open government, if only due to the costs of producing revised guidance and of employee training," he said.
On the other hand, the alternative -- over-classification -- is almost always expensive, say some classification specialists and transparency advocates. Information technology systems to guard classified information are particularly costly. Information security continues to be the most costly category reported by agencies, representing 56 percent of total security classification costs for FY08. Of the four subcategories of information security, "information systems security continues to be the most costly, at $4.3 billion, or 90 percent of estimated costs for information security," according to a May 19 report to the president from the Information Security Oversight Office at the National Archives and Records Administration. That office oversees classification and declassification policies and audits classification programs.
Read the full Issue Of The Week here (subscription required).
President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held their first joint press conference in Moscow on Monday where they spoke about plans to reset the countries' relationship. The pair released a statement outlining a new framework for arms reduction and announced the creation of a bilateral commission with working groups focused on a range of topics including: nuclear energy; arms control; foreign policy and fighting terrorism; drug trafficking; business development and economic relations; energy and environment; agriculture; science and technologies; space cooperation; health; handling of emergency situations; civil society; and educational and cultural exchanges.
Additional working groups will be created and announced in the coming months, along with sub-groups under each working group as appropriate, officials said. While it was not explicitly mentioned, intellectual property policy -- namely anti-piracy and counterfeiting measures -- could easily fit into one or more of those categories. Russia regularly ranks among the top offenders in assessments of global IP infringement. In its annual "Special 301" report, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative noted serious concerns with Russia but credited positive steps taken by the government like the nation's accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization's Internet treaties.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance, which represents the American music, movie, software, and video game industries, told the USTR earlier this year that Russia's "enforcement efforts generally remain inadequate, and the copyright industries continue to await sustained, effective and deterrent enforcement, enhanced legal reform, and greater market access for legitimate copyrighted materials." The country has not met its obligations under a 2006 IP agreement with the United States and must take action against entities that knowingly distribute infringing products, combat the growing threat of Internet piracy, and address illegal optical disc manufacturing, IIPA stated. Read more from IIPA here.
The Internet experts at Morningside Analytics recently took a look at the blog footprint of WhiteHouse.gov now and one year ago. The results? The Obama administration has successfully expanded its online reach beyond the political blogger echo chamber and is now part of a broader discussion within online communities that are normally attentive to health, science, technology and culture, the firm said. Above, an illustration of the current reach of WhiteHouse.gov. Click here to compare with a 2008 snapshot.
Innovation and job creation will be the topic du jour at the White House on Thursday afternoon when President Obama meets with business leaders from small and large companies. The conversation, which will include several high-tech executives, will focus on potential ways of developing long-term solution to strengthen the U.S. economy. CEOs participating in the dialogue will talk about what steps they have taken to increase productivity in their industry during a recession through innovation and technology, according to a White House e-mail.
Amit Chatterjee, CEO of and founder of Hara Software, is among the participants. Prior to founding Hara he led SAP's fast-growing governance, risk and compliance unit and before that, worked with clients like Cisco Systems and Oracle at McKinsey & Co. Hara builds software that lets companies track their use of natural resources and carbon emissions. Applied Materials CEO Michael Splinter will also attend the meeting. Splinter is a 30-year veteran of the semiconductor industry and has led Applied Materials to record revenue and profits during his tenure.
Other attendees include Standard Renewable Energy CEO John Berger, Dow Corning CEO Stephanie Burns, Positive Edge President Alex Laskey, FPL Group President Jim Robo, Hycrete CEO David Rosenberg and Chuck Swoboda, CEO of Cree Lighting.
The Obama administration on Wednesday publicly disclosed on the Internet its annual report to Congress on staff titles and salaries. Since 1995, the White House has been required to deliver such a document to Capitol Hill. Consistent with President Obama's commitment to transparency, his Web team posted the rundown as a PDF document and as a searchable table (powered by Socrata) as it was sent to lawmakers. In addition to core White House staffers' details, the report also contains the title and salary of administration officials who work at the Office of Policy Development, including the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council.
For the nosiest amongst us, here's a quick listing of some key officials' earnings:
Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff: $172,000
David Axelrod, Senior Adviser: $172,000
Valerie Jarrett, Senior Adviser: $172,000
Carol Browner, Assistant to the President: $172,000
Anita Dunn, Director of Communications: $172,000
Robert Gibbs, Press Secretary: $172,000
Greg Craig, Counsel to the President: $172,000
Lawrence Summers, Director, National Economic Council: $172,000
James Jones, National Security Adviser: $172,000
Susan Crawford, Special Assistant, Technology: $130,500
Matthew Loveless, Director, Technology: $55,000
Timothy Ryan, Assistant Director, Technology: $50,000
David Cole, Deputy Director, Technology: $60,000
Jason Brown, Director, Cybersecurity Policy (Detailee): $91,259
Macon Phillips, New Media Director: $115,000
Jesse Lee, Director, Online Programs: $70,000
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman praised the Office of Management and Budget's announcement Tuesday of a new Web site that allows the public to track and comment on federal information technology spending. "When I won enactment of the E-Government Act almost a decade ago, the federal government was a newcomer to the online world and had only just begun to think seriously about how to provide American taxpayers with valuable electronic services and information. All that has changed," Lieberman said in a statement.
The IT dashboard on USASpending.gov "marks another leap forward for open government, public accountability, and management efficiency and serves as a model to open up more information on federal spending." With a click of the mouse, anyone can see and have their say about the decisions, successes, and setbacks of how tax dollars are spent on IT projects, he said. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Thomas Carper, D-Del., concurred, saying he wants to work with the Obama administration to expand the effort to bring greater transparency for other large investments, including weapons acquisitions.
Read CongressDaily's Tuesday coverage of the issue here (subscription required).
The White House will bring back its popular online town hall concept on Wednesday with an event streamed live on the Internet that will focus on healthcare reform. President Obama will answer questions from an on-site audience at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., as well as queries from the Internet. His senior advisor Valerie Jarrett will moderate the event. Unlike Obama's March town hall, which pulled questions about job creation and the economy from a user-generated list on the White House Web site, this time the administration has reached out to social networking site Facebook, video sharing site YouTube and micro-blogging platform Twitter.
On Saturday, Obama posted a video asking for questions on healthcare reform and in just a few days, the Web team received hundreds of submissions. "The questions spanned the ideological spectrum, and ranged from heart-breaking and personal to almost wonkishly policy-focused," White House Online Programs Director Jesse Lee wrote in a blog post. Citizens can watch, discuss, and engage at 1:15 p.m. EDT through a Facebook live-stream chat application and viewers can send comments at WhiteHouse.gov/live or take part in a conversation on Twitter using hashtag #WHHCQ.
President Obama on Tuesday signed legislation that would allow months of royalty negotiations between the music and Internet industries continue while delaying full implementation of a controversial rate-setting for webcasters imposed by the Copyright Royalty Board. The measure replaces a Feb. 15, 2009 deadline that was part of legislation that passed the 110th Congress, with a 30-day window from the date of enactment for a deal to be reached between digital royalty collector SoundExchange, which is negotiating on behalf of copyright owners and performers, and Internet services represented by the Digital Media Association and others.
The bill's sponsor was Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who had support from Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and others. Its Senate sponsors were Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan. A source told Tech Daily Dose that so-called "pureplay" negotiations have been completed and a deal could be signed as soon as stakeholders return from Independence Day vacation. As soon as that happens, the proposal will be announced and submitted to the Register of Copyrights for publication. "Pureplay" webcasters refers to those whose sole business activity is to stream sound recordings over the Internet.
Karen Evans, administrator of e-government and information technology at the Office of Management and Budget in the Bush administration lauded her successor's Tuesday launch of an Internet-based dashboard that makes available in a single location details about every major IT project of the federal government but warned of potential challenges on the horizon. The interactive Web site unveiled by Vivek Kundra at the Personal Democracy Forum's conference lets the public see each initiative's goals, schedule, cost outlays, key personnel, contractors used, and where the effort stands in real time. Read more coverage in CongressDaily's PM Edition here (subscription required).
Data quality will continue to be an issue, Evans told Tech Daily Dose. "The management of the agency's IT portfolio is a complex process and there are many reasons why a project may not be on schedule which then, affects performance and costs. With the public availability of the data, OMB and the agencies' CIOs will need to be prepared to respond to the corrective actions they have in place for investments which are not necessarily performing optimally." Additionally, the dashboard should serve as a tool to highlight areas that need attention rather than as a punitive mechanism for lack of performance, she said.
The future challenge is to avoid compliance reporting and to get true management oversight of IT investments, Evans said. She pointed out that the dashboard's level of transparency far exceeds what was available under the annual management watch list and the high risk list -- the OMB's standard methods of assessing troubled projects. "The departments and agencies have worked diligently to put management practices into place to ensure results for their investments," Evans said. "The IT dashboard is taking this detailed information and making it available to public and the Congress. Transparency is always a good thing."
When President Obama addressed calls for legalization of marijuana during his March online town hall, he proved that "when the people lead, the leaders will follow," Internet activist Jim Gilliam argued Tuesday at the Personal Democracy Forum's annual conference. Leading up to the big White House event, citizens were asked to vote on economic questions they wanted the commander in chief to answer. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws spearheaded a grassroots effort to push questions tying Mary Jane to economic improvement and job creation to the top of the heap. [Read related Tech Daily Dose coverage here].
"I don't know what this says about the online audience," Obama laughed during the webcast. "The answer is no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy." Over 92,000 people submitted over 100,000 questions and cast over 3.5 million votes. More than 67,000 people watched the event online. After the town hall, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was pressed for details on the administration's pot policy, the California Budget Office released an estimate on revenue that could be generated by a marijuana tax, and Obama's drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said he would stop referring to the "war on drugs" because it was unhelpful.
"Obama knew what he was doing... He wanted outrage," said Gilliam, the creator of a Web site that imagines how the White House might work if it was run completely democratically by thousands of people over the Internet. On WhiteHouse2.org, decriminalizing marijuana ranks 22nd and legalizing medical marijuana ranks 44th. The site's top five user generated priorities for Obama include: replacing the federal income tax with a "FairTax;" restoring, upholding and defending the Constitution; ending corporate welfare; securing all U.S. borders; and letting banks that make bad loans go out of business.
On the eve of a major White House immigration summit, technology industry stakeholders are urging participants to make high-skilled immigration part of the discussion. President Obama and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders will take part in the Thursday event and Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Charles Schumer, D-N.Y, earlier today highlighted the need for high-skilled immigration to be one of seven key principles for reform. His first priority in crafting legislation is making a serious stand against illegal immigration, and suggested that a biometric-based employer verification system would be a key element as well. Schumer added he remains optimistic that immigration legislation, which he intends to introduce, can become law as soon as this year.
"Many of our nation's finest entrepreneurs, business leaders, doctors, scientists and Nobel laureates are foreign-born and contribute to the success of America's economy," Information Technology Industry Council President Dean Garfield said in a press release. "Any reform to our immigration policy should ensure that America's doors remain open to these individuals and business leaders." While the guest list for the summit has not been officially released, ITI understands that a number of high-skilled immigration proponents have been invited. Garfield said he hoped congressional consensus over retaining a top notch workforce is not sacrificed by contentious items in the immigration debate.
Former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said Tuesday that he does not want the job of President Obama's cybersecurity coordinator despite recent rumblings that he was one of the top contenders for the position. "If I'd wanted to stay in government, I would have stayed in Congress," he said at a National Press Club briefing. "I don't have any real interest in going back." Davis joined the federal services team of consulting firm Deloitte last year after serving as chairman and ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee where he took the lead on legislation aimed at improving e-government, information security and critical infrastructure. When pressed further by reporters, Davis said he was "not a candidate for anything... [but] you never say never." He has maintained his departure from public service is only a sabbatical.
His main concern with the cyber czar position, which Obama described on the campaign trail and formally announced last month in conjunction with a wide-sweeping report that examined the federal cybersecurity posture, is the job description remains vague. Davis said it is unclear what the position would entail and how much authority the individual, who would report jointly to the National Security Council and National Economic Council, would have. "For this job to work you'd better get some understandings up front," he said. Davis lauded Obama for recognizing the need for a strong cybersecurity leader but said he thinks the administration has brought on too many czars. Melissa Hathaway, a senior adviser to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, is potential candidate. Former Microsoft security chief Howard Schmidt's name has also come up.
High-tech efforts to publicize President Obama's June 4 speech in Egypt aimed at forging a new relationship with the Muslim world exceeded organizers' expectations so the administration is planning a similar outreach attempt next month, a State Department official said Monday. Obama will give a speech while in Ghana July 10 and 11, which will be his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office. Victor Riche, who heads State's IT office, said the White House will again transmit the talk via text message in multiple languages. "I'm sure we'll double, triple, or quadruple the text messaging," he said of the Ghana event. The Cairo speech was translated into 14 languages on America.gov and spurred a flood of activity on the micro-blogging site Twitter.
Riche told a Homeland Security Department privacy and technology workshop that the State Department has been a leader in embracing the Internet to broadcast the country's diplomatic message and engage in an international dialogue. Following on an array of webcasts, digital video presentations, social networking and forays into the virtual world Second Life, the agency is planning even more tech-savvy projects under the leadership of Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale. Some staffers were plucked from Riche's office last week and placed in a new unit where they will focus on social media, he said. "The department is moving forward in a big way in this area," he said, noting that technology is "the perfect complement to public diplomacy."
Riche, who spoke on a panel with representatives from DHS, the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Academy of Public Administration, said he is working with McHale and others on formulating formal rules for social media use at the State Department. That guidance should be finalized next month, he said. Look for more coverage from the DHS summit in CongressDaily's PM Edition.
National Journal's latest issue is a bit bigger than normal. That's because it's devoted to profiles of 366 of the top officials in the Obama administration -- from high profile personalities like Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and Hillary Rodham Clinton to deputy secretaries, assistant secretaries, and chiefs of staff at various Cabinet agencies. Here's a sampling of tech and telecommunications dossiers in Decision Makers 2009:
• John Holdren / White House
• Aneesh Chopra / White House
• Vivek Kundra / White House
• Macon Phillips / White House
• Jesse Lee / White House
• Gary Locke / Commerce
• Larry Strickling / Commerce
• Julius Genachowski / FCC
• Michael Copps / FCC
• Robert McDowell / FCC
• Mignon Clyburn / FCC
• Jon Leibowitz / FTC
• Roger Baker / VA
• Arden Bement / NSF
• Tara O'Toole / DHS
President Obama on Thursday nominated IBM Assistant General Counsel David Kappos to become director of the Patent and Trademark Office. As reported in CongressDaily's AM Edition, the news was uniformly welcomed by lawmakers, industry leaders and members of the legal community. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said Kappos is "exceptionally qualified" to lead the PTO, which faces serious challenges in the recession and a spokesman for Judiciary ranking member Jeff Sessions said his boss believes Kappos' credentials and experience are impressive and looks forward to evaluating him. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke issued a statement saying Kappos "will be a strong voice for patent reform" and will be charged with making a big dent in the growing application backlog, which now exceeds 750,000.
Foley & Lardner attorney Jon Dudas, who served as PTO director in the Bush administration, said Kappos is an excellent choice. "He is deeply respected in the intellectual property community, the U.S. government and internationally," Dudas said. "Dave also has the leadership and management skills to inspire the thousands of incredibly professional colleagues he will soon lead." American Intellectual Property Law Association Executive Director Todd Dickinson, who served as head of the PTO under former President Bill Clinton, said Kappos "has a genuine appreciation for the tough issues facing intellectual property policy and administration today." His nomination offers an opportunity for a fresh start, Dickinson said.
Groups involved in the ongoing congressional battle over patent reform also hailed Obama's pick. The Coalition for Patent Fairness and Innovation Alliance, which have been at odds over pending legislation, both backed Kappos. CPF said he has the experience needed to lead the PTO "at a time when it faces significant operational challenges in an ever-evolving competitive global marketplace." The Alliance said its members "look forward to working with him in what will be a very difficult, but important effort to revitalize the PTO, which all agree is under funded and overburdened." Congress should provide PTO the funds it needs to upgrade its technology, improve the patent application process, and attract and retain professional talent, the group said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and a handful of other senators urged President Obama on Thursday to protect intellectual property as talks begin on a global climate change treaty. Proposals have surfaced by representatives of some countries to allow foreign producers to copy or infringe patented technologies. "The United States government cannot afford to sit idle while others seek to weaken IP protections," they wrote. "America must continue to set the standard for IP protection, and be willing to confront those countries and organizations that attempt to weaken IP rights." Hatch collected signatures from Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; Robert Bennett, R-Utah; Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; Arlen Specter, D-Pa.; George Voinovich, R-Ohio; John Thune, R-S.D.; Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; and David Vitter, R-La.
The senators explain that some governments mischaracterize IP rights as an obstacle to progress and require compulsory licenses of IP or forced technology transfers. China and India claim they cannot meet future global emission requirements without free or significantly discounted access to climate change mitigation technologies. "These short-sighted approaches to IP rights will curtail growth and development, and stagnate the very industries that these countries depend on," they wrote. A coalition backed by the Chamber, General Electric, Microsoft, Siemens and other multinationals has been putting similar pressure on the Obama administration. A series of meetings will culminate at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, where parties will seek agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Although the White House personnel announcement has yet to emerge, Google executive Andrew McLaughlin's alma mater is reporting his appointment as deputy chief technology officer for the Obama administration. CTO Aneesh Chopra already has one deputy, Beth Noveck, who focuses on open government issues. Harvard Law School posted the news about the Internet giant's former head of global public policy on its Web site Thursday. "As Google's first public policy executive, McLaughlin built the company's presence in Washington, helping to promote its position on topics such as online privacy, net neutrality and copyright," the memo said.
McLaughlin is an emeritus fellow of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, joining in 1998 as an associate director and fellow. He taught "The Law of Cyberspace" with Internet visionary Jonathan Zittrain, "Digital Democracy" with Berkman founder Charles Nesson, and led the Center's initiatives in developing countries. During that time, he was also vice president and chief policy officer at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit group that helps coordinate the Internet's address system. McLaughlin served on Obama's transition team as a member of the Technology, Innovation and Government Reform Policy Working Group.
Tech Daily Dose previously reported that a pair of high-tech watchdogs had urged the White House to halt the pending appointment. Consumer Watchdog's John Simpson and the Center for Digital Democracy's Jeff Chester claimed it would violate the intent of President Obama's ethics rules. Both are vocal Google critics and wrote that the company's Washington influence is not the primary reason for the objection. "We believe no special-interest connected person should assume a position of vital importance to the country's future," they said. Read more about their complaint here.
This just in... President Obama has announced his intention to nominate IBM Assistant General Counsel David Kappos to become director of the Patent and Trademark Office. His bio, included in the White House announcement, is pasted after the jump. Kappos, who joined the company as a development engineer in 1983, was among several rumored top contenders for the job. Others included American Intellectual Property Law Association Executive Director Q. Todd Dickinson, who was PTO director under former President Bill Clinton, and Jim Pooley, a Silicon Valley attorney who was installed earlier this week as the World Intellectual Property Organization's deputy director general for patents. Look for more in CongressDaily's AM Edition on Friday.
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Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn urged the Obama administration on Tuesday to employ "a nuanced, balanced" approach to naming key intellectual property posts in the federal government. President Obama has yet to name a White House IP enforcement coordinator, as mandated by a law that passed the 110th Congress, or Patent and Trademark Office director. She told the World Copyright Summit that the IP czar should not be a policymaker but instead must focus on harmonizing efforts by a range of agencies that have enforcement authority. "There needs to be someone to get them all on the same page," Sohn said, lauding the work of the Bush administration's key IP officer Chris Israel who was stationed at the Commerce Department. "We don't think the job should change -- it just has more gravitas," she said.
Copyright Alliance Executive Director Patrick Ross, who regularly finds himself at odds with Sohn's viewpoint, agreed that filling vacant IP positions are important and he has been pleased with the administration's appointments to date. His group, which represents major IP owners and content creators, was pleased to see two entertainment industry lawyers -- Thomas Perrelli and Donald Verrilli -- join the Justice Department. Sohn's group, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Consumer Electronics Association and other tech stakeholders complained in a letter to Obama that both previously represented "the concentrated copyright industries" and future appointments should be more evenhanded.
The White House Web team unveiled yet another Web page on Monday -- WhiteHouse.gov/Recovery -- that provides snapshots of economic stimulus package dollars at work around the country. The "Roadmap to Recovery" features details about the broad range of activity planned across the United States in the second 100 days of implementing the $787 billion federal boost. The page will also provide an opportunity for visitors to share stories through comments, photos and videos. Recovery.gov remains the go-to site for tracking Recovery Act spending, officials said. "What we want to do is we want average Americans as they're watching this happen this summer, as they're watching it happen in their neighborhoods, the parks they're visiting, whatever, we want them knowing that what we're doing is fully transparent, we're fully accountable, and we want them to watch us closely, and we want their input," Vice President Biden said.
In other transparency news, House Minority Leader John Boehner continues to pummel President Obama over his pledge to post non-emergency legislation online for five days before signing it into law. To date, Obama is one for 23 in providing that review period, Boehner's office said. "No one - not a member of Congress, anyone in the administration, or any American - read the trillion-dollar 'stimulus' spending bill before Congress passed it and the President signed it into law," Boehner said in an e-mailed statement. "If the public had some time to review the bill, perhaps the American people would have discovered that it authorized the AIG executive bonuses, sent checks to the deceased, and paved the way for some truly astonishing government waste." The GOP leader has pressed for a 72-hour mandatory minimum public review on spending legislation.
Susan Crawford, special assistant to President Obama for science, technology and innovation policy, warned a federal advisory committee on Internet child safety on Thursday to be wary of several pitfalls as they begin their work. "Be reluctant to engage in overstated or overheated rhetoric. This issue makes tempers run high," Crawford told the inaugural meeting of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Online Safety and Technology Working Group. In offering what she called an "administrative benediction," Crawford urged them to beware of three pitfalls:
• Avoid exaggerated statements about the risks to kids online. "There are risks but these risks may not be more significant from risks they face offline. The risks are far more subtle than popular media would have us believe," she said. Crawford also urged the panel to steer clear of anecdote and focus on concrete evidence "and what we know is happening to kids." Additionally she warned them not to demonize the Internet, which is the locus of enormous economic growth.
• Pay attention to legal precedent. "There's been lot of litigation in this area," Crawford said. "You should avoid insensitivity to constitutional concerns that have given rise to those cases." The past 13 years have seen a multitude of challenges to the Communications Decency Act and the Children's Online Protection Act, which led to the striking down of portions of those laws.
Widespread adoption of health information technology as part of the larger U.S. healthcare reform movement holds great promise but also potential perils, according to a Tuesday report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. "Systematic examinations of the merits of different treatments and dissemination of the results of those examinations to patients and providers is one mechanism for promoting high-value care," the report said, noting health IT may play a key role in increasing the rate at which new information spreads and is incorporated into practice behavior. At the same time, providers have strong financial incentives to compete on the basis of technology adoption rather than price, which could lead to excesses of IT equipment and services (for example, MRI machines and minimally invasive vascular diagnostic and procedure suites). That could amount to higher rates of utilization and costs, the report stated.
In most fields, technological progress is generally cost-reducing as individuals discover more effective ways of accomplishing things that were already being done, the paper stated. In medicine, however, technological progress in recent decades has been almost exclusively cost-increasing, without generating a commensurate increase in value. Undoubtedly, provider incentives, which largely reward finding an expensive way of treating a previously untreated condition rather than finding a less costly alternative to an existing treatment, contribute to this trend, the council stated. Nevertheless, the council estimated potential savings generated by overall healthcare reform could amount to as much as $1.7 trillion over 10 years. Read the report here.
Shameless plug: I'll be moderating a Wednesday panel of health IT experts at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference at George Washington University. Speakers include: Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology; Patient Privacy Rights Executive Director Ashley Katz; Joel Slackman, managing director for the Office of Policy and Representation at BlueCross BlueShield; e-MDs CEO Michael Stearns; and Microsoft Director of Consumer Affairs Frank Torres.
A pair of watchdogs on Wednesday urged the White House to halt the pending appointment of Google's top global public policy executive to the position of deputy chief technology officer under CTO Aneesh Chopra, saying it would violate the intent of President Obama's ethics rules. Although the choice of Google's Andrew McLaughlin for the position has been widely reported, it has yet to be announced. Consumer Watchdog's John Simpson and the Center for Digital Democracy's Jeff Chester, both vocal critics of the Internet giant, wrote that Google's Washington influence is not the primary reason for the objection. "We believe no special-interest connected person should assume a position of vital importance to the country's future," they wrote, noting it would be just as inappropriate for a Microsoft or Yahoo lobbyist to take the job.
"Appointing someone from a [sic] lobbying shop to this position sends the wrong message - that the well-connected can still make a quick trip to the White House through a special interest revolving door," they said in the letter. "The goal of the Obama administration to use new technology to improve how the government works requires someone whose background ensures they can make independent decisions that will benefit all Americans." The pair note that McLaughlin is "very good at what he does -- lobbying around the world for Google's interests" but that's not what the deputy CTO gig requires. "It should not go to any person whose most recent position has been advocating policy for a technology company," they said.
Before joining Google, McLaughlin worked at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, where his studies focused on the law and regulation of Internet and telecommunications networks. He also helped to launch and manage the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, serving as vice president, chief policy officer, and chief financial officer. In the late 1990s, he served as counsel to Rep. Henry Waxman, now chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A Google spokesman would not comment on the letter but confirmed McLaughlin is departing. Rachel Whetstone, who has led Google's communications and public affairs efforts, will take his job (Hat tip, Winter Casey).
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday that the administration will go to great lengths -- and employ various Internet technologies -- to ensure that President Obama's speech in Cairo, Egypt on Thursday is distributed as far and wide as possible. The speech is expected to open up a new dialogue with the Muslim world and could provide the most significant guidance from Obama yet about advancing the Middle East peace process. "I think there will be a great effort on our part to distribute this through different means, social networking sites, in order to get this in front of as many eyes throughout the world as we can," Gibbs said.
But when pressed on the tech-related specifics of the plan, Gibbs was unsure of what platforms will carry Obama's message:
Q: Robert, just a quick procedural question. You said that you guys are going to distribute the Cairo speech on social networks. Are you guys going to be Twittering it?
GIBBS: No -- that'd be awkward, wouldn't it? We can't even get that on the computers here. No, I think what I mean by that -- and we'll have some more in-depth on this, but obviously our goal is to ensure that the greatest number of people with an interest to see this -- not just through newspapers and television, but can see this through Web sites, I think it will be broadcast -- I'm pretty sure it will be broadcast on our Web site and the Internet team here is working with a host of others to get this information to as many platforms as humanly possible so that people will get a chance all over the world to see what the president has to say.
Even though the Obama administration has made important, early strides in its first 133 days as part of its technology policy agenda, a key adviser to the president on Tuesday said the White House has a long way to go. "We need your criticism, your engagement, your involvement, and your help," Susan Crawford, special assistant to the president for science, technology and innovation policy, told the Computers Freedom & Privacy conference. After "timely, targeted and tapered" economic stimulus package implementation, the administration's focus will turn to job creation -- and that weighs heavily on high-tech investment, said Crawford who is also a member of the National Economic Council. Innovation is tied to a range of priorities from diminishing the country's carbon footprint and creating clean energy jobs to reducing the cost of healthcare and educating the next generation.
Crawford also spoke about the need to bolster broadband deployment and bridge the gaps between urban and rural areas and rich and poor Americans. She said the United States is "definitively behind" its international counterparts and Obama cares deeply about the issue. "This is not about national pride. This is about restoring American competitiveness for the future," Crawford stressed. Addressing the problem will require "civility, thoughtfulness and attention" and that work has begun at the FCC and elsewhere in the administration, she added. On the international front, Crawford pointed out that the State Department is using technology to expand its traditional government-to-government outreach to incorporate citizen-centered approaches to advancing U.S. diplomatic and developmental goals. "A networked public can meaningfully shape international politics," Crawford said. Also from CFP: White House Aide Warns Online Advertisers To Be Monitored (Dow Jones).
TechCentral's latest Issue Of The Week reports...
Now that the results of President Obama's cybersecurity review are out, the focus has shifted to the yet-unnamed White House cyber czar who will carry out five broad goals: developing a comprehensive strategy to secure networks; coordinating with states and cities to respond to any future attacks; strengthening coordination between the government and the private sector; ramping up government investments in research and development; and launching a national campaign to promote cybersecurity awareness while building a digital workforce for the 21st century. It is a tall order, but experts on Capitol Hill, at think tanks and within industry are willing to assist.
Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, introduced a bill before the administration's 60-day review was completed, and more are expected since multiple committees share jurisdiction over the issue. The Rockefeller-Snowe bill and the administration report both call for the cyber czar post, increased federal research and development, and enhanced public-private partnerships. The senators issued a statement Friday urging Obama to give his cyber chief "the heft and authority the position requires."
Not everyone was as keen on the position. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ranking member Susan Collins said the appointment of another White House czar will hinder congressional oversight and do little to resolve bureaucratic conflicts, turf battles, and confusing lines of authority. High-level coordination is not enough, she said in a statement: "Securing critical systems will require effective day-to-day management, including the authority to recommend best practices, modify information technology procurement standards, coordinate action to prevent and mitigate vulnerabilities, encourage innovation, and, when necessary, enforce compliance."
Read the full Issue Of The Week feature here. Read additional perspectives about Obama's cyber czar in Monday's CongressDaily PM Edition here (subscription required).
President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to preventing communications giants from dominating the Internet by blocking or degrading broadband service during a major speech on Friday where he unveiled a report summarizing a 60-day assessment of how the government responds to cyber attacks. During a White House event, Obama said: "I remain firmly committed to net neutrality so we can keep the Internet as it should be -- open and free." Craig Aaron, senior program director of Free Press, cheered the mention, saying it made clear Obama considers net neutrality "an essential component of his administration's sweeping Internet agenda." "The president's words send a strong message to Congress and the Federal Communications Commission -- as well as the phone and cable companies -- that now is the time to end the stalemate on this crucial issue and secure the open Internet for future generations," he said.
Earlier this month, FCC Acting Chairman Michael Copps said telecommunications and cable providers of broadband service that block or degrade Internet content for anti-competitive reasons could soon be hit with tough penalties, including fines. Speaking after a speech at a daylong policy summit sponsored by Free Press, he said the strict enforcement would be part of a fifth principle his agency plans to add to net neutrality guidelines governing an accessible Internet. The Democratic commissioner said the plank would be modeled on requirements the commission imposed on the 2006 merger of AT&T and BellSouth. Industry players consider an anti-discriminatory requirement unnecessary and warn it could dissuade future investments in high-speed Internet technology. Read more in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
President Obama's remarks on his administration's cybersecurity review on Friday in the East Room of the White House:
We meet today at a transformational moment -- a moment in history when our interconnected world presents us, at once, with great promise but also great peril. Now, over the past four months my administration has taken decisive steps to seize the promise and confront these perils. We're working to recover from a global recession while laying a new foundation for lasting prosperity. We're strengthening our armed forces as they fight two wars, at the same time we're renewing American leadership to confront unconventional challenges, from nuclear proliferation to terrorism, from climate change to pandemic disease. And we're bringing to government -- and to this White House -- unprecedented transparency and accountability and new ways for Americans to participate in their democracy.
In conjunction with President Obama's release of a report on his administration's cybersecurity review on Friday, the White House unveiled this video, which stars technology experts and government officials engaged in the issue. Among those featured include Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, New York Chief Cybersecurity Officer William Pelgrin, Symantec Chairman John Thompson, Center for Democracy and Technology President Leslie Harris and Jeannette Wing of the National Science Foundation. This White House Web page also provides a long list of papers from a variety of groups that informed the review team's deliberations.
President Obama hopes he can utilize the Internet as successfully to build support for his pick for the Supreme Court as he did during his campaign for the White House. The Democratic National Committee's "Organizing For America" initiative has launched an online action center at MyBarackObama.com to generate favorable buzz around 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor amid criticism from conservatives. On the site, citizens can add their names to a public list of supporters; write a letter to newspaper editors; look up numbers for senators; download posters and more.
Read more here.
The Obama administration is bringing out the big guns to unveil the results of its 60-day cyberspace policy review. Expected attendees at Friday morning's event in the East Room of the White House include:
Energy Secretary Steven Chu
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
National Security Advisor General James L. Jones
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn
Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin
National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers
Federal Aviation Administration Acting Administrator Lynne Osmus
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff
Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairman Michael Copps
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz
Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman James Cartwright
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller
White House Office of Science and Technology Director John Holdren
Director of National Intelligence Office Lieutenant-Gen. John Kimmons
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security John Brennan
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley
House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon
House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Peter King
William Pelgrin, Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center
National Governors Association Public Safety Director Heather Hogsett
The Obama administration's release Friday of a report on the federal government's cybersecurity posture will not offer specific recommendations for action, sources who reviewed the document told CongressDaily on Thursday. The paper will call for the creation of a cybersecurity coordinator who would be housed in the National Security Council but report to the National Economic Council as well, they said. The report does not state how senior the individual will be within the White House or to whom the official would report. The roughly 40-page document emphasizes the importance of building public-private partnerships to safeguard communications networks and creating incentives for threat information-sharing between government and industry entities, sources said. The report includes language intended to sharpen the government's IT procurement processes to drive greater security; underscores the need for more federal cybersecurity R&D; and calls for the cultivation of a highly skilled cybersecurity workforce in and outside of government. The paper will be unveiled at a White House event attended by an impressive list of tech execs.
Read the full story in CongressDaily's PM Edition.
In anticipation of the release of a White House cybersecurity report later this week, Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, urged the Obama administration on Wednesday to create an Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor within the Executive Office of the President. The proposal is part of legislation they introduced earlier this year intended to improve the nation's safeguards against high-tech attacks. The advisor "must serve as the lead official on all cyber matters -- reporting directly to the President and coordinating with the intelligence community, government agencies, Congress, and the private sector," they said in a press release.
Rockefeller and Snowe also pressed Obama to create state and regional cybersecurity centers for small and medium sized businesses; increase federal cybersecurity R&D programs at the National Science Foundation; and require the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish measureable cybersecurity standards and best practices that are applicable both to government and the private sector. Additionally, they called for the creation of an information sharing clearinghouse where government and industry work together in real time to identify cyber threats; and the creation of a cybersecurity advisory panel of experts from industry, academia, non-profits and civil liberty organizations to advise the president.
"The Obama administration has been hard at work on a comprehensive review of the cyber threat and we applaud their effort," Rockefeller and Snowe wrote. "We have learned the hard way in recent years that 'stovepiped' national security systems and failures in coordination can leave us vulnerable to attack, and that bureaucratic confusion can cripple our response to a disaster. We must apply these lessons to the threat of cyber attack. There is no room for error." White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that the report, which caps off an expansive 60-day probe, will be released Friday.
Time is almost up for the first part of the White House's consultation to build a framework for President Obama's open government initiative. A public online brainstorming session, which began last week and is hosted by the National Academy of Public Administration, ends Thursday. Team Obama wants citizens to submit ideas, discuss and refine others' ideas, and vote the best ones to the top. The themes deemed most important will provide the basis for two more stages of interaction: a discussion phase, when officials will deepen the conversation about compelling topics raised during the brainstorming, and a drafting phase, when the public will again be asked to collaborate on draft recommendations through the use of a wiki. Here's a rundown of several of the most popular ideas proposed during the brainstorming session:
• Support a mandatory 72-hour public review period on all major spending bills.
• Require all government meetings subject to federal open meeting laws to be webcast.
• Provide an online, visually interactive, one-stop-shop, federal budget Web site.
• Use visual recording and mini animations to convey complex ideas.
• Ask federal agencies to adopt "core principles for public engagement."
• Centralize petitions to Congress and the president.
• Create an online citizen participation portal.
• Public FOIA archive on every agency Web site.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday the results of the Obama administration's 60-day review of the federal government's cybersecurity posture will be released Friday. The probe, begun shortly after Obama took office, is expected to make broad recommendations for protecting public and private sector networks from high-tech attackers. The report's release has been delayed due to internal disagreements about where a cyber czar would be housed and what kind of power that official would wield, non-administration officials familiar with the report said.
Melissa Hathaway, a top adviser to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair who managed the audit, told the RSA security conference last month that it is "the fundamental responsibility of our government to address strategic vulnerabilities in cyberspace and to ensure that the United States and the world can realize the full potential of the information technology revolution." That responsibility transcends the jurisdictional purview of individual departments and agencies because no single agency has a broad enough perspective to match the sweep of the challenges, she said at the San Francisco gathering. Hathaway also said dealing with tech threats requires "leading from the top" -- from the White House, to departments and agencies, state, local, tribal governments, the "C-suite," and to the local classroom and library.
U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, whom President Obama named as his nominee for the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, has a background in intellectual property litigation -- as an associate and partner at the Manhattan law firm Pavia & Harcourt and as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. As a district court judge in 1997, Sotomayor heard a case brought by a group of freelance journalists who claimed various news outlets including the New York Times and Time Inc. violated copyright laws by reproducing their work on electronic databases and archives such as Lexis-Nexis without first obtaining their permission. Sotomayor ruled against the freelancers, arguing that the publishers were within their rights under the Copyright Act.
The appeals court reversed Sotomayor's decision, siding with the freelancers, and the Supreme Court upheld the appellate ruling 7-2. Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer dissented, siding with Sotomayor's position. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority's opinion, saying: "If there is demand for a freelance article standing alone or in a new collection, the Copyright Act allows the freelancer to benefit from that demand; after authorizing initial publication, the freelancer may also sell the article to others. It would scarcely "preserve the author's copyright in a contribution" as contemplated by Congress... if a newspaper or magazine publisher were permitted to reproduce or distribute copies of the author's contribution in isolation or within new collective works."
President Obama's Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra views the administration's open government initiative, which formally kicked off Thursday, as one leg of a three-legged transparency and accountability stool. In his first interview after being confirmed by the Senate, he told Tech Daily Dose that the interactive public consultation on principles to frame the initiative will culminate later this summer in OMB guidance to agencies. "We're certainly not standing still waiting for the recommendations," he said, pointing out that on his first day in office, Obama called on cabinet agencies to get involved immediately. The White House has already provided what Chopra called a menu of open government criteria that departments have begun to put into practice. Early results of their work can be found in an "innovation gallery" at WhiteHouse.gov/Open. "As you can see, our employees aren't waiting on memos on what policy directive there should be. They're embracing principles that the president has outlined and working within their leadership structures to make them effective," he said. "Our challenge as leaders is to help support and nurture their enthusiasm."
Another component, which Chopra believes is potentially the most important, is the mandate that he work with Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, the General Services Administration and others to distill the components of a successful open government initiative and provision them in a manner that can be reused by anybody in government through the GSA or other means. One example is Obama's online town hallin March, which attracted more than 100,000 participants who submitted and voted on topics he would address in a live Internet event. "We need to figure out what components allowed him to be successful in that experiment and carry them across government," he said. Then Chopra introduced his new favorite buzzword: "productize." "We have to productize the components that have been deemed successful in our 120 days and take it from there."
President Obama wants everyone's input on his plan to increase transparency, accountability and responsibility in government -- even ideas from his political opponents. Hours after the White House launched its Open Government Initiative forum to solicit opinions form the public on Thursday, House Minority Leader John Boehner weighed in. In an idea, which his office said is leading in votes by a wide margin, Boehner asked the White House to support a mandatory 72-hour review period for all major spending bills and follow through on their yet-unfulfilled promise to allow five days of public comment on all bills before signing. Groups that support that proposal include the Sunlight Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council. "As the remainder of the process unfolds, it's our hope that the White House and Congressional Democrats will take notice and work with us in holding the federal government more accountable in how they spend taxpayer money," Boehner's New Media Director Nick Schaper said in an e-mail.
President Obama's e-government agenda took a major leap forward Thursday with the launch of several initiatives aimed at increasing openness and accountability but transparency watchdogs, while largely content, wonder if officials are moving too fast and may not get meaningful public feedback. The administration simultaneously unveiled its online hub to build Obama's open government directive, which he outlined on his first day in office; Data.gov, a Web site intended to "democratize data" by giving the public raw feeds of government information; and announced proposed overhauls to Regulations.gov to make searching and commenting on federal rules easier.
In a Web video, Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett called the initiative "an unprecedented process for public engagement in policymaking" and urged citizens to brainstorm ideas and discuss the most promising ones. On the front lines of the effort are Vivek Kundra, OMB administrator for e-government, and a team at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy led by federal CTO Aneesh Chopra, who was approved by the Senate late Thursday to serve as OSTP's associate director. The confirmation of another tech player, Larry Strickling, who would head the National Telecommunications and Information Administration stalled when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid failed to get unanimous consent, a Reid aide said.
Sunlight Foundation Executive Director Ellen Miller called the open government site "fascinating" and Data.gov "path-breaking." She said the initiatives represent "a dramatic demonstration of the administration's intent to use technology to create a more transparent and collaborative government." But others like OMB Watch Executive Director Gary Bass tempered their excitement with skepticism. He worries the open government brainstorming phase that ends next week and the mid-June timeline for drafting recommendations for Obama is too fast. He is also concerned that questions the White House posed to spur the online dialogue are too basic and letting Internet users vote on the best ideas will let "cool" but ultimately flawed concepts prevail.
A Web video featuring President Obama's senior advisor Valerie Jarrett welcomed visitors Thursday to the online hub for the administration's open government initiative. Watch the video above and learn more about the project to increase transparency, accountability and responsibility at WhiteHouse.gov/Open. In related news, Regulations.gov proposed a new design intended to make it easier to navigate, search and comment on federal regulations. A two-minute video found here walks citizens through the proposed changes officials plan to implement this summer.
President Obama's federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra has launched Data.gov. In March, he announced he was working on the Web site intended to "democratize data" by giving the public raw feeds of information from a range of agencies. Kundra, who previously served as the District of Columbia's chief technology officer, said the site will build on successes like the National Institutes of Health's publication of Human Genome Project data and the Defense Department's release of satellite data. The former revolutionized personalized medicine, while the latter led to the commercialization of GPS devices, he said at a government IT summit. "We need to make sure that all that data that's not private, that's not restricted for national security, can be made public," Kundra said.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy wants the public to weigh in by June 19 on how the U.S. government can embrace 21st century tools to increase openness and transparency and facilitate better communication with citizens. OSTP is expected to run a notice in the Federal Register on Thursday, which stems from President Obama's Jan. 21 memorandum on a proposed open government directive. The inquiry will ask questions like:
• What information should be more readily available online or more easily searched?
• How might the operations of government be made more transparent and accountable?
• How might federal advisory committees, rulemaking, or electronic rulemaking be better used to improve decision making?
• What alternative models exist to improve the quality of decision making and increase opportunities for citizen participation?
• What are the limitations to transparency?
• What strategies might be employed to adopt greater use of Web 2.0 in agencies?
• What policy impediments to innovation in government currently exist?
• What changes in training or hiring of personnel would enhance innovation?
• What performance measures are necessary to determine the effectiveness of open government policies?
Comments can be submitted by one of the following methods:
• http://www.whitehouse.gov/open (which will go live Thursday)
• E-mail: opengov@ostp.gov
• Mail: Office of Science and Technology Policy, Attn: Open Government
Recommendations, 725 17th Street, Washington, DC 20502
During his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, federal chief technology officer-designate Aneesh Chopra gave a shout-out to his wife and daughters; his parents; and a woman named Linda Bruschi. He explained that shortly after President Obama announced his nomination, Bruschi -- Chopra's third grade teacher -- "friended" her former student on Facebook. "Because of her efforts, she helped me see the future and opened up a door for an exciting new world of opportunity," Chopra said in his testimony. "In the way she opened a door for me, I want to open a door for others. It's this wondrous idea of extending personal opportunity, fueled by new technologies, which especially excites me."
Tech Daily Dose reached out to Bruschi (on Facebook) to ask a few questions about what she remembers of little Aneesh Chopra. Here are some of her responses:
Q: Did Aneesh have an early interest in technology? If so, what specifically do you remember?
A: When Aneesh was in second grade, we were only beginning to hear about computers being used in elementary schools. It wasn't until a few years later that the school system provided computers for all the classrooms.
Q: What were the subjects in which he excelled and which were the subjects that challenged him most?
A: Aneesh excelled in all areas, but in particular, in math. I needed to provide him with more advanced math work to challenge him and develop higher levels of thinking. I was not surprised to learn that he was invited into the district's math gifted and talented program when he moved to grades 4 to 6.
A government civil liberties panel established in 2004 at the behest of the 9/11 Commission that has laid dormant since the terms of its members expired Jan. 31, 2008 could probably not be fully operational as an independent body until mid-2010, the panel's former executive director told Tech Daily Dose. Mark Robbins, who staffed the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board under former President George W. Bush, said the new administration has not nominated any new members and once they are selected, vetted and confirmed by the Senate, it will take time to set up office space and hire a staff. Last Congress, lawmakers statutorily distanced the board from the Executive Office of the President after concern grew it was not fully autonomous.
"We warned Congress before they passed the law making PCLOB independent that they would be killing it well into the next administration -- who's ever it was," said Robbins, now a rule of law advisor for the State Department in Iraq. "Congress killed the imperfect in search of the perfect, and ended up with nothing." "My guess is that the new board will be as welcome to the Obama administration as it was to the Bush administration," he said in an e-mail. Meanwhile, key senators have begun pressing the White House to set up the reconstituted panel. Read more about that effort in CongressDaily's AM Edition here.
A trade group representing Dell, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and other high-tech titans lauded President Obama's decision over the weekend to nominate Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman to serve as the country's next ambassador to China. Information Technology Industry Council President Dean Garfield said the Republican whose name has appeared on some lists of potential nominees for the 2012 presidential election, is a "smart choice and a good friend of the tech industry." During his tenure as governor, Utah has become a magnet for high-tech businesses and employment, Garfield said. ITI Vice President of Global Policy John Neuffer, a former colleague of Huntsman's while at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, said he "knows the importance of trade to American competitiveness, is cool under fire, and is a seasoned China-hand, which will serve the United States well at a time when U.S. trade relations with China are a complex mix of opportunities and challenges." Huntsman served terms as deputy USTR, deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for East Asia, and U.S. ambassador to Singapore. He has held positions in the private sector, including as president of Huntsman Cancer Foundation and CEO of Huntsman Corporation. In November 2008, Huntsman was elected to a second term as governor of Utah. A bonus for his potential new gig: He speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and has one adopted daughter from China.
NationalJournal.com's new blog, The Ninth Justice, reports....
It's the calm before the Internet storm. Interest groups, influential bloggers and others are anxiously waiting to see who President Obama will pick as his first Supreme Court nominee after Justice David Souter announced his retirement May 1. Once the news is out, they will rally their online supporters and rake through the nominee's court decisions on controversial topics like gay marriage, abortion and affirmative action to speculate on how he or she will influence the high court for decades to come. "Every chink in the armor, every flaw, gets magnified" on the Internet, said Tony Mauro, a reporter with the National Law Journal who has covered the Supreme Court for nearly 30 years. The Web makes what would otherwise be normal criticism or flaws seem "like deal breakers," he said.
In the last battle over a Supreme Court nominee, conservatives roundly criticized President Bush's choice of Harriet Miers and forced her to withdraw; liberals then attempted to filibuster Samuel Alito's nomination, charging that he was too far to the right. As the legal and political blogs have grown in influence since 2005, Mauro said, the mainstream media, in turn, has acknowledged their higher profile. It only seems natural that the process will be much more intense this time around, he said. Indeed, the Web has woven itself into nearly every part of politics and policy since the 2008 presidential campaign.
Read the full post by Amy Harder here.
For about 10 seconds I felt really special to have an e-mail from President Obama in my inbox. But then I clicked open the message titled "Health care news worth sharing" and realized the e-mail alerts I signed up for when the administration unveiled the new, improved WhiteHouse.gov had begun. Wednesday's email blast was in fact the first time Team Obama has utilized the Web tool to reach out to constituents, a spokesman told Tech Daily Dose. This message came after Obama and Vice President Biden met with House leaders and received their commitment to pass a comprehensive healthcare reform bill by July 31. In the email, Obama urged readers to get involved in the debate and visit HealthReform.gov for more in-depth information. While officials would not say how many people had signed up for the White House e-mail alerts or how frequently the list would be used, the spokesman did note that future messages will come from Obama and other top officials. So, if you get an e-mail from Timothy Geithner or Larry Summers, you'll know what's up.
President Obama's pick to run the Office of Management and Budget's administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Tuesday that Regulations.gov, the government's e-rulemaking hub, requires a major redesign. "It just isn't as accessible as it ought to be to citizens. That's where I would start," Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein said at his confirmation hearing. Obama's CIO Vivek Kundra told an audience recently that his team is working with OIRA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to retool the Web site after a high-level American Bar Association task force slammed the site. In soliciting public comment on potential regulations, Sunstein said, "simplicity, clarity, and publicity should be watchwords." He also told the committee that OIRA is looking to hire a person whose full-time responsibility at the agency would be ensuring privacy protections. -- Carrie Dann
A handful of education and business groups Thursday criticized the Obama administration's proposed drastic downsizing of the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program as part of the FY10 budget proposal. Under the plan, the Education Department program would shrink from $269 million to $100 million, according to the Consortium for School Networking, International Society for Technology Education, Software & Information Industry Association and State Educational Technology Directors Association. The organizations urged Congress to invest in EETT at levels higher than last year's appropriation because the program importantly spurs innovation and provides teacher training in the use of technology to improve student achievement.
The cut came as a major shock since the economic stimulus package signaled that the White House was prepared to invest significantly in educational technology, they said. The Obama administration has outlined a vision of educational innovation and improvement to enable American children to compete in the global economy but the FY10 budget request "falls far short of the targeted investments needed to ensure all students have the modernized classrooms and technology-rich instruction needed to achieve this vision," they wrote. "We have seen what works to boost student achievement, and technology is a key component in the equation to accelerate change, but we must have a sustained commitment of leadership and resources." Read more about EETT here.
A pair of technology programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology that were routinely zeroed out by the Bush administration but rescued annually by appropriators would get a new lease on life under President Obama's budget request. It included $124.7 million for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a public-private initiative that provides technical assistance to small manufacturers, and $69.9 million for the Technology Innovation Program, which provides financing to small high-tech entrepreneurs to support cutting-edge technologies. Former President George W. Bush cut both programs in his FY09 budget, but Congress provided MEP with $110 million and TIP $65 million in its FY09 omnibus.
A White House summary lauded MEP's network of 59 centers for their "proven record of accomplishment for delivering cost-effective services that improve competitiveness and help companies retain or expand jobs." The summary also points out that in TIP's first competition in January nine cost-shared grants were awarded for research on advanced sensing technologies for monitoring and inspection of the structural health of the nation's bridges, roadways and water systems. That research is expected to generate $90 million worth of research over five years, officials said. Read more FY10 budget briefs from CongressDaily here (subscription required).
FY10 Budget Briefing: Telecommunications
The Obama administration proposes that the FCC receive $335.8 million in FY10 funding, a decrease from the $341.9 million Congress allotted for FY09 -- a figure that included $20 million to assist with this year's digital television changeover. In its FY10 budget released Thursday, the administration said it supports overhauling the $7.1 billion universal service program, a federal effort subsidizing telecom and Internet services in rural and underprivileged areas. "The administration supports universal service fund reforms that will help ensure subsidies are well-targeted, demonstrate results and minimize the burden to ratepayers," the White House said in its budget request, adding that it will seek to reduce waste, fraud and abuse.
Read the full story in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
FY10 Budget Briefing: Science
President Obama's emphasis on climate change and clean energy investment was reflected Thursday in the administration's $147.6 billion FY10 budget for research and development, but his overall R&D portfolio proposal is about the same as his predecessor's. Former President George W. Bush asked for an R&D budget of $147 billion last year, and Congress appropriated $151 billion in the FY09 omnibus bill. The economic stimulus package provided an additional $21.5 billion for federal R&D programs, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Obama's budget lays out about $3.1 billion for clean energy technology initiatives and $2 billion for climate change research across more than a dozen departments.
Read the full story in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
President Obama will propose cutting or scaling back 121 programs in the detailed budget he will unveil Thursday, saving the federal government an estimated $17 billion in FY10, two senior administration officials said Wednesday. About half of the savings would come from defense programs and almost $12 billion would come from discretionary spending, the officials said. The administration aides defended the proposed level of savings, which amounts to only about 0.5 percent of the $3.4 trillion budget Congress recently approved for FY10. The figure, by "anyone's accounting, is a significant amount of money; that is in one year alone," one official said.
On the call, the officials listed two examples of the downsizing that involve technology. The U.S. government's long-range radio navigation system will be eliminated. They said it's a system that is now made obsolete by the prevalence of GPS: "It's not used, it's unnecessary, it costs us $35 million a year, and we perpetuate it just through inertia." Additionally, the administration is saying bon voyage to the Education Department's educational attaché in Paris. Team Obama is proposing that the agency instead use e-mail and videoconferencing and does not need a full-time representative there. The savings: $632,000 per year.
Stay tuned for more budget coverage on Thursday in CongressDaily
Social networking site MySpace unveiled a new White House community Friday that will allow users to connect directly with the Obama administration and stay informed about the priorities and activities of the U.S. government. The platform also lets members voice their thoughts and concerns directly to the White House by leaving comments and participating in discussion forums. The White House will be uploading new blog posts and videos regularly to populate its profile. Hundreds joined as "friends" of the White House within an hour of the announcement and the page was slow to load, potentially due to high traffic.
President Obama is the first president on MySpace and he has more than a million friends on his individual page. He also has almost 60 other official profiles -- one for each state and many constituencies, according to a MySpace press release. The Web site has been active in the political and policy sphere, most recently with a project that let citizens define potential issues for Obama's agenda before he took office. MySpace engaged in a number of campaign season activities including a content partnership with NBC News; a voter registration drive; and a series of events with MTV featuring presidential candidates. MySpace was also the official online partner for the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Update: Lest you think Obama is showing support for one platform over another, a White House blog post points out that his Web team has joined Facebook and Twitter too. And don't forget about Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube and iTunes. "Technology has profoundly impacted how - and where - we all consume information and communicate with one another. WhiteHouse.gov is an important part of the Administration's effort to use the internet to reach the public quickly and effectively - but it isn't the only place," the blog stated.
From CongressDaily's PM Edition...
Government-wide guidance for how agencies can more fully utilize social media applications like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are forthcoming, President Obama's federal chief information officer said today. Vivek Kundra, who also serves as OMB's e-government and information technology administrator, told a conference for agency Web managers that the Federal CIO Council and the General Services Administration are working on the rules but did not give a timeframe for their release.
The GSA took an initial step last month by signing agreements with four video-sharing and social networks to provide services that comply with federal terms and conditions. Kundra said the guidance could "take some time" to align with statutes like the Presidential Records Act and the Privacy Act, which were enacted in the 1970s, and seven-year-old Federal Information Security Management Act. In the meantime, he urged attendees to work within their agencies to adopt pre-approved technologies.
From NationalJournal.com's David Herbert...
Barack Obama's presidential campaign was an online juggernaut, and the new administration has proposed to use that technological wizardry to make government more transparent. But while new media observers give the team's two most ambitious Web sites -- the overhaul of WhiteHouse.gov and the stimulus-tracking Recovery.gov -- an "A" for effort, the consensus is that Obama's online efforts have a long way to go in the next 100 days. In a recent poll by NationalJournal.com, new media experts from across the political spectrum gave WhiteHouse.gov an average grade of C+.
Although they mostly saw the site as an improvement from the previous administration's, many noted that it remained a one-way forum and suggested it be opened to allow comments and make greater use of the "Open for Questions" feature. "This occasional use of interactive tools" is impressive, says Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation. But "90 percent of the time the site is pretty straightforward, as it was under [George W.] Bush." Recovery.gov fared even worse in our poll, averaging a C. The most common gripe about the site, which was designed to track stimulus projects, is that it's "the view from 30,000 feet," as Micah Sifry, co-founder and editor of the Personal Democracy Forum, put it. Read the full story here.
Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:
Imagine trying to hand out cartons of cash to passersby on a busy street corner -- yet attracting no takers. That's the paradox the federal government faces as it crafts guidelines for $7.2 billion in incentives for telecommunications companies to extend high-speed Internet service to rural areas with limited or no access. The reason for the apprehension, particularly among dominant telecom and cable firms, is that the money comes with regulatory strings attached. One is a requirement that recipients adhere to the FCC's voluntary guidelines governing "network neutrality" -- the concept of maintaining an open and accessible Internet. Another is that network interconnection rights must be guaranteed to competing broadband providers.
Congress didn't define those terms in President Obama's economic stimulus package, punting instead to the two agencies tasked with distributing the funds -- the National Telecommunications and Information Administration within the Commerce Department, and the Rural Utilities Service within the Agriculture Department. NTIA, which will dole out $4.7 billion in grants and loans, and the RUS, set to distribute $2.5 billion, are hashing out the details now, with an announcement to come in the next month or two. Some of the corporate rhetoric might be brinksmanship aimed at spurring regulators to craft conditions with the lightest possible touch. But experts acknowledge there's a real possibility key players could sit the program out, or not participate as heavily as expected.
Read the full story here.
The White House on Monday announced the full membership of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, an advisory group of the nation's leading scientists and engineers who will advise President Obama and formulate policies pertaining to science, technology, and innovation. PCAST will be co-chaired by Obama's science adviser John Holdren; Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and Harold Varmus, president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie will serve on the panel.
Other members include:
• Rosina Bierbaum, an expert in climate-change science and ecology and dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.
• Christine Cassel, president of the American Board of Internal Medicine and an expert in geriatric medicine and quality of care.
• Christopher Chyba, an astrophysical sciences professor at Princeton University who has focused on solar system exploration and nuclear and biological weapons policy.
• S. James Gates Jr., director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland, College Park.
• Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• Richard Levin, president of Yale University and an expert in industrial organization, the patent system, and U.S. competitiveness.
Representatives from consumer, privacy and other public interest organizations urged President Obama on Monday to fill a vacant commissioner post at the FTC with someone who will uphold the agency's mandate of protecting American consumers. The Center for Digital Democracy, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, the World Privacy Forum and others signed a letter arguing that charge has "too often been ignored in the recent past." "The new commissioner should have a distinguished record of achievement in consumer affairs, with a demonstrated commitment to protecting the public from all manner of unfair, deceptive, fraudulent, and non-competitive monopolistic/oligopolistic business practices," the letter stated.
Given the key role the FTC plays in protecting the public in sectors like finance, health, privacy, and marketing, as well as competition, it is essential that the nominee have "an unassailable record of supporting the interests of the public," they said. They urged Obama to name someone who is committed to protect both consumer privacy and welfare with new media as online and mobile platforms grow in popularity. "Appointing a Commissioner with recent consulting or employment ties to the corporate sector would undermine consumer confidence in the agency." The FTC is "off to a promising start" under Chairman Jon Leibowitz and through the recent appointment of a highly regarded chief of the agency's consumer protection bureau, the watchdogs said.
Currently, the FTC consists of Leibowitz, a Democrat; Republicans William Kovacic and J. Thomas Rosch; and Pamela Jones Harbour, an independent.
From Gautham Nagesh at Nextgov.com...
Following reports that surfaced last week, a White House spokesman has confirmed to Nextgov that Google executive Sonal Shah will be joining the Obama administration as director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. Formerly the head of Google's philanthropic arm, Shah is slated to lead the office, which is expected to work with non-profits and community organizations to encourage "social entrepreneurship." The administration has thus far avoided releasing any details about the mission or structure of the office. Shah also served as a member of Obama's transition team, helping to develop technology policy.
The news of Shah's appointment has been greeted favorably in some circles, particularly among the philanthropic community. However, her involvement with the White House has been controversial due to her ties to the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which is accused of using charitable works in India as a cover for inciting communal hatred. The VHP has been condemned by the State Department and the nonprofit Human Rights Watch for its role in the 2002 mob violence in Gujurat, which resulted in the deaths of 1,000 people, most of whom were Muslims.
In the next few months it is expected that Philip Verveer will become the State Department's next U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, according to sources familiar with the matter. Verveer will be filling the shoes of David Gross, who held the title of coordinator since 2001. The position also comes with the title of "ambassador." Sources say the White House is currently doing a background check of Verveer and his nomination will also be subject to approval by the Senate in addition to the administration. Verveer is currently counsel at the firm Jenner & Block's litigation department [bio]. He is also a member of the firm's communications practice with a focus on regulatory and antitrust issues.
Verveer has nearly three decades advising clients on communication regulatory issues before Congress, the FCC, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Office of U.S. Trade Representative, Federal Trade Commission, the State Department, and the Committee on Foreign Investment. Verveer, who served in the military, also worked as a partner in the Washington office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher where he founded the firm's communications practice. He has also served as a trial attorney in the Justice Department's antitrust division, a supervisory attorney in the FTC's Bureau of Competition, and as the chief of the cable bureau at the FCC. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1969 and is married to Melanne Verveer, who was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief of staff when she was first lady. President Obama has tapped her to be his ambassador at large for global women's issues. -- Winter Casey
Melissa Hathaway, a top adviser to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, offered what she called a "movie trailer" of the recommendations she made in a report to President Obama after finishing a 60-day federal cybersecurity review. Details of the examination and her findings, which were delivered to Obama and key White House officials late last week, will be made public once the president and the administration have had a chance to review the material. Nevertheless, Hathaway told the RSA security summit Wednesday that it is "the fundamental responsibility of our government to address strategic vulnerabilities in cyberspace and to ensure that the United States and the world can realize the full potential of the information technology revolution."
That responsibility transcends the jurisdictional purview of individual departments and agencies because no single agency has a broad enough perspective to match the sweep of the challenges, she said at the San Francisco gathering of high-tech and security experts. Hathaway also said dealing with tech threats requires "leading from the top" -- from the White House, to departments and agencies, state, local, tribal governments, the "C-suite," and to the local classroom and library. "The White House must lead the way forward with leadership that draws upon the strength, advice and ideas of the entire nation," she said in prepared remarks provided to the press.
The federal government cannot entirely delegate or abrogate its role in securing the nation from a cyber incident or accident, Hathaway said, emphasizing the importance of private sector support. "The public and private sector's interests are intertwined with a shared responsibility for ensuring a secure, reliable infrastructure upon which businesses and government services depend," she said. Hathaway closed with a bit of humor: "I almost forgot, this speech will now self-destruct, but don't worry... this is the Internet-age, there are already hundreds of copies which you can download online."
NextGov.com's Aliya Sternstein reports...
Aneesh Chopra, the nation's first-ever chief technology officer, would serve as both "assistant to the president" and "associate director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy" if confirmed by the Senate, White House officials said on Monday. As assistant to President Obama, he would have direct access to the president, said Rick Weiss, senior science and technology policy analyst at OSTP. Within OSTP, he also would report to OSTP Director John Holdren.
The CTO job was initially touted as a White House-level position, but the technology industry feared the post had been downgraded after months went by without an appointment. When the administration announced the CTO would work at OSTP, open government advocates and industry expressed even more doubts about the job's heft. But with the president's ear, Chopra, the current technology secretary for the state of Virginia, will automatically carry the backing of the White House when conferring with agency officials.
The CTO slot entails thinking through uses of advanced technologies that can improve the economy and quality of life, Weiss said. Examples include examining how technology can foster private sector innovation, reduce health care costs and transform teaching. White House officials described the CTO position and the role of Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra as complementary. Kundra is more focused on intergovernmental uses of technologies to improve federal operations and public outreach. The OSTP appointment requires confirmation by the full Senate, but the assistant to the president appointment takes effect immediately, officials said.
Meanwhile, tech observers said they were pleased with Obama's pick and consider Chopra's nomination as a signal that the administration is serious about updating the nation's technology infrastructure. Former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said Chopra "is not a partisan individual" and, as such, will have the power to shape a far-reaching technology strategy. Read the full post here.
Vice President Joe Biden promised movie and television executives Tuesday night that the administration will "find the right person for intellectual property czar," a still vacant White House position created by Congress last year. During a dinner that capped off the Motion Picture Association of America's Business of Show Business symposium, he told the crowd that the Obama team understands the film industry needs more resources dedicated to FBI enforcement of anti-piracy laws and more resources for prosecution, according to a pool report. He also blasted the Chinese government's IP regime that he argued "remains largely ineffective." China routinely tops the U.S. Trade Representative's annual "Special 301" report showing countries that are doing little to deal with IP theft. The latest rankings are due out later this month.
Following on last year's USTR report, Biden also singled out Canada as a country that needs stronger IP laws. In contrast, India has done a much better job combating piracy. As a result, "Bollywood is a pulsing, thriving industry," he said. Biden was there to deliver a "simple message from the president and from me: We get it. We understand the immense value of your films and all of your art, and its effect on the economy, and, I might add, on the national character." "That Hollywood sign shadow stretches all the way across America," Biden said. "You provide jobs that a middle class family can live on."
Also attending the MPAA's dinner were a number of senators including Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy; Majority Whip Richard Durbin; Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., according to the pool report. Earlier in the day, the MPAA heard from Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and others. Read CongressDaily's AM Edition (subscription required) for more details.
Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Mike McCaul, R-Texas, will host a briefing for members and staff on Wednesday afternoon that will focus on smart grid technology -- just in time for Earth Day. "Development of a new, intelligent smart grid could drastically increase the efficiency of our nation's electricity infrastructure," the Congressional High Tech Caucus co-chairs wrote in a recent "Dear Colleague" letter. "An upgraded electrical grid is essential to take full advantage of the vast renewable resources in this country -- to take the wind from the Midwest and the sun from the Southwest and power areas across the country," they wrote. The Department of Energy recently got the R&D ball rolling by announcing plans to distribute $3.4 billion in smart grid technology grants and $615 million for smart grid demonstration projects.
An expert panel will discuss what Congress can do to encourage innovative applications of technology to energy distribution. Guest speakers include GridPoint Vice President Steve Hauser; Pacific Gas & Electric's Darren Deffner; PJM Interconnection Vice President Craig Glazier; Accenture's Michael Donohue; and Hewlett-Packard security architect Robert Shein. In related Earth Day news, President Obama will travel to Iowa for a tour of Trinity Structural Towers, which manufactures towers for wind energy production. Also on Wednesday, as part of the procurement process of a new White House fleet of vehicles, the administration has invited Chrysler, GM, and Ford to participate in a green vehicle market research day.
A collection of unions, artists' alliances, companies, trade associations and research organizations whose livelihoods depend on solid intellectual property protections wrote to President Obama Monday countering what they believe is a "false dichotomy" espoused by high-tech groups who suggested in a letter earlier this month that there is a conflict between the rights of authors and inventors and the need for innovation or creativity. "The authors of the April 2 letter would have you believe that you must choose between safeguarding IP protection on the one hand and promoting innovation on the other. This supposed conflict is itself an invention," the new letter stated. The communiqué was signed by Association of American Publishers, Business Software Alliance, Copyright Alliance, Motion Picture Association of America, Recording Industry Association of America and many more. The previous memo was sent by the American Library Association; Center for Democracy and Technology; Computer and Communications Industry Association; Consumer Electronics Association and others.
"Intellectual property drives innovation and creativity, from the production of new creative works to the development of consumer electronics and medicine," the group of IP crusaders wrote in the Monday letter. "Your administration, like the transition team that preceded it, reflects a diversity of experience and viewpoints on the full spectrum of issues, including IP policy. The hallmarks of your administration's appointees have been competence, substantive expertise, and a commitment to your administration's agenda." The earlier letter pointed to two senior officials in the Justice Department -- Thomas Perrelli and Donald Verrilli -- as examples of nominees who previously represented "the concentrated copyright industries." The new letter from the IP community said Obama has demonstrated knowledge about the importance of copyright, patents and trademarks to the U.S. economy. "We appreciate the fact that such knowledge will be a key qualification for any future appointee to an IP policy position in your administration," the group said.
President Obama on Saturday tapped Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra to serve as the nation's first chief technology officer, making good on a campaign promise to create the post that enthused Silicon Valley and high-tech policy watchers in Washington. Chopra, who was widely rumored to be a top contender, "will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities -- from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure," Obama said in his weekly radio address. Chopra will work closely with Obama's chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, who is responsible for setting technology policy across the government, and using technology to improve security, ensure transparency, and lower costs. Kundra was appointed CIO and administrator for e-government at OMB last month.
The pair worked together before when Kundra served as Virginia's assistant secretary of commerce and technology. Before joining Gov. Tim Kaine's cabinet, Chopra was a managing director at the Advisory Board Company, a publicly-traded healthcare think tank. Obama also named Jeffrey Zients to serve as deputy director for management at OMB and the federal government's first chief performance officer. High-tech leaders praised Chopra's appointment. Jim Hawley, acting CEO of TechNet, said Chopra's track record in Virginia will serve as a model for his CTO work. Most recently, he was responsible for the creation of Virginia-specific free educational content offered digitally through Apple's popular iTunes Store and a statewide effort to encourage software developers to produce innovative mathematics applications that will engage middle school students.
President Obama announced Monday that he will authorize U.S. telecommunications network providers to enter into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States to Cuba. Obama said he wants to promote greater interaction between the U.S. and Cuba and will allow U.S. telecom, radio and television service providers to offer services and enter into agreements with Cuban customers and service providers. The White House also said it will "license persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to activate and pay U.S. and third-country service providers for telecommunications, satellite radio and satellite television services provided to individuals in Cuba, except certain senior Communist Party and Cuban government officials." The United States will further allow the export or re-export to Cuba of donated personal communications devices so long as national security concerns are recognized. The White House said Obama took these steps to promote the free flow of information to the Cuban people. In May 2008, then-President George W. Bush announced that Americans soon would be allowed to send cell phones to Cubans. Bush also acknowledged reforms the Castro regime had made toward becoming more technology friendly such as allowing Cubans to purchase mobile phones, DVD players and computers. -- Winter Casey
The White House's annual Easter Egg Roll on Monday is going high-tech. For the first time, tickets were distributed online, allowing families from across the country to attend the annual tradition. Plus many of the activities at this year's event will be webcast live on WhiteHouse.gov -- another first for the Obama administration. Some of the fun streamed via the Web will include performances on the music stage, celebrity chefs in the Kid's Kitchen and the readings at the Storytime Stage. A full schedule of webcast events will be updated here. Over 30,000 people from 45 states and the District of Columbia will attend the Easter Egg Roll. Meanwhile, the 2009 souvenir Easter egg is the greenest egg in history. It was made in the United States from Forest Stewardship Council certified hardwood, which means the wood comes from environmentally and socially sustainably managed forests.
Though now-President Obama said during campaign trail that he would appoint a top cybersecurity czar that would be charged with coordinating government efforts to protect the country's networks, it remains to be seen whether this person will indeed be appointed and what role they will play in the administration. As a result both lawmakers and industry folks are weighing in. The Intelligence and National Security Alliance released a report Monday that states a "single cybersecurity official should be appointed at the White House-level to clarify the roles, mission, and responsibilities of those government agencies" involved in critical infrastructure. "The responsibilities of this individual shall include the development of the national cyber security plan and organizing our nation to effectively function through a cyber attack," the report reads.
The INSA report also says the maximization of open source software use "will increase cyber security and reduce exposure to the hidden risks of closed, proprietary commercial off the shelf software." INSA makes money from events and alliance members that include Microsoft, HP, SAIC and ManTech. But a representative from Microsoft, a company with a significant stake in proprietary software, said the company did not participate in the INSA report. The document also holds that a lack of adequate security and effective monitoring currently exists in the operation of the global domain name system and Internet routing system.-- Winter Casey
As the Obama administration crafts a game plan for keeping the nation's computer networks and critical infrastructure secure, the White House is going to anchor the interagency coordination and set a vision for the way forward, administration officials told reporters Friday evening on a conference call about the 60-day cybersecurity review the president ordered earlier this year. The White House does not plan to strong-arm the Homeland Security Department, National Security Agency and other entities that currently control operational aspects of government and private sector IT security, they said. Cybersecurity leadership has been a hot topic among lawmakers, think tanks and tech industry officials recently with at least one prominent report calling for the White House to take charge of that mission.
With 46 days under their belt, officials working on Obama's review have set a goal for releasing an overarching study to guide the formation of a trusted, resilient communications infrastructure through a national public-private partnership. Over the course of that examination, officials have identified and inventoried more than 250 cybersecurity requirements across federal agencies and asked those in charge of each initiative to connect the dots between their overall mission and the various requirements and programs they have in place. At the same time, the team reached out to stakeholders through a series of 40 meetings that yielded more than 100 white papers. Those who spoke to reporters refused to give details about their forthcoming recommendations since the review is ongoing.
Administration officials met with sector-specific coordination councils, the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, industry associations and privacy and civil liberties groups. They consulted the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and range of others. The National Science Foundation with the cooperation of more than 50 universities also played a role by suggesting quick wins and longer term R&D projects to help safeguard the nation's networks. Additional briefings involved federal regulatory agencies; state and local homeland security officials and CIOs; members of Congress and their staffs; and foreign partners.
Legislation that would statutorily codify the White House chief technology officer position was introduced Thursday by Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., who believes the job, proposed by President Obama on the campaign trail, is too important to isolate in a single administration. Making the CTO a permanent position in the executive branch will give the individual "greater stature and empower him/her to accomplish the goals of the president," he wrote in a "Dear Colleague" letter circulated the same day. Obama has not yet selected his CTO but did tap former District of Columbia e-government expert Vivek Kundra to become the federal government's CIO.
Obama has said the CTO will ensure that the government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. The individual will also ensure the safety of high-tech networks and will lead an interagency effort, working with CTOs and CIOs in each of the federal agencies, to ensure that they use best-in-class technologies and share best practices, according to Connolly's letter. The bill would provide the official with resources that are necessary to complete his or her mission, including the ability to convene hearings, conduct studies, establish advisory panels, and award grants and fellowships.
Earlier this year, Connolly and Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., wrote to Obama praising him for signing the executive order that created the CTO post and recommended Virginia CTO Aneesh Chopra for the job. They said Chopra's public and private experience in the technology field made him the right candidate. They also noted his focus on healthcare IT "is ideal for a position that will have responsibilities dealing both with stimulus spending on healthcare and environmental programs." Moran and Del. Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, have signed on as cosponsors of the CTO Act.
A coalition of consumer advocates, library associations, and trade groups representing the technology, consumer electronics, and telecommunications industries wrote to President Obama Thursday urging him to make sure his future appointments to intellectual property positions "reflect the diversity of stakeholders affected by IP policy." The letter points out that several appointees to positions that oversee the formulation and implementation of IP policy have previously represented "the concentrated copyright industries." They cite as examples two senior officials in the Justice Department -- Thomas Perrelli and Donald Verrilli as examples.
Perrelli was tapped to become associate attorney general and Verrilli for deputy associate attorney general. Both men represented the recording industry in litigation for many years. "The fact that these individuals were litigators rather than registered lobbyists does not diminish the possibility that they may be inclined favorably towards the positions of the industries they long represented," the letter said. Key vacant positions include IP policy posts at the Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Trade Representative, and State Department. "Individuals who support overly broad IP protection might favor established distribution models at the expense of technological innovators, creative artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and an increasingly participatory public," the signatories said.
Overzealous expansion and enforcement of copyright can quash innovative IT, development and marketing of new and useful devices, and the creation of new works, as well as prohibit the public from accessing and using its cultural heritage, the argued. The letter was signed by the American Library Association; Center for Democracy and Technology; Computer and Communications Industry Association; Consumer Electronics Association; Consumers Union; Electronic Frontier Foundation; Public Knowledge and others. Read the document here.
From Government Executive magazine's April issue:
When President Obama issued his Day One memos instructing members of his administration to operate under principles of openness to spur citizen engagement, government watchdogs cheered. They hailed the call - a nod to his campaign promise to make government more transparent - as unprecedented and said it was a welcome change from the past eight years. But in the weeks since Obama's pledge that transparency would be a touchstone of his presidency, policy watchers have turned their attention to the details. What exactly is government transparency? How is it interpreted by those inside government who need to execute it? How will it be measured?
What will it look like to the public?
Those questions are hard to answer, and the responses depend largely on who you are. Academics and good government advocates believe agencies should provide their raw data and internal evaluations of policies so the public can dig into the information to find answers to their own questions. Others believe agencies must impose order to the data so the public can easily draw conclusions. Still others believe the Obama administration should choose to show the results of programs and initiatives, and not provide the supporting data, documents or internal discussions on the thinking behind their decisions or what led to a particular outcome.
Read the full story here.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated Roger Baker -- former CEO of Dataline Inc., a mid-sized technology company headquartered in Norfolk, Va. -- to become assistant secretary for information and technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is familiar territory for Baker, who served as chief information officer for the Commerce Department from 1998 to 2001. Prior to joining the federal government in 1998, Baker had an extensive career with software and Internet technology firms, including leading the development of Internet and online banking systems at Visa International, according to a bio provided by the White House.
Baker left the private sector in May 2008 to volunteer on Obama's campaign, serving on the technology, media, and telecommunications policy group. After the president's election, Baker served on the technology, innovation, and government reform and the VA review teams for the transition team. Baker is active in the federal technology community, and has written extensively on improving the management and results of the government's IT investments. He was vice chair of the Industry Advisory Council's Transition Study Group, and a co-author of the group's capstone paper entitled "Returning Innovation to the Federal Government with Information Technology."
The VA's IT infrastructure has been in the spotlight since May 2006 when a laptop computer containing the social security numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans was stolen from an analyst's home. Several months later, a computer containing the personal information of up to 38,000 veterans went missing. The computers have since been recovered but the agency has been under a microscope by members of Congress. In the final years of the Bush administration, VA IT chief Robert Howard appeared on Capitol Hill routinely to discuss the agency's efforts to streamline and secure its technology.
Technology CEO Council Chairman Mike Splinter has some words of wisdom for President Barack Obama has he heads to the G-20 Summit in London on Thursday -- his first big international gathering since becoming commander in chief. Splinter advised Obama in a weekend letter to urge the other G-20 nations to adopt economic stimulus plans that promote investments in critical national infrastructures, as the U.S. did with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He also asked Obama to fight for open markets, recommit to a new Doha Round of trade negotiations and fend off protectionism.
"Along with unprecedented challenges, you have an unusual opportunity to help lead the world toward a more secure future. This will not come easy," wrote Splinter, who is CEO of Applied Materials. "The world's political leaders are confronted by severe economic anxieties at home, and these concerns are driving many countries toward protectionist measures... Unchecked, each nation's efforts to close off its own economy and advantage its own domestic industries will harm all nations." Fifty years from now, generations will look back at how the United States responded to the fears and crises of 2009, he wrote, noting: "Whether we react to short-term political pressures or invest in long-term reforms will determine how history judges us."
Read the full letter to Obama after the jump...
President Barack Obama's choice to shepherd the National Telecommunications and Information Administration through the ongoing national digital television transition is Lawrence Strickling, a technology policy expert who served as policy coordinator for his presidential campaign. In that role Strickling oversaw two dozen domestic policy committees and was responsible for technology and telecommunications issues. Prior to joining the campaign, Strickling was chief regulatory and compliance officer at Broadwing Communications, which was acquired by Level 3 Communications in 2007.
From 1998-2000, Strickling served as chief of the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau and prior to that was associate general counsel and chief of the FCC's Competition Division. During his tenure at the FCC, Strickling developed and enforced rules to foster competition and protect consumers in the telecommunications marketplace, the White House said in an e-mail. He also served senior roles at Allegiance Telecom and CoreExpress and was a partner at the Chicago law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. If confirmed by the Senate, Strickling will join former Sprint-Nextel executive Anna Gomez at NTIA. She was named deputy assistant secretary earlier this year.
The Obama administration's 60-day review of the federal cybersecurity posture will likely conclude that a comprehensive strategy for protecting the government's IT assets and critical infrastructure from high-tech attacks should be run by the White House, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., told reporters Thursday. The review being conducted by Melissa Hathaway, a senior adviser to former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, is more than halfway complete. Recent studies have recommended that oversight authority be housed in the Executive Office of the President rather than the Homeland Security Department or the National Security Agency. "I expect that cybersecurity as we go forward will look very much like our counter-proliferation program," said Langevin, who co-chairs the House Cybersecurity Caucus.
On the campaign trail, Obama promised to create a cyber czar post in the White House and Hathaway is the heir apparent. "I'm very impressed with the due diligence she's exercising in putting together the team and reaching out to outside groups and experts," Langevin said of Hathaway, who was on Capitol Hill for an event to reconstitute the caucus for the 111th Congress. Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., who replaced Langevin as chair of the House Homeland Security Emerging Threats Subcommittee this session, emphasized the enormity of Hathaway's task. She pointed out that there are 42 different departments and agencies involved. "Every new [technological] advance we have creates new vulnerabilities and our responsibility is to have oversight over each and every area," Clarke said.
President Barack Obama kicked off his "Open For Questions" online town hall on Thursday telling his in-person audience in the East Room of the White House and thousands who watched via webcast that the event was an "experiment" that began to advance the campaign promise he made to open up the White House to the American people. "What matters to you and your families and what people here in Washington are focused on are not always one in the same," he said.
Vice President Joe Biden's chief economist Jared Bernstein facilitated the discussion, reading the most popular questions submitted and voted on by Internet users. He said over 92,000 people submitted over 100,000 questions and cast over 3.5 million votes. This isn't the first time a president has answered questions on the Internet. Former President Bill Clinton launched an "Ask The White House" feature and George W. Bush continued the the program during his term. Those who monitoring technology and politics said previous attempts were laudable but Obama's offering is most definitely "Web 2.0."
About halfway through the event, Obama acknowledged the elephant in the room -- the fact that a number of high-ranked Web questions tied legalizing marijuana to economic improvements and job creation. "I don't know what this says about the online audience," Obama laughed. "The answer is no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy." He can thank a grassroots mobilization effort by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws for all the Mary Jane queries.
Update: More than 67,000 people watched the event online, the White House said.
As of Wednesday evening, 32,165 Internet users had submitted 33,334 questions and cast 1,195,231 votes in anticipation of President Barack Obama's online town hall on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. The "Open for Questions" session in the East Room of the White House will focus on the economy and will be webcast live on WhiteHouse.gov. Vice President Joe Biden's chief economist Jared Bernstein will facilitate the discussion, reading some of the most popular questions that were submitted. Afterward, Obama will take follow-up questions from his live audience. A Roosevelt fireside chat, this ain't.
The 100-member on-site audience will be composed of teachers, nurses, small business owners, and community leaders-- and an audience of thousands will watch the event online, White House officials said. The town hall, which takes a page from the tech-savvy transition team's playbook, takes citizen participation one step further than the presidential campaign's YouTube debates. The forum is powered by Google Moderator, a program that lets users decide which questions are most important. The hoopla over the publicly available, open source tool is good PR for Google, which already had close ties to Team Obama. While we can't be sure what questions will be posed to the president since voting closes at 9:30 a.m., here are some of the most popular (corrected for spelling and grammar):
If President Barack Obama's primetime Tuesday news conference left viewers wanting more, the administration is inviting the public to post economy-related questions on the White House's Web site and vote on submissions from others. Obama will answer some of the most popular questions in an online town hall Thursday. The "Open for Questions" program is a new experiment for the president's Web team and is the latest effort to open up the White House and give Americans "a direct line to the Administration." The forum is community-moderated and accessible to computer users of all ages so officials warned those taking part that "everyone has a right to their opinion" and to "be thoughtful about the words you choose." In its first few hours, the Web application received 19,932 votes on 230 questions (less than 20 minutes later that grew to 48,586 votes on 1,796 questions).
To learn more, click here.
Robert Tapella, the head of the Government Printing Office, recently sent to President Barack Obama five goals and accompanying actions the GPO can take to help implement the White House's transparency and open government agenda. Tapella, whose office oversees production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the federal government, sent the memo to Obama on March 9 but it was released publicly last week.
1. Goal: Position GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys, at www.fdsys.gov) as the official repository for Federal Government publications.
Action: Develop pilot concepts with the Administration's Open Government office.
2. Goal: Enable and support Web 2.0 functionality through FDsys to support public comments on pending legislation.
Action: Develop a pilot with the Open Government office to evaluate the process
to collect comments on selected bills.
Internet law expert Susan Crawford has joined President Barack Obama's lineup of tech policy experts at the White House, according to several sources. She will likely hold the title of special assistant to the president for science, technology, and innovation policy, they said. Crawford, who was most recently a visiting professor at the University of Michigan and at Yale Law School, was tapped by Obama's transition team in November to co-chair its FCC review process with University of Pennsylvania professor Kevin Werbach. Her official administration appointment has not been formally announced. Crawford may be best known for her work with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the California-based nonprofit group that manages the Internet address system. She served on ICANN's board for three years beginning in December 2005. She also founded OneWebDay, a global Earth Day for the Internet that takes place every Sept. 22. Crawford, a Yale graduate, clerked for U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie before joining Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering where she worked until the end of 2002.
As President Barack Obama's first 100 days whiz by, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, ranking member Arlen Specter, and Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, are pressuring the White House to make intellectual property protection a priority. The foursome who was the driving force behind last year's PRO IP Act, which former President George W. Bush signed in October, wrote to Obama last week urging him to nominate an IP enforcement coordinator. The position within the Executive Office of the President was created in their legislation and "can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the administration's efforts to protect American intellectual property," they wrote in a letter obtained by Tech Daily Dose.
Such an official can make a major impact in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy "but only if placed in an appropriate position of authority" inside the White House with adequate funding, the senators said. "Intellectual property rights promote innovation and creativity, long recognized as major drivers of the United States economy. Protecting intellectual property is therefore both a law enforcement objective and an important component of our economy recovery efforts," they wrote. CongressDaily reported shortly after Election Day that Victoria Espinel, a Democrat who served as the first assistant trade representative for IP, was a likely contender. Entertainment industry officials' names were also floated including Shira Perlmutter, a former associate general counsel for Time Warner.
President Barack Obama on Friday nominated FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein to become administrator for the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service. He has been at the Commission since December 2002. Before joining the FCC, Adelstein served for 15 years as a staff member in the Senate, for the last seven as a senior aide to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. RUS issues loans and grants for telecom, energy and water treatment projects and is set to receive $2.5 billion in loans from the economic stimulus package to promote broadband deployment.
CongressDaily reported earlier this month that the White House was quietly assembling a list several candidates for the FCC after Obama announced that he wants his chief technology adviser and close confidante Julius Genachowski as chairman. Mignon Clyburn, a state regulator and daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, is a leading contender to replace Adelstein. Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller and ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, are playing an active role in the decision-making to fill a GOP FCC slot. Read CongressDaily's story here (subscription required).
Other key appointments made Friday:
• Steven Koonin, the nominee for under secretary for science at the Energy Department, who is currently chief scientist for BP where he guides the company's technology strategy.
• Priscilla Guthrie, the nominee for chief information officer at the Office of Director of National Intelligence, who is currently IT director at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a nonprofit that administers three federally funded R&D centers.
• David Blumenthal, a former Harvard Medical School professor, to become national coordinator for health IT at the Health and Human Services Department.
When President Barack Obama approved a $410 billion omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2009 last week, he made the first two appropriations related to legislation passed by the 110th Congress that is aimed at fighting counterfeiting and piracy. The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act, which former President George W. Bush signed in October, increased both civil and criminal penalties for trademark and copyright infringement and created the yet-to-be-named post of an IP enforcement coordinator at the White House. Specifically, the omnibus included $9.4 million for hiring new FBI agents dedicated to work solely on IP issues, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which pressed lawmakers to pass the IP measure.
The funding will allow the addition of two agents in each of the field offices containing Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property units, which the Justice Department has determined most merit assistance in IP rights investigations, with no less than 26 agents assigned for this purpose. The money also provides for the creation of an additional and distinct operational unit at FBI headquarters with at least five full-time, permanent agents dedicated to working with DOJ's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section on complex, multi-district and international criminal IP cases. Additionally, the omnibus allocates $18 million for state and local grants for "economic, high-tech and cybercrime prevention." While not IP specific, grant requests for IP enforcement would be eligible.
President Barack Obama emphasized the importance of entrepreneurship and technological innovation in remarks to small business owners, community lenders and members of Congress who visited the White House on Monday. "Small businesses don't just provide jobs -- they provide the innovations that help us lead in the global economy," he told the group, noting that smaller companies produce 13 times more patents per employee than large companies. "Now, think about it. Hewlett-Packard began in a garage. It was a small business. Google began as a research project -- small business. The first Apple computers were built by hand one at a time -- small business," Obama said.
The president added that the ongoing economic recovery and the nation's prosperity in the future depend on the success of America's small businesses and entrepreneurs. "Small businesses are the heart of the American economy," he said, noting they account for half of all private sector jobs. His stimulus plan raises the guarantees on Small Business Administration loans to 90 percent and eliminates costly fees for borrowers and lenders. The plan also includes a series of tax cuts for small businesses and tax incentives to encourage investments in small businesses. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has launched the Consumer and Business Lending Initiative to help unfreeze the credit markets, Obama said. "We've already done a lot. But we've got to do more," he said.
As more details unfold about last week's FBI sting at federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra's former District of Columbia government office, those who know him say the open government policies he enacted when he took the job in 2007 might have helped investigators nab those engaged in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme. The operation already led to the arrests of a D.C. government employee and a consultant. Even though Kundra has not been implicated in the probe, the Obama administration put him on administrative leave. "This was a real punch in the gut," said one source who wished to remain anonymous.
When Kundra came to the D.C. government after having worked for Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, one of the first items on his agenda was conducting an audit of his department's widespread use of contractors. In what was described by the source as a "war room style" meeting with staffers, he went line by line through the office's budget and had employees explain each outsourced activity to justify why the work could not be done in-house. That immediately cut contractor expenses, the official said. Kundra also used a Google Maps application to list all publicly available information about every IT contract the city awarded, including the hourly rate, start date and project manager.
"The whole purpose for doing that was to make sure that if there was any nefarious behavior, the public could see it and respond -- or more likely, a vendor who had a more competitive offer could see it and compete for the contract," the source said in a weekend interview. "[Kundra] was leading policy initiatives that would help reign in bad management decisions or inappropriate behavior," the individual said. "His policies were frankly the right tonic for how you want to create a less risky atmosphere and curb public corruption." Read more about the FBI raid and last week's arrests at NextGov here.
From CongressDaily's AM Edition:
An aide to President Barack Obama is on leave from his White House job after the FBI raided his old District of Columbia government office Thursday, arresting a city employee and a technology consultant on corruption charges, a White House official said. The charges were lodged against the two men at a federal court hearing as the FBI finished searching the city's technology office, which was led until recently by Obama's new computer chief, Vivek Kundra. Kundra is on leave from his White House job until further details of the case become known, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity. A spokeswoman for Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, said she was very confident Kundra is not a target of the investigation.
At the court hearing, Yusuf Acar, the acting chief security officer in the city's technology office, was ordered held without bond pending a hearing Tuesday. Prosecutors said $70,000 in cash was found during a search of Acar's Washington home and that he posed a flight risk. Technology consultant Sushil Bansal of Dunn Loring, Va., was released but was ordered not to conduct overseas financial transactions or leave the area. Bansal is due back in court on April 21, and prosecutors said they hoped a plea agreement could be reached in his case. Acar worked under Kundra, Obama's choice to coordinate federal computer systems. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs would not say whether the White House knew the investigation was under way when it named Kundra last week.
House Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Darrell Issa thumped the Obama administration's transparency efforts Thursday in a letter to Earl Devaney, chair of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board. In the letter, he questions OMB guidelines that he believes contradict the president's promise of an "unprecedented oversight effort" of the nearly $800 billion included in the economic stimulus package. On Wednesday, Issa questioned Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Neel Kashkari about the feasibility of adopting a common reporting format for Troubled Asset Relief Program filings.
"Full transparency requires attention to not just what is posted online, but also how the information is posted. Information about how the taxpayers' money is distributed must be disclosed in a structured, open, and searchable format," Issa wrote in his letter to Devaney. He asked several questions about how Recovery.gov will work. He wondered how data will be disclosed and whether agencies will publish reports there or on their own Web sites. He also asked whether reports from recipients will be sent in a standard format and asked whether there will be disclosure of every transaction between every recipient, contractor, and subcontractor. Read the letter here.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday nominated Richard Verma for the post of assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the State Department. Verma has a lengthy lobbying pedigree at the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson, which he rejoined in 2007 after serving for more than five years as a senior policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., according to the firm. He originally joined Steptoe in 1998 as a member of the firm's international and technology practices. While there, registered to lobby on behalf of a variety of clients including: the U.S.-India Business Council, EchoStar Corporation, Dish Network, and Liberty Media Corporation.
The Steptoe profile on Verma, an Indian-American, holds that: "He advises on legislative and political strategy and helps companies successfully navigate crisis situations including handling Congressional investigations to designing effective public affairs and messaging campaigns." According to the White House, last year Verma was appointed to serve on the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. Verma, a former Air Force officer, once also served as country director for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. -- Winter Casey
President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed a $410 billion omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2009 that includes $1 million to fund for the first time an ombudsman to mediate disputes arising under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Sunshine in Government Initiative director Rick Blum called the inclusion of the provision a milestone for open government. The money will go to the Office of Government Information Services, which Congress established within the National Archives and Records Administration. "For too many years, government transparency has been in crisis," Blum said. OGIS should help end stalemates over disclosure decisions and will help agencies strengthen their responses to FOIA requests, he said.
The omnibus also included a provision to provide free access to Congress' legislative databases. Rep. Michael Honda, D-Calif., first placed a measure in the House bill directing Congress, the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office to make its data available to the public in raw form. "This language is groundbreaking in that it supports the provision of unfiltered legislative information to the public. Instead of silo'ing the information... access to the raw data will make it easier for people to learn what their government is doing," he said. The language calls for a report to appropriators within 120 days of the release of Legislative Information System 2.0.
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Edolphus Towns on Tuesday met in his Capitol Hill office with Vivek Kundra, who was recruited by President Barack Obama to serve as the federal government's chief information officer. The meeting came less than a week after it was announced that the former District of Columbia chief technology officer would take the top e-government spot at OMB. In this role, Kundra will direct the policy and strategic planning of federal IT investments and is responsible for oversight of federal technology spending. He will also establish and oversee enterprise architecture to ensure system interoperability and ensure information security.
"I was pleased to meet with Mr. Kundra and learn of his great enthusiasm for using technology to transform the way our government operates," Towns said. "I am committed to improving the efficiency of government operations and using safe and secure technological innovations to help meet this objective. Mr. Kundra clearly shares this goal and I believe this his past experiences have prepared him for this challenging new role." Kundra is scheduled to make one of his first public speeches since being tapped for the job at FOSE 2009, a convention for government IT professionals happening this week at the Washington Convention Center. Kundra will keynote at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.
While much has been written about how the White House and Congress have been dealing with the emergence of "new media," take note -- new media is not new. According to a 1982 paper on the history of the presidential press conference, it was President Harry Truman whose administration "saw increased use of radio and the growth of television technology." Former President Dwight Eisenhower then took a big step when he allowed television cameras to record White House press conferences for delayed broadcasts.
"Those newspaper correspondents who had been long used to the old way saw TV and radio news men as 'interlopers on their turf,' and complained about the written media's diminished advantage," states the report. The paper, published by the White Burkett Miller Center of Public Affairs, noted that the embrace of media technology diminished the importance of reporters at the White House. Former President John F. Kennedy made the landmark decision to broadcast his press conferences live on television, which some reporters complained encouraged "aggressive and superficial reporting."
In the 21st century with Congress and the White House facing decisions about how briefings should evolve in a world filled with bloggers and online news reporters, what forms of online media reporting should be given access to the Capitol and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? How should this change how briefings are set up? President Barack Obama dipped his toe in the debate when he called on Huffington Post writer Sam Stein during his first press conference but it remains to be seen what's next for the briefing room in this administration. -- Winter Casey
Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:
Longtime Democratic-leaning Time Warner bet big with its campaign money when it gave $544,601 to the Obama campaign in the 2008 election cycle, compared with only $29,676 to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. And now, the media conglomerate has at least five people with ties to the company in key administration positions, not counting former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, who served as an economic adviser for the transition.
From the lobbying community, Obama has named Dana Singiser, a former Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld lawyer to be his special assistant for legislative affairs. According to Senate lobbying records, at the firm she registered to lobby for AT&T, Time Warner, Universal Music Group and the Motion Picture Association of America, among others. Ronald Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Biden, also formerly had Time Warner listed on his rolodex. When Klain worked as lobbyist at O'Melveny & Myers, he had the firm as a client.
Also in the White House, Dan Turton, deputy director of legislative affairs for the House, once lobbied for the Entertainment Software Association. A spokesman for ESA -- a group whose members include Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Inc., a division of Time Warner, Microsoft and Sony -- confirmed Turton once did work for the association. While employed by Timmons & Company, Turton's clients included ESA, the National Association of Manufacturers, Micron Technology and Cox Enterprises, according to lobbying records.
Two veterans of the Clinton White House have taken top positions at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which "serves as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment" for the president, according to The Wonk Room blog.
∙ Thomas Kalil, who was responsible for technology policy at the National Economic Council in the Clinton administration, has been named associate director for policy. He previously ran the Big Ideas @ Berkeley program at the University of California-Berkeley and was a member of California's Blue Ribbon Nanotechnology Task Force.
∙ Jim Kohlenberger, who served as Vice President Al Gore's senior policy adviser, has been named OSTP chief of staff. As one of Gore's key technology advisers, Kohlenberger worked to help pass the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and helped shape the administration's approach to the Internet. Before joining OSTP, Kohlenberger was executive director of the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition.
High-tech leaders are praising President Barack Obama's Thursday appointment of Vivek Kundra as federal CIO and administrator for e-government and information technology at OMB. Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra told Tech Daily Dose that Kundra "will be a terrific asset" and has "the right combination of operational excellence and a spirit of innovation" to deliver. Chopra worked with Kundra when Kundra served as Virginia's assistant secretary of commerce and technology. "[It] will be a pleasure to collaborate with him at the White House," said Chopra, who is a rumored contender for Obama's federal chief technology officer job.
"The new federal CIO position provides a foundation that will allow the federal government to finally reap all the rewards of IT from cost savings to security to inter-agency information sharing," said Bill Vass, president of Sun Microsystems. "For too long, a CIO position that has jurisdiction across all government agencies has been as elusive as that oasis in the desert." Kundra's appointment is the first step in maximizing services offered to and the IT investments made by the American taxpayer, he said. Karen Evans, Kundra's predecessor at OMB under former President George W. Bush, called him "an innovative and talented person with a great career staff to support him."
Information Technology Industry Council President Dean Garfield offered Kundra praise. "He will help the federal government's performance by encouraging innovation and preventing waste and duplicity," Garfield said, noting that Kundra's work in D.C and Virginia "shows that he values transparency and accountability." Software and Information Industry Association President Ken Wasch added Kundra "is a great choice who will carry out the incoming administration's plan to use cutting-edge technologies in our public sector to bring government into the 21st century."
Read more:
Federal CIO Lays Out Ambitious Agenda / Obama Names Vivek Kundra Federal CIO
President Barack Obama's new administrator for e-government and information technology at OMB told reporters Thursday he will launch data.gov, a Web site intended to "democratize data" by giving the public raw feeds of information from a range of agencies. Vivek Kundra, who previously served as the District of Columbia's chief technology officer, said the site would build on successes like the National Institutes of Health's publication of Human Genome Project data that he said "revolutionized personalized medicine" and the Defense Department's release of satellite data, which led to the mass commercialization of GPS devices.
"We need to make sure that all that data that's not private, that's not restricted for national security can be made public," said Kundra, who will also have the title of federal CIO and will work with the yet-to-be-named federal CTO. That official will be "named in due time," he said on a conference call. When Kundra worked for the city, he won widespread praise for embracing consumer technologies. "That lowered our operating costs... and the velocity at which we were deploying technology multiplied," he said, noting that he would like to bring that thinking to the federal sector. As more government information makes its way into cyberspace and the focus on civic participation increases, back-end IT systems must brace for the change, he said.
One of the administration's first attempts at making government more accountable online is Recovery.gov, Kundra said. Once the $787 billion economic stimulus funding makes its way to the state and local level, citizens will be able to track who receives contracts, when and for how much. The guidance recently set forth by OMB "is the floor, not the ceiling" for what can be done on the site, he said. Additionally, Kundra said his team is working with OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Policy and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to retool regulations.gov, the government's e-rulemaking hub, after a high-level American Bar Association task force slammed the site.
As anticipated, President Barack Obama has named Vivek Kundra as the federal government's chief information officer. The announcement came Thursday, weeks after it was widely reported that he was the top contender. Kundra formerly served in Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's cabinet as chief technology officer. In that role he was responsible for technology operations and strategy for 86 agencies. Earlier, Kundra worked for Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia where he served as assistant secretary of commerce and technology.
Kundra has been recognized among the top 25 CTO's in the country and as the 2008 IT Executive of the Year for his work to drive transparency, engage citizens and lower the cost of government operations. He is also recognized for his leadership in public safety communications, cyber security and IT portfolio management. The federal CIO will direct the policy and strategic planning of federal IT investments and is responsible for oversight of federal technology spending. The CIO will also work closely with the yet-to-be-named federal CTO to advance the president's technology agenda.
"Vivek Kundra will bring a depth of experience in the technology arena and a commitment to lowering the cost of government operations to this position. I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations," Obama said.
CongressDaily's AM Edition on Wednesday reports (subscription required)...
The White House is quietly assembling a list of two -- and potentially three -- more candidates for the FCC now that President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he wants his chief technology adviser and close confidante Julius Genachowski as chairman. Mignon Clyburn, a state regulator and daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, is a leading contender for Democratic commissioner. The younger Clyburn, who has served on the Public Service Commission of South Carolina for more than a decade, declined to comment.
She would replace Jonathan Adelstein, who is under serious consideration to run the Rural Utilities Service, an Agriculture Department division that issues loans and grants for telecom, energy and water treatment projects. The RUS is set to receive $2.5 billion in loans from the economic stimulus package to promote broadband deployment. Adelstein, whose term expired in June but can remain through 2009 pending renomination, would exit when a successor is confirmed. Sources said the administration doesn't plan to renew his term. Read the full story here.
President Barack Obama went public with one of Washington's worst-kept secrets on Tuesday -- that Julius Genachowski, his former Harvard Law School classmate, was his pick to be the next FCC chairman. The announcement that Genachowski (who once worked as legal counsel for ex-FCC Chairman Reed Hundt) was the nominee garnered widespread praise from the high-tech and telecom community.
"He will bring a combination of private and public sector experience to the agency. His tech experience and knowledge will be invaluable in facilitating the continued rollout and enhancement of broadband in America." -- Comcast CEO Brian Roberts
"With his background and interest in expanding broadband to all Americans and ensuring that our nation's telecommunications policies serve the needs of both consumers and industry, it is clear that Mr. Genachowski shares many of the same goals as state regulators." -- National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
"[It is] natural that our nation's first digital president would choose as FCC chairman someone who has worked in the technology industry and understands how innovation grows from an idea into the next generation companies that drive our economy and create jobs." -- Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro
The blogosphere was abuzz Monday over President Barack Obama's weekly video address -- not because of the content (an explanation of the budget outline he sent to Congress) -- but because footage of the four-minute speech was not embedded on the White House Web site from YouTube. The video was instead presented on a generic video player leading some to believe that the administration was distancing itself from the popular Google-owned video sharing site, which has been under pressure lately for how it tracks users' Web sessions with cookies.
But White House spokesman Nick Shapiro told Tech Daily Dose the uproar was unwarranted. He said the Web team simply tested a new way of presenting Obama's weekly address by using a player developed in-house. The decision is "more about better understanding our internal capabilities than it is a position on third-party solutions or a policy," he said, noting the video was also published in third-party video hosting communities. "We will likely continue to embed videos from these services on WhiteHouse.gov in the future," he added.
Update: YouTube's Steve Grove weighs in on the Google blog.
Congressional advocates for increased federal research and development funding last week hailed President Barack Obama's budget outline for FY10, which would give the National Science Foundation $7 billion -- up from the Bush administration's FY09 request of $6.8 billion. NSF pays for about 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by U.S. colleges and universities and is targeted for a doubling of its budget over 10 years as part of competitiveness legislation signed into law in August 2007.
Key investments in science, technology, and education can help reenergize the economy and prepare workers for the jobs of the future, House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon said. Since taking office, Obama has repeatedly stressed the importance of supporting science and his overview highlights the importance of science and technology to several big national goals like education, healthcare, and clean and renewable energy. "What I see in this budget request with regard to energy is that the administration understands we need to be pursuing many different avenues," Gordon said in a statement. "There is not a silver bullet. It's silver buckshot."
Obama's budget allocates $125 million for the Commerce Department's Manufacturing Extension Partnership and $70 million for the Technology Innovation Program, which is a modest increase from the FY09 omnibus. The House-passed version allots $110 million for MEP and $65 million for TIP. The request is a big change from Bush budgets that would have eliminated them. Appropriators annually saved the programs, which offer financing and technical assistance to small businesses and start-ups. Also under the president's plan, NASA would get $18.7 billion, up from the $17.6 billion FY09 request.
President Barack Obama's 140-page, $3 trillion budget outline for 2010, which was unveiled Thursday, includes a few basic lines on e-government, transparency and public participation as part of the policy-making process.
Under the heading "Let Americans Track How Their Tax Dollars Are Spent," Obama pledged to take the following steps:
• Maintain Recovery.gov, a site that allows individuals to see where recovery funds are going, for what purpose, and to what result.
• Give the public five days to review all non-emergency bills before they are signed.
• Disclose each earmark and the name of the legislator who asked for each earmark, and make this information available on a searchable public Web site.
• Clean up military contracting by establishing the reporting requirements, accounting, and accountability.
High-tech stakeholders on Wednesday lauded President Barack Obama's third pick for Commerce secretary -- former Washington Gov. Gary Locke -- after his two other choices for the post, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., both withdrew. "I'm sure it's not lost on anyone that we've tried this a couple of times, but I'm a big believer in keeping at something until you get it right," Obama joked upon announcing Locke's nomination. He went on to praise his work wooing high-tech and other businesses to Washington state.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller said the Commerce Department "has a major role to play in rebuilding our economy" and Locke is an excellent choice to run the show. "He is a seasoned executive, he understands the importance of economic development at the state level, and he is a life-long advocate and champion for American productivity," Rockefeller said. Ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison said she hoped Locke "will be proactive in helping U.S. businesses' marketing efforts abroad and be an advocate from within the administration for responsible tax and regulatory policies."
Software and Information Industry Association President Ken Wasch touted Locke's executive experience and noted that Washington state "has the most manufacturing export-related jobs of any in the country." "Gov. Locke understands the need for America to compete in the global economic marketplace," Wasch said. SIIA General Counsel Mark Bohannon added the department's agenda - ensuring quality patents, opening markets and removing barriers to trade, advancing the U.S. technology base, and implementing export controls - factors importantly into economic recovery.
Kei Koizumi has been appointed assistant director for federal research and development at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he will be working on federal R&D budget issues and tracking funding. Koizumi served on the Obama transition team as part of the Technology, Innovation & Government Reform Policy Working Group. He said the group talked a lot about science funding in the stimulus bill and brainstormed ways to implement the Obama campaign agenda within the first 100 days of office. Koizumi last served as the longtime director of the R&D budget and policy program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an international nonprofit organization. While at AAAS, Koizumi was the principal budget analyst, editor, and writer for annual reports on federal R&D and for updated analysis on federal R&D on the association's Web site. Koizumi, who considers himself a Democrat, said he is "happy to be entering public service after 14 years in the nonprofit sector." -- Winter Casey
An Obama administration official confirmed for CongressDaily Monday that the president's likely third pick for Commerce secretary is former Washington Gov. Gary Locke. The Democrat was the nation's first Chinese-American governor when he served two terms from 1997 to 2005. Since leaving office, he has worked for Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle on issues involving China, human rights and intellectual property rights. He was an IP crusader on the domestic front as well. Under Locke's leadership, Washington became the fourth state in 2000 to issue an executive order requiring state agencies and recipients of state funds to acquire and use legally licensed software. Obama's second choice for the job, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., backed out a week after he was named citing "irresolvable conflicts" with the president's policies. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, was his first choice but he withdrew in January amid allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts in his state. Also on the tech front, Locke was named to the board of Key Technology in May 2008. The Walla Walla, Wash.-based company designs and manufactures automation systems for the food processing and industrial markets.
President Barack Obama formally announced several White House staffers on Monday who have a role in the high-tech world. They include:
Macon Phillips has been named director of new media, a position he held on the presidential transition team. Phillips developed Change.gov and oversaw the transition's overall online communications. Prior to that, he served as deputy director of new media for the Obama campaign where he managed daily online operations. Before joining the campaign, he led Blue State Digital's strategy practice.
Cammie Croft has been named deputy new media director. Croft comes to the White House from the Obama transition project, where she served in the same capacity. Prior to that, she was new media rapid response manager for the Obama campaign where she oversaw efforts like FighttheSmears.com and UndertheRadar.com. Previously, Croft built the tracking and media monitoring program at Progressive Accountability, a campaign that provided video of Republican presidential candidates.
Jesse Lee has been named online programs director after having worked in the new media department for the transition team. Previously, Lee worked on online communications for the Democratic National Committee during election season. Prior to that, he was senior new media advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Katie Stanton has been named director of citizen participation after having served at Google where she was a principal in the new business development team. While there, she was responsible for OpenSocial, Google Moderator, and various election-related initiatives. Also at Google, Stanton managed Google Finance, Google News, and Blog Search.
CNN and social networking site Facebook are teaming up for President Barack Obama's Tuesday evening address to Congress in hopes of recreating their successful Inauguration Day live streaming and commenting collaboration. During that historic event, over 2 million Facebook status updates were posted through the feed with 4,000 status updates per minute on average and a spike of 8,500 updates when Obama began his speech, Facebook reported. CNN touted the effort as "the largest live video event in Internet history." The partnership was "a symbolic day for social TV" that showed millions of people want to talk with their friends while watching TV that they care about, even if they can't be in the same place to watch it together, according to the Inside Facebook blog. Read more here.
It remains unclear what technologies or standards President Barack Obama will decide to harness to support his open government initiatives. Obama has on numerous occasions pledged that he will make the government as transparent and open as possible - even going as far as to give his administration deadlines on when certain milestones will be reached and state that his administration "will put government data online in universally accessible formats." Many seem to agree that openness in general is a positive goal, but how to best reach that objective gets foggy.
"Openness" is a general movement, not just related to open source and standards. That said, openness intersects many areas and it doesn't take a big leap to go from discussions about open government to procurement policies for IT based on open standards," wrote IBM Vice President Bob Sutor in a blog post last month. Microsoft CTO Susie Adams agrees there has been a lot of talk about openness as a theme of the new administration and believes Obama "wants to capture an assurance of openness as a way to set direction and vision." In terms of how the goal of openness relates to technology specifically, she said "a true, open government should rely on a "mixed source" blend of technologies -- an approach used around the world.
"That approach would help ensure continued benefit and return on existing IT investments while simultaneously making sure the best tool for a particular job is in place," Adams said, noting that "no one vendor or one software approach will lead to success." But Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, who told the BBC he has been asked to prepare a paper on open source for the Obama administration, has hailed open source products. "The government ought to mandate open source products based on open source reference implementations to improve security, get higher quality software, lower costs, higher reliability - all the benefits that come with open software," he said.
As promised, the White House on Tuesday launched Recovery.gov -- a Web site that features information on how the $787 billion economic stimulus package is being spent along with tools to help citizens hold the government accountable. Issues surrounding the site's implementation and measures for success will likely arise as part of a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing planned for March 5. OMB Director Peter Orszag is expected to testify along with GAO Acting Comptroller General Eugene Dodaro and Phyllis Fong, chair of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.
"It is critical to ensure that systems are in place -- ahead of time -- to oversee this massive level of spending and that the public is provided with as much information as possible about where their money is going," Chairman Joseph Lieberman said in a Saturday press release. Ranking member Susan Collins echoed his sentiment, noting that she opposed releasing the remaining government funding for financial institutions last month because the initial roll-out lacked what she believed was proper transparency and accountability. "We cannot afford to make the same mistake with the economic stimulus package," she said.
The issue is expected to gain traction in the House as well, according to a spokesman for House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Darrell Issa. "The promise of transparency must be met with more than rhetoric -- it must be exercised in application," Kurt Bardella said in an e-mail. "The reality is the federal bureaucracy is now being asked to absorb hundreds of billions of dollars and the potential for waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement is something we will need to be diligent in preventing.
A couple of tech tidbits from President Barack Obama's first televised primetime press conference, which was also streamed live on the White House Web site:
On the economic stimulus package: "It also contains an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability so that every American will be able to go online and see where and how we're spending every dime. What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable."
On health information technology: "We've got the most inefficient health care system imaginable. We're still using paper. We're still filing things in triplicate. Nurses can't read the prescriptions that doctors -- that doctors have written out. Why wouldn't we want to put that on -- put that on an electronic medical record that will reduce error rates, reduce our long-term costs of health care, and create jobs right now?"
My colleague Kevin Friedl writes at NationalJournal.com's Under the Influence blog that President Barack Obama has not kept a pledge to post bills online before signing...
When President Obama signed into law an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program on Wednesday, he was keeping one promise while breaking another. The measure, designed to expand health insurance to some 4 million additional children, was a significant step towards his pledge to "require that all children have health care coverage. And in his remarks at the signing ceremony, the president called it a "down payment" on his broader pledge to bring universal coverage to the U.S.
But by signing the bill the same afternoon it was passed in the House, Obama fell to an 0-2 record on one of his most specific good-government promises, announced over a year and a half ago during a campaign speech in Manchester, N.H.: "When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it." The wording of that pledge has since been amended to refer only to "non-emergency legislation," but neither the SCHIP legislation nor the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act he signed into law last week meet that test.
Read the full post here.
President Barack Obama unveiled his group of outside economic advisers Friday, which will be chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and will be directed inside the White House. Several experts on the 15-member panel have close ties to the high-tech community. They include:
▪ John Doerr, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers who helped launch companies like Amazon, Google, Compaq and Netscape.
▪ Oracle Corp. President Charles Phillips, who was previously with investment bank Morgan Stanley and a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps.
▪ University of California at Berkeley business school dean Laura Tyson, a former economic adviser to President Bill Clinton and author of a recent report on the economic impact of intellectual property enforcement.
▪ General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, who has been with GE since 1982 and serves on the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
"The board will provide an independent voice on intelligence issues and will be charged with offering independent advice to the president as he formulates and implements his plans for economic recovery," according to a White House press release. The group will provide regular briefings to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and will be established initially for a two-year term.
Congress and the new administration should adopt policies that will promote "a dynamic force of third-party Internet sites and tools to enhance the usefulness of government data," the Association for Computing Machinery's public policy committee recommended Thursday. The group's statement came on the heels of President Barack Obama's "day one" memos urging government transparency and citizen participation and an announcement that the public will be able to track economic stimulus package funding at Recovery.gov after the bill wins congressional approval.
"Internet users are combining and analyzing information in innovative ways that go beyond what the data's original publishers imagined," ACM Vice Chair Edward Felten said in a press release. "Government has a treasure trove of data and it can unleash creative new analysis by giving users access to this data in a format that allows them the advantage of easy, fast integration, machine-readability, download capability, and authenticity measures." Felten is a professor at Princeton University and an oft quoted cyber expert.
ACM's recommendations for data that is already considered public include...
The White House pool report from Thursday morning's National Prayer Breakfast -- a tradition begun in 1953 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower -- includes the latest BlackBerry banter.
Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, gave what amounted to the keynote, mentioning President Barack Obama's success in obtaining a super-secure BlackBerry:
"You don't need cheerleaders but partners, not spectators but supporters. The truest friends are those still around when the going gets toughest," Blair told Obama. "Great news about the BlackBerry," Blair said, launching into a story about his first mobile phone, which he got the day after he left 10 Downing Street. He said he sent a text message without realizing the recipient, a friend of his, wouldn't know who it was from. "Back came the reply: Sorry, who are you?" As if to say, how soon a leader is forgotten.
Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:
When President Barack Obama issued "Day One" memos instructing members of his administration to operate under principles of openness, transparency and citizen engagement, government watchdogs cheered. They hailed the early presidential directive as unprecedented and said it was a welcome change from the past eight years. But in the days since Obama's issuance, open government enthusiasts have turned their attention to making sure words become deeds.
Obama's memo stipulated that the heads of OMB and the General Services Administration, as well as his yet-to-be-named chief technology officer, craft an open government directive by May 21 that laid out actions to support his principles. The guidance also stated that all agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure in Freedom of Information Act decisions, which means making information public in a timely fashion and not waiting for specific requests from the public.
"This is a wonderful window of opportunity for those who care about open government," said Dan Metcalfe, a former Justice Department attorney and head of the Washington College of Law's Collaboration on Government Secrecy. Metcalfe assembled a group of information policy experts last week to draft transparency blueprints for the new administration. "It's been a long time since an administration has come into power with so many competing priorities," Metcalfe said, noting that his community needs to be strategic about what it believes should be addressed first Obama's team.
From President Barack Obama's Super Bowl Sunday interview with NBC's Matt Lauer:
"It's like Inspector Gadget. If you touched it, it might blow up. It turns into a car if I have to make a quick getaway." When Lauer asked about who has the coveted number, Obama said he wouldn't give it to Lauer but he might give it to Lauer's young son Jack, prompting Lauer to whisper, "Jack, give it to your pappa." (Huffington Post)
From Obama's remarks at the uber exclusive Alfalfa Dinner on Saturday night:
"In just the first few weeks, I've had to engage in some of the toughest diplomacy of my life. And that was just to keep my Blackberry. I finally agreed to limit the number of people who could email me. It's a very exclusive list. How exclusive? Everyone look at the person sitting on your left. Now look at the person sitting on your right. None of you have my email address." More on the Barack BlackBerry here and here.
President Barack Obama spoke with China's President Hu Jintao on Friday morning about their intention to build a more positive and constructive relationship between the countries, the White House press office said in an e-mail. According to the summary, Obama and Hu discussed the international financial crisis and agreed that increased close cooperation between the U.S. and China is vital. Obama stressed the need to correct global trade imbalances -- an issue important to the high-tech sector -- as well as to stimulate global growth and get credit markets flowing.
The two presidents agreed to work together on several global issues, specifically mentioning North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan/Pakistan, counterterrorism, proliferation, and climate change. Obama expressed appreciation for China's role as chair of the so-called Six-Party Talks and they affirmed the importance of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. What is unclear is whether intellectual property protection factored into the conversation. The U.S. business community -- particularly those in the entertainment, software and manufacturing industries -- have urged the new administration take hard line against piracy and counterfeiting.
China has long been cited by the U.S. government as one of the world's worst IP offenders and regularly tops the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's watch list of nations that have weak IP protection regimes. In recent years, Hu has made speeches pledging to work harder to crack down on bootleggers but many policy watchers have been skeptical of whether change is actually happening on the ground.
Recovery.gov, a new Web site that President Barack Obama has said will enable the public to monitor how effectively the U.S. government spends and distributes the $800-plus billion stimulus package, is ready to go live, an Obama transition team member and former director of the White House Office of Administration said Thursday. Franklin Reeder told a conference at American University's Washington College of Law that the site has been in the works for six weeks and is "ready to roll" as soon as Congress approves the funding. Obama said in a speech earlier this month that "restoring transparency is not only the surest way to achieve results, but also to earn back that trust in government." The House passed its stimulus bill Wednesday and the Senate is expected to vote next week.
Currently, visitors to Recovery.gov are instructed to: "Check back after the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to see how and where your tax dollars are spent." The placeholder page adds: "An oversight board will routinely update this site as part of an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency and unnecessary spending in our government." Recovery.com points to the forthcoming dot-gov site while Recovery.net is owned by Niche Sites LLC, a Pennsylvania-based firm that runs BuyersGuide.com, a product search portal. A message on that site notes that "traffic for this domain name is available." Recovery.org offers resources for recovering alcoholics.
On Thursday morning President Barack Obama was seen on White House grounds wearing a dark suit with a white collared shirt and blue tie, no overcoat, and a BlackBerry clipped to his belt, according to a pool report. He and First Lady Michelle Obama had recently returned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue after visiting Sidwell Friends School in Bethesda, Md., where their youngest daughter, Sasha, attends. Obama isn't concealing his handheld, but a Feb. 2 edition of Newsweek points out that he isn't carrying around the same tool that everyone else is using.
"Instead, he'll get a new device specially equipped with superencrypting security software to ward off hackers. His address book will be limited to a small group of family, friends and senior staffers, all of whom must first receive a security briefing to get on the list. A special server will block emails from unapproved senders, and messages sent by the president will be encrypted so that they cannot be forwarded," according the magazine. The publication says a bigger security concern could be phishing or when an email sender tries to trick the recipient into thinking the message is from someone else. -- Winter Casey
A handful of high-tech executives were among the business leaders from across industries who met with President Barack Obama on Wednesday morning, sources told Tech Daily Dose. Technology CEO Council members Sam Palmisano of IBM, Greg Brown of Motorola, Steven Appleton of Micron and Mike Splinter from Applied Materials were at the table, talking about the pending economic stimulus plan. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who served as an economic adviser to Obama on his transition team, was also at the meeting, sources said.
Obama told reporters that "these are some of the leading CEOs in the country. These are people who make things and hire people. They are on the front lines in seeing the enormous problems in our economy right now." "Their ideas and their concerns have helped to shape our recovery package and I'm grateful that they are here today to talk about why it's so important that we act and act swiftly in order to get this economy back on track," Obama said. "I am confident that we can get it passed." The House was scheduled to vote on its package, which includes a number of tech-related provisions, later in the day.
"While our economy is struggling, America possesses the strengths that we will need to lead a global recovery and create a more prosperous and secure future," Splinter said in a press release. "That is why it's essential that Congress invest in the digital infrastructure in broadband, health care and energy to create near-term jobs that will shape our economy for the next generation." Appleton said it was a privilege to be part of the dialogue, adding that the U.S. tech sector "has traditionally been a key component of our nation's economic success and further investments in technology will help drive our economic recovery."
President Barack Obama highlighted recent layoffs at major high-tech companies Microsoft, Intel Corp. and Sprint-Nextel in Monday remarks on the importance of congressional passage of the economic stimulus package that his team has been working on with Democrats in the House and Senate. Microsoft announced last week that it would make 5,000 job cuts, mainly in Redmond, Wash. where the company is headquartered. Computer chip manufacturer Intel said last week that more than 5,000 jobs would be on the chopping block. Sprint-Nextel's news that it would lay off about 8,000 employees came a short time before Obama's speech.
"These are working men and women whose families have been disrupted and whose dreams have been put on hold," he said before signing executive orders that believes will create jobs, establish energy independence and alter environmental policy. "We owe it to each of them and to every single American to act with a sense of urgency." Obama said he looked forward to signing legislation that would put millions of Americans to work. "These are extraordinary times and it calls for swift and extraordinary action," Obama said, adding that he could not promise a quick fix. No single technology or regulation will do the job, he said.
From Friday's daily press briefing with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs:
Reporter: Did the President give his email address to anybody in that bipartisan congressional meeting today?
Gibbs: I was going to think of something cute on the email address, but nothing comes to mind that would be good. I think we covered the BlackBerry yesterday, that there's a small group of people that are able to BlackBerry with the President so that he can stay in touch with them.
Gibbs: I think that the President has certainly asked members of Congress that have ideas to call the White House. I know that Rahm [Emanuel] has certainly given out his cell phone number to members of the House, the Senate and probably a lot of you all in here -- (laughter) -- to stay in touch if people have ideas that meet the President's test of getting the economy moving again.
Reporter: On his BlackBerry, Robert -- the President said yesterday when he left here that it wasn't up and running yet. Is it up and running today?
Gibbs: I will check... I believe that it is. But I will -- I will double check on that.
In his first daily news briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs shed new light on President Barack Obama's BlackBerry. He told reporters that the commander-in-chief will have a handheld device that will allow him to "stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends in a way that will be limited and security is enhanced" to ensure effective, protected communication. Those who will be in touch with Obama via Blackberry will be briefed before he is turned loose with his device, Gibbs said. He declined to provide details about who will and will not have e-mail privileges.
The presumption from the White House counsel's office is that most e-mails will be subject to the Presidential Records Act, which has some narrow exemptions for strictly personal exchanges. "[Obama] believes it's a way of keeping in touch with folks -- a way of doing it outside of getting stuck in a bubble," Gibbs said. He said he has received e-mails from Obama (but not in the last couple of days) that range from strictly business content to questions about why his favorite football team did or didn't perform on any given game.
Former Republican National Committee Web whiz Patrick Ruffini thinks President Barack Obama's new WhiteHouse.gov is pretty but he was expecting something "a bit more majestic." The political consultant wrote on his EngageDC blog that: "Obama's design efforts have gotten progressively more workmanlike since the campaign site was refreshed with ethereal, cloud-like design in early 2008. I was expecting a return to something more like that now that Obama actually is the president, rather than pretending to be the president with fake seals and federal imagery."
Other thoughts from Ruffini:
▪ The large, rotating headline feature area to drive key messages was long overdue on a White House site, and the implementation is superb.
▪ A departure from previous Obama sites, WhiteHouse.gov is built in Microsoft's proprietary .NET framework, something that is sure to cause no small degree of consternation among the President's devotees in the open source community.
▪ I am surprised that the Obama team is not doing more to collect e-mail addresses, sticking with the traditional upper right hand placement of the e-mail signup box but little else.
▪ The design seems to be influenced by Andy Rutledge's 2006 critique and suggested alternative, which consisted mostly of making the homepage a glorified sitemap. The current homepage isn't quite that bad, though the extended footer is evocative of it.
David Almacy, who left his post as White House Internet director for former President Bush to join the public relations firm Waggener Edstrom, declined to opine: "Think I am going to wait and see where they go with it. It's only day two," he said in an e-mail.
The White House Web team is still working out some kinks as the Obama administration transitions to a new site.
"Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I'm Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog. A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world."
"Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country's future. WhiteHouse.gov is just the beginning of the new administration's efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement. Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first. Our initial new media efforts will center around three priorities..." Read the full post here.
The White House has released the 2008 Christmas video from Scottish Terrier Barney. This year's webisode is titled, "Barney Cam VII: A Red, White, and Blue Christmas." For more, visit the White House's holiday Web site.
The Copyright Alliance's seven-member board of directors met with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team last week to discuss strategies for protecting intellectual property. The alliance is backed by NBC Universal, the Professional Photographers of America, Time Warner, Viacom and other stakeholders in the content community. David Trust, PPA's executive director, was among those at the meeting and said in a press release that he was pleased to have had the opportunity to "express to the new administration our thoughts and concerns about copyright and intellectual property issues."
During the Friday meeting, Trust argued that a major portion of the economy is under siege and that photographers are an important part of that economic mix. PPA's written materials also pointed out the vast network of professional photographers (over 122,000 nationwide) and the impact IP and its domestic and international enforcement play in their livelihoods. "I was most impressed with the genuine interest they displayed for our collective message," Trust said. "This was not just a courtesy meeting -- they listened intently and took pages of notes. It feels like we are doing real good for photography and all creators."
(Photo Credit: White House/Chris Greenburg)
Go to the White House Web site to cast your vote for the National Thanksgiving Turkey which President Bush will pardon in an upcoming Rose Garden ceremony.
This year's contenders:
▪ Popcorn & Cranberry
▪ Yam & Jam
▪ Dawn & Early Light
▪ Roost & Run
▪ Pumpkin & Pecan
▪ Apple & Cider
Tuesday’s historic election signals a new era of sweeping change and reform and President-elect Barack Obama has proposed a number of major tech policy initiatives. In a short Friday interview for BlogTalkRadio, I sat down with Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the Business Software Alliance to discuss what we can expect. During our chat, we discussed what the tech policy agenda will look like under Obama; the expected appointment of a chief technology officer for the federal government; and major tech policy efforts expected early in the new administration.
Holleyman said Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress will face a host of challenges like the overall economic posture of the United States; global implications of spending; the two major wars still being fought; and social priorities such as healthcare and taxes. In light of those pressures, some might say the IT agenda is less urgent, he said, but it is important to note that technology policy's reach is far beyond Silicon Valley. "In a world that runs on innovation, information technology is a key part of the solution to almost every economic and social challenge we're facing," Holleyman said. Listen to the show here.
President-elect Barack Obama, who demonstrated through the success of his campaign's Internet outreach effort that he sees value in technology, may replace the White House's traditional Saturday radio address with a weekly speech on the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube, New Democrat Network founder Simon Rosenberg predicted Thursday. Rosenberg, who spoke at a Computer and Communications Industry Association reception, said he envisions the talk being translated in near real-time to Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish and other languages and available to a global audience. In short, Obama will do for the Internet what President Roosevelt did for radio, he said.
During the campaign, Obama perfected the Web-based tools that 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean pioneered and as a result has "fundamentally changed the game" by allowing average people to get involved in the political process, Rosenberg said. "We can see it play out in politics and in democracies around the world," he said. "I think that’s a permanent condition of global politics, not just American politics." Rosenberg cited hip-hop star Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" YouTube video as proof. The pro-Obama clip has been viewed 12 million times. That kind of Web outreach was not possible during the last presidential election, he said.
With Obama in the White House, "we're going to see something more radical and innovative than what they did on the campaign because more people are going to be paying attention now," he said, noting that Obama's ability to use whitehouse.gov to ask Americans to "help him solve the problems of our day" could be revolutionary. Rosenberg said technology will be "central to the way he tries to govern" because innovative platforms are "now so engrained in their brand." The progressive pundit said he expects to see "massive experimentation" with Web efforts to get public input and also rally netroots to push the administration's agenda on Capitol Hill.
President Bush on Wednesday signed a bill into law to stop rouge pharmacies from operating online by amending the Controlled Substances Act. The Senate unanimously cleared a House version of the legislation shortly before lawmakers left Washington to campaign. The bill, which passed the House a week earlier, requires Web pharmacies to display information identifying the business, pharmacist, and any physician associated with the site and a health practitioner will have to conduct an in-person examination of a patient for a prescription to be considered valid.
The statute would increase penalties for illegal distributions of controlled substances. For certain drugs, existing maximum penalties would be doubled, up to 10 years for a first conviction and 20 years for a second conviction. There are also new penalties of up to 30 years if death or serious bodily injury results. Under the changes, state attorneys general could shut down a rogue site anywhere in the country rather than limiting their authority to stopping sales only to in-state consumers. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., first drafted legislation and Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., sponsored the House version.
Internet hosting firm GoDaddy.com, which championed the legislation in congressional testimony, said the illicit online pharmacy business is a serious problem. Last year, GoDaddy's abuse department suspended more than 1,300 different sites tied to rogue pharmacies and this year, without the new law, the firm was on pace to see that number increase by nearly tenfold. (Photo Credit: Hillary H via Flickr)
Legislation signed by President Bush on Monday that requires sex offenders to provide Internet identifiers to state sex offender registries and tasks the Justice Department with creating a system that lets social networking sites compare their users' identifiers with those provided to a national sex offender registry may not achieve its intended aim of protecting children, according one high-tech policy expert who tracked the bill. That official, Center for Democracy and Technology general counsel John Morris, said Tuesday that the statute may prove "almost entirely worthless" and warned that it may also carry with it serious unintended consequences.
The bill was introduced in January 2007 by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz., now the GOP presidential nominee, and a companion measure was sponsored in the House by Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. Pomeroy revised and reintroduced his bill after hearing concerns from CDT and other groups, but that version of the bill did not win Senate approval. Instead, the Senate version won out and minor modifications were made to alleviate critics' biggest fears, Morris said, acknowledging that "we have fewer concerns than we once did." Pomeroy's retooled measure would have let probation officers who supervise sex offenders install software on offenders' computers to monitor their Web whereabouts and target supervision to those who actually pose threats to kids.
Nevertheless, Morris believes the new law will not be effective because sex offenders who want to subvert or circumvent their conditions of probation, release or supervision -- which already typically stipulate that they cannot interact with minors -- will forge ahead regardless of the registry requirement. "If they're already intending to violate provisions that apply to them, why wouldn’t they also register a real e-mail and then go create another account," he said in an interview. "It is so trivial to create a new identifier, create a new e-mail address, or social network page. Anyone who is going to pose a risk to minors that this system trying to screen against can easily circumvent it."
Continue reading New Web Law May Be 'Worthless,' Watchdog Warns.
(Photo Credit: FBI)
President Bush signed legislation on Monday that bans sending live images of child abuse via the Internet and authorizes money to hire FBI agents who work on child exploitation cases. Funds would be used for the development of a nationwide program to fight Web-based child exploitation through a grant program and support for Justice Department-coordinated Internet Crimes Against Children task forces.
The legislation passed the House just before lawmakers left Washington and was approved by the Senate a short time earlier after months of negotiations and an on-air endorsement by talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Nick Lampson, D-Texas, introduced a pair of bills that served as the foundation for the final legislation while the Senate's original versions were sponsored by Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona, respectively.
In related news, Bush also signed legislation that requires sex offenders to provide Internet identifiers, including e-mail addresses, to state sex offender registries; and tasks the Justice Department to establish and maintain a system that allows social networking Web sites to compare Internet identifiers of its users with those provided to the national sex offender registry. The bill was introduced by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.
(Photo Credit: White House)
President Bush is expected to sign legislation aimed at bolstering government efforts to combat counterfeiting and piracy on Monday or Tuesday, Tech Daily Dose has learned. The bill, which passed the Senate by unanimous consent and won overwhelming House approval just before lawmakers left Washington, faced administration opposition because of language that would replace the government's interagency council for coordinating intellectual property enforcement with a high-level White House official who would oversee a broad IP agenda.
While Bush plans to approve the measure, sources said there would not be a signing ceremony. The anticipated action follows more than a week of intense pressure on the White House by some of Washington's top industry officials and key House and Senate Republicans. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, an original co-sponsor of the bill; House Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith, who co-sponsored his chamber's version; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the National Association of Manufacturers and others reached out to Bush and his senior advisers.
Read CongressDaily's recent coverage here.
From Wednesday's CongressDaily PM Edition:
Key House and Senate Republicans, joined by some of Washington's top lobbyists, are pressing President Bush to sign legislation aimed at bolstering government efforts to combat counterfeiting and piracy. The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent and won overwhelming House approval just before lawmakers left Washington Friday.
But the measure has faced administration opposition because of language that would replace the government's interagency council for coordinating intellectual property enforcement with a high-level White House official who would oversee a broad IP agenda. President Bush has until Tuesday to sign or veto the bill or it automatically becomes law. Read the full story here.
Also of interest in Wednesday's PM Edition: ICANN Boosts D.C. Presence Amid Accountability Concerns. Read the full story here.
President Bush announced the recipients of the nation's highest honor for science and technology on Monday, naming the recipients of the 2007 National Medal of Science and the 2007 National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
The science medal recognizes individuals for pioneering scientific research in a range of fields, including physical, biological, mathematical, social, behavioral, and engineering sciences. The technology award is given to individuals, teams, and/or companies/divisions for the development and commercialization of cutting edge innovations.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez joined Bush in congratulating the winners. “Their contributions to our society have impacted all of our lives and they serve as both an inspiration and as role models for future generations of American innovators,” Gutierrez said. Bush will present the medals at a White House ceremony next month.
Follow the jump to see a list of the winners...
President Bush on Tuesday announced his intention to nominate the Center for Democracy and Technology's James X. Dempsey to serve a five year term on the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent panel within the executive branch that will review the civil liberties impact of anti-terrorism policies and programs, providing advice on policy development and implementation and oversight of government actions relating to terrorism.
In legislation adopted last year, Congress reconstituted the five-member board and made it independent of the White House amid concerns over its autonomy. The board was established in 2004 at the behest of the 9/11 Commission and the posts (two Democrats and three Republicans), which are subject to Senate confirmation, are part-time.
In March, Bush named the Republicans that he wants to serve on the panel: Homeland Security Department civil liberties officer Daniel Sutherland, constitutional law professor Ronald Rotunda and General Electric Chief Security Officer Francis Taylor. The terms of its original members expired in January and the president has not announced the name of the candidate who would fill the remaining Democratic slot.
A couple of high-tech executives will meet with President Bush on Monday afternoon to discuss the short and long-term benefits of the recently enacted economic stimulus package. The CEOs will offer specific anecdotes of how the plan will stimulate their businesses -- particularly how its tax incentives let them spend money on new equipment, thereby improving productivity, efficiency, and capacity.
Raymond Pinard of 48HourPrint.com, a Boston-based business-to-business online printing firm, and Thomas Sawner of Educational Options, an Arlington, Va.-headquartered provider of Web-based educational products, are among the invitees. Other executives hail from Signal Metal Industries of Irving, Texas, and Permac Industries of Burnsville, Minn.
Can't wait until 9:01 p.m. ET on Monday night for President Bush's final State of the Union? Well, a special page on the White House Web site lets you relive speeches from the past seven years with an array of photo essays.
Some helpful links:
>State of the Union 2007
>State of the Union 2006
>State of the Union 2005
>State of the Union: The First Four Years
>State of the Union 2008: Guests of First Lady Laura Bush
>State of the Union 2008: Policy Initiatives
C-SPAN can also assist in your stroll down memory lane. The network's State of the Union Web page features video and transcripts of Bush's previous addresses as well as those made by his predecessors. Transcripts date back to President Harry S. Truman's 1945 speech.
As promised, the White House unveiled its annual holiday video starring President Bush's Scottish Terriers Barney and Miss Beazley on Wednesday. In this year's installment, the dogs want to become junior park rangers with the National Park Service… but first, they have to help decorate the White House for Christmas.
The Web video features a cameo appearance by Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne (one of the lesser-known members of the administration) as well as some pretty bad acting by First Daughters Jenna and Barbara. Oh, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair also shows up. I guess he didn’t have much else going on.
First Lady Laura Bush is expected to speak at the Children's National Medical Center on Wednesday and unveil BarneyCam 2007 -- the annual holiday video featuring first dogs Barney and Miss Beazley.
In last year's film, available on the White House Web site, Barney (the elder Scottish Terrier) takes meetings with President Bush, former Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings as he plans his annual holiday stage show.
Other featured performers in the skit included three-time Super Bowl champion and winner of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" Emmitt Smith, former presidential adviser Karl Rove and former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow.
The best cameo, in my opinion, was from country crooner Dolly Parton, who showed up for the performance and exclaimed: "I wouldn't have missed this for nothing in the world. I'm intendin' to have a doggone good time with Barney!"
One can only imagine what we're in store for this year ...
On Tuesday morning, President Bush is scheduled to take part in the White House's annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon. The current ceremony dates to 1947, when the first bird was presented to President Harry Truman.
The 2007 turkey and its alternate are from Dubois, Indiana, according to the White House Web site. This year, citizens can vote online to name the prized poultry. I cast my ballot for "Wing & Prayer" and you can cast yours here.
After the official presentation, the celebrity gobbler will be flown first class to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. where he will be the grand marshal of amusement park's Thanksgiving Day parade.
Technology Daily's PM Edition has coverage of President Bush's nomination of retired federal judge Michael Mukasey to serve as attorney general. The story has some stakeholders' early reactions, but here's a bit more:
The American Civil Liberties Union urged senators to refuse Mukasey's nomination unless he agrees to a list of demands. "It is imperative that the Senate receive a pledge under oath that the nominee’s first allegiance will be to the rule of law and the Constitution, not to a president or a political party," ACLU chief Anthony Romero said.
The ACLU wants him to pledge to give the Senate Judiciary Committee all documents in the Justice Department's possession concerning the authorization to monitor phone calls in the United States without a warrant, and concerning the use of "national security letters" to obtain documents domestically.
Senate Intelligence Committee ranking Republican Christopher (Kit) Bond of Missouri said he believes that Bush's nominee "will uphold the rule of law, protect our civil liberties and ensure that terror-fighting intelligence officers have the information and tools they need to protect our families.
Continue reading Reax To Bush's AG Nominee, Michael Mukasey.
The Bush Administration made another push for Congress to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act over the weekend. Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend told "Fox News Sunday" that "Congress and our overseers cannot walk back the vital tools that we need."
The controversial FISA changes that were enacted in August will expire in February unless lawmakers make the mandate permanent. "We need those tools. … And so we need FISA reform made permanent," she said.
From Friday morning's Technology Daily AM Edition:
The White House on Thursday announced its opposition to House legislation that would revamp the nation's overburdened patent system on the grounds that it would dramatically overhaul the procedure for calculating damages in infringement cases. CongressDaily reports that the Bush administration said the bill would limit a court's discretion in determining damages in infringement cases.
"Making this change to a reasonably well-functioning patent legal system is unwarranted and risks reducing the rewards from innovation -- a result that would undercut the other useful reforms in this bill," according to the statement of administration policy.
House floor debate begins shortly. More details should be available in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
President Bush on Wednesday gave a shout-out to online auction site eBay on Wednesday after lunching with Treasury and State Department officials. He said the entrepreneurial spirit has helped our economy keep pace with new technologies, and America is a leader in innovation.
"Twelve years ago, eBay did not exist. Today eBay is a global business that reported nearly $6 billion in net revenues last year," Bush said. He called the site an "entrepreneurial success story" that has helped thousands of Americans become entrepreneurs themselves.
It's worth noting that eBay CEO Meg Whitman was named chief California fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earlier this year. In previous campaign cycles, she has supported Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and former GOP Sen. George Allen of Virginia.
The recently launched musicFirst campaign, an effort aimed at getting musicians more money under copyright law, tried to get President Bush on their bandwagon last week. During the commander-in-chief's trip to Nashville, he was asked if he would support a performance right.
Here's the official White House transcript:
Question: Mr. President, music is one of our largest exports the country has. Currently, every country in the world -- except China, Iran, North Korea, Rwanda and the United States -- pay a statutory royalty to the performing artists for radio and television air play. Would your administration consider changing our laws to align it with the rest of the world?
President Bush: Help. (Laughter.) Maybe you've never had a President say this -- I have, like, no earthly idea what you're talking about. (Laughter and applause.) Sounds like we're keeping interesting company, you know? (Laughter.) Look, I'll give you the old classic: contact my office, will you? (Laughter.) I really don't -- I'm totally out of my lane. I like listening to country music, if that helps. (Laughter.)
The American Civil Liberties Union ridiculed the White House for censoring a report submitted by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to exclude previously released information. The edits resulted in panel member Lanny Davis's resignation. Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said the tweaks were "standard operating procedure."
ACLU Washington Legislative Office Director Caroline Fredrickson said attempting to keep civil liberties violations secret is "nothing short of childish." She also called the board "a toothless entity that blindly and obediently advances the Bush agenda." Read more about Davis in Technology Daily's PM edition.
Washington Whispers editor Paul Bedard at U.S. News & World Report says the controversy over the firing of federal prosecutors and what administration officials knew about it is renewing concerns among Bush aides about e-mailing.
A week after e-mails in the U.S. attorneys case became a main focus of the probe by congressional Democrats, several staffers said that they stopped using the White House system except for professional correspondence.
"We just got a bit lazy," said one aide. "We knew e-mails could be subpoenaed. We saw that with the Clintons but I don't think anybody saw that we were doing anything wrong." Bedard reported that some aides said they bought private e-mail accounts and are relying on text-messaging on personal cellular phones.
President Bush's Internet guru David Almacy said in an e-mail to reporters on Wednesday that the West Wing has heard from many people wanting to send get-well notes to press secretary Tony Snow, whose cancer has returned after undergoing surgery and chemotherapy two years ago.
So, a feature on the White House Web site was launched that allows the public to do just that. Internet users can find the "Get Well Tony" tab in the top right-hand corner of the main page. After only a few hours, Almacy told us his office had seen a "steady" flow of electronic well-wishes. As of 2 p.m., nearly 1,000 notes had come in.
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