6/7. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, gave a speech in Washington DC to the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA). He discussed his bill, S 2686, the "Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act".

Sen. Stevens (at right) discussed the video franchising section of the bill. "One area where there has been much discussion is the concern of local governments. They expressed them to the Committee at out first legislative hearing in May, their concerns about the provision in our first bill. In response to their concerns, I’ve asked my staff to work with local government, with USTA, and NCTA to seek a compromise on franchise reform."

He added that "I do believe that we’re going to be able to do what I said in the beginning -- create a level playing field, between cable and the Bells, encourage competition and the deployment of broadband, and in the process, create even more jobs as we go along. To strike a balance and level that playing field, this bill provides cable operators with interconnection rights."

He also discussed network neutrality. He said that "I think the compromise should and will focus on protecting the needs and rights of consumers, preserving network management, and staying away from the commercial interaction between companies that I refer to, that is so large, as a battle of the titans, when they get into a fight. I see no reason why we should use government lawyers to try and referee a fight between billion and billion dollar entities that are disputing their rights with one another. I think the FCC should be there to protect the consumer and to ensure that there is a level playing field for everybody."

And, he said that "A new draft will be circulated this week."

6/9. Chris Cox, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), gave a speech in New York City to the New York Financial Writers Association.

He said that "lawmakers and regulators" "make things so needlessly complicated". And, he said that "Our capital markets rely on trust, and investors can't trust legalese and jargon."

He said that the function of financial journalists is to translate government jargon, and the financial reports of public companies, into plain English. He added that "our entire free enterprise system would crumble without the work of thousands of journalists competing to discover the truth."

He also said that "Someone's always going to try to shoot the messenger. But know that the SEC will not be one of them."

However, he acknowledged that "the SEC earlier this year subpoenaed some journalists". But, he insisted, "issuing a subpoena to a journalist will be exceedingly rare".

He also discussed the SEC's rulemaking and enforcement activities with respect to executive compensation and back dating of stock options.

6/9. Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in which he outlined a theory of how technological innovation, combined with the right technology related policies, lead to greater productivity and economic growth.

Bernanke (at right) said that "technological change and innovation are today in large part driving economic growth and the improvement of living standards".

He elaborated that "even the very best ideas in science or engineering do not automatically translate into broader economic prosperity.  In large measure, the material benefits of innovation spring from complementarities between technology and economics, where I include in ``economics´´ not only economic ideas but also economic policies and, indeed, the entire economic system. When the economics is right, scientific and technological advances promote economic development, which in turn, in a virtuous circle, may provide resources and incentives that help to foster more innovation."

He argued that the case of the former Soviet Union is consistent with this theory. He said that it "did not lack for scientific and engineering talent but which had an economic system that was poorly suited for translating scientific advances into economic progress".

He also argued that the case of the United States in the last ten years supports his theory. He explained that "Before the mid-1990s, the growth of productivity -- the amount of output produced per worker or per hour of work -- had been relatively sluggish for more than two decades in this country." Then, "In the mid-1990s, however, productivity growth picked up in the United States. The growth rate of productivity increased still further around the turn of the century and remains strong today."

He then argued that "the pickup in U.S. productivity growth in the mid-1990s was importantly related to advances in information and communication technologies."

He then offered an explanation for why information technology boosted U.S. productivity, but not productivity in Europe -- the "complementarity of technology and economics."

First, he pointed to regulation of labor markets. He said that "taking full advantage of new information and communication technologies may require extensive reorganization of work practices, reassignment and retraining of workers, and ultimately some reallocation of labor among firms and industries. Regulations that raise the costs of hiring and firing workers and that reduce employers’ ability to change work assignments -- like those in a number of European countries, for example -- may make such changes more difficult to achieve."

Second, he pointed to regulation of production. He said that "a high degree of competition and low barriers to the entry of new firms in most industries in the United States provide strong incentives for firms to find ways to cut costs and to improve their products. In some other countries, in contrast, the prominence of government-owned firms with a degree of monopoly power, together with a regulatory environment that protects large incumbent firms and makes the entry of new firms difficult, reduces the competitive pressure for innovation and the application of new ideas."

Third, he pointed to "free and open trade; companies that are exposed to global competition tend to be much more efficient and to produce goods of higher quality than companies that are sheltered from international competition."

Fourth, he noted that "Some observers point to the depth, liquidity, and sophistication of American financial markets as contributing to recent productivity gains. Sizable markets for venture capital and ready access to equity financing facilitate start-up enterprises, which are often the best means of bringing new technologies to the market."

Fifth, he said that the U.S. "benefits from its high-quality research universities, which have shown both the willingness and the ability to collaborate with the private sector and, in some cases, with the government as well, in the development and commercialization of new ideas."

Sixth, he said that the "relatively more positive attitudes toward competition and entrepreneurship in the United States -- a factor that spans economics and sociology -- may also stimulate innovation and its commercial application as well as economic policies that support innovation.

Seventh, he said that "Management practices also differ across countries". However, he did not identify any of the better practices.

Finally, he identified one economic policy that hinders the U.S. He said that this is "the relatively poor performance of our K-12 educational system in stimulating interest in and providing solid training in the sciences".

He also discussed, in a different part of his speech, an aspect of the U.S. commercial and social culture that may also contribute to higher relative creativity, economic growth, and productivity growth in the U.S. than in Europe, Japan, and other developed nations.

He said, "it is OK to fail".

He added that "New opportunities will always arise for those who seek them. If you remain nimble in searching out new and unexpected opportunities, it will not only benefit you, but it will also benefit the economy and our society, as long experience has shown that dynamism and creativity are the seeds of innovation and of progress."

Notably, Bernanke said nothing about policies related to patents, copyrights, or other areas of intellectual property. Also, he had nothing to say about tax policies, such as the research and development tax credit. Finally, he said nothing about immigration and visas for innovation sector individuals.

Bernanke also said that a "significant amount of time passes between the initial development and diffusion of new technologies and the realization of the associated productivity benefits", and that this has been observed with information and communications technologies.

He suggested that for firms to realize productivity gains from new technologies, they must both invest in the physical technology, and in "intangible technology". He elaborated that adopting new technology also requires firms "to make collateral investments in research and development, organizational structure, and employee training."

That is, it takes companies and people years to figure out how to make good use of their new computers and software. This, suggested Bernanke, offers an explanation for why personal computers, and associated software, were developed in the 1980s, but increases in productivity did not appear until the 1990s.

The written transcript of Bernanke's speech also contains hyperlinks to six papers (and cites a seventh) which support arguments made in the speech.

Bernanke's speech is largely consistent with speeches given in recent years by former Chairman Alan Greenspan and former Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson. All have argued that productivity growth in the U.S. picked up around 1995, that this was the result of the adoption of new information technologies, and that this has caused economic growth and higher living standards. Also, all have left the role of intellectual property out of their analyses.

6/2. Bo Xilai (at right), the Minister of Commerce (MOC) of the Peoples Republic of China, gave a speech regarding intellectual property in the PRC at the APEC Ministerial Meeting. The MOC published a summary of the speech in awkward English.

This summary states that "IPR protection of all countries would be affected by the economic development level", and that for "developing countries ... to ask for high level IPR protection in the countries was unpractical". It also states that the PRC government hopes that "developed members would not excessively condemn developing countries on issue of IPR any more, would extend more understanding".

However, the summary adds that "in the coming 10 or 20 years, China would have more self-initiated intellectual property rights". It states that this will have "resulted from the inner demand of China's economic development not the outside pressure".

Perhaps the gist of his message is that undeveloped and developing countries create little IP, and hence have little incentive to protect IPR. And hence, developed countries that create IP, and export IP based products, should not expect these other countries to enforce IPR. However, the PRC hopes to advance economically and technologically. As it does, it will become a major producer of IP, and will then find it to be in its self interest to enforce an IPR regime.

6/8. Peter Mandelson, the European Trade Commissioner, gave a speech titled "A World of Opportunity: China and the future of international trade" in Beijing, PR China. He discussed many trade related subjects, including intellectual property rights (IPR) and IPR enforcement.

Mandelson (at left) said that "in the global information economy, knowledge is a currency of its own. All of us are taking steps to focus political attention on education and skills. This involves unprecedented investment, rules that protect intellectual property and a willingness to embrace innovation and the risks of entrepreneurship. Europe is benefiting from the talent of our newest Member States; here in China you are producing more than 4 million science graduates and 600,000 engineers each year."

He continued that "As tariffs and quotas are progressively reduced, the greatest barriers to trade are becoming regulatory barriers -- non-transparent licensing and standards enforcement, or poor protection for intellectual property rights. We need to work out together new responses to these new priorities."

He elaborated that there is a "serious problem" with IPR enforcement in the PRC. "The EU produces expensive, innovative and branded products. To retain their value these products depend on a robust international system to protect brands, patents and copyright. This is an area where we need to work with China to deliver rapid progress. And developing more robust IPR protection will also help China develop her own brands and patents in the future. Please do bear that in mind. I was pleased yesterday to sign an agreement to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods in some markets here. I have also agreed with Minister Bo, whom I value as both a friend and colleague, to work together to open new centres in China to monitor and enforce IPR compliance."

He also used this speech to identity other trade related problems in the PRC: "New non-tariff barriers such as procedures for product certification, labelling approvals, or approval of ingredients. Lengthy authorisation periods. Unjustified sanitary barriers in agricultural trade. The adoption of national standards that do not match widely accepted international ones. Failure to open up government procurement. Complex rules restricting foreign investment. Unequal access to banking finance."

He also said that "Trade in services is an area where China has made some ambitious commitments in the WTO, but where these commitments have not yet been translated into real opportunities for our operators: for instance in the financial, telecom and construction sectors. Yet opening these sectors would be in China’s interest. Opening up banking would allow enterprises to have better access to capital funding; opening telecoms would contribute to a more dynamic telecom sector, more jobs and cheaper calls."

On the other hand, Mandelson did not mention any of the trade restraining protectionist policies pursued by the European Union.

He also addressed the importance of the Doha round of trade negotiations. He stated that "our highest priority right now in the ``globalisation agenda´´ is an ambitious and successful conclusion of the Doha Development Round. There is no better means to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals. Failure to broker a deal would shake public confidence in our capacity to ensure that the benefits of globalisation are fairly shared. It would risk fuelling protectionism. It would weaken the rules-based international trading system and would make life much harder for China in growing your external trade. Doha is, in all these respects, too important to fail."

He also said that he wants to work with the Chinese to remove trade barriers, and that doing so will benefit both Europe and the PRC.

6/8. The Senate confirmed Susan Schwab to be the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). She replaces Robert Portman, who is the newly appointed Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Schwab released a statement after her confirmation. She wrote that "Trade is one of President Bush's top priorities. He has championed a compelling vision that will increase trade flows, create new economic opportunities for all countries, alleviate poverty in the developing world and promote democratic reform."

She added that "I am eager to move ahead with our bilateral and multilateral efforts to realize the president's vision for free and fair trade. And I look forward to working closely with members of the House and Senate to advance the interests of American farmers, workers, businesses and service providers as we advance America's pro-trade agenda."

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, spoke in support of Schwab in the Senate. He also said that "We need to achieve substantial progress in the Doha Round negotiations, and soon, if we’re going to succeed in getting an agreement before trade promotion authority expires next year.  And we still have a long way to go to reach an ambitious outcome that would be acceptable to the United States Congress."

Sen. Grassley continued that "We're also in the process of negotiating free trade agreements with a number of important trading partners, including South Korea and Malaysia. Our negotiations with South Korea and Malaysia will present new challenges, particularly in addressing regulatory and other non-tariff barriers to trade. It’s essential that our bilateral negotiations with South Korea, Malaysia, and other nations conclude in time to be considered under trade promotion authority."

In addition, it's important that our next Trade Representative continue to encourage meaningful regulatory reform in other major trading partners such as Japan and China." He added that "we in Congress need to recommit ourselves to securing improved market access for our exporters, both in the Doha Round negotiations and by means of bilateral and regional trade agreements."

6/8. The Senate confirmed Peter Sheridan to be a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by a vote of 98-0. See, Roll Call No. 167.

6/8. The Senate confirmed Noel Hillman to be a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by a vote of 98-0. See, Roll Call No. 166.

6/9. Jeffrey Rosen was named General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). See, OMB release [PDF]. He was previously General Counsel at the Department of Transportation. Before that, he was a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis.

6/9. President Bush announced his intent to nominate Stephen McMillin to be Deputy Director for the Budget at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). See, OMB release [PDF].

6/9. President Bush announced his intent to nominate Randall Fort to be Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. He is currently Co-Head of Global Security at Goldman Sachs. See, White House release.

6/9. President Bush nominated Alexander Acosta to be the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida for the term of four years. See, White House release.

6/9. President Bush nominated Troy Eid to be be the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado for the term of four years. See, White House release.

6/9. President Bush nominated Phillip Green to be the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois for the term of four years. See, White House release.

6/9. President Bush nominated George Holding to be U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina for the term of four years. See, White House release.

6/9. President Bush nominated Sharon Lynn Potter to be the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia for the term of four years. See, White House release.

6/9. President Bush nominated Brett Tolman to be the U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah for the term of four years. See, White House release. He is currently Chief Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee's (SJC) Crime and Terrorism Unit.

The House will meet at 12:30 PM for morning hour, and at 2:00 PM for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30 PM. The House will consider many non-technology related items under suspension of the rules. It will also consider the conference report on HR 4939, the "Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, 2006". See, Republican Whip Notice.

The Senate will meet at 2:00 PM for morning hour. At 3:00 PM, it will begin consideration of S 2766, the defense authorization bill.

9:30 AM - 3:00 PM. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will hold a roundtable meeting on the use of interactive data and Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). See, SEC release and story titled "SEC to Hold Series of Roundtable Meetings on XBRL" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,328, March 13, 2006. See also, June 7 release with agenda and list of speakers. Location: SEC, 100 F St., NE.

10:00 AM. The majority staff of the Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) will hold an event titled "press briefing", to release and discuss a revised version of S 2686, the "Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006". The SCC notice adds that "This briefing will be pen and pad only, and we will not have the ability to phone reporters into the briefing. For those reporters that will be attendance, the room is very small, so please be prepared stand. Please RSVP to (limited to one reporter per outlet): Aaron Saunders" at aaron_saunders at commerce dot senate dot gov. Location: Room 254, Russell Building.

6:00 - 8:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Professional Responsibility Committee will host a continuing legal education (CLE) seminar titled "Client Creation, Conflicts and Confidentiality in the Administrative Process". See, registration form [PDF]. Prices vary. The deadline to register is 5:00 PM on June 8. Location: Wiley Rein & Fielding, 1776 K Street, NW.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding its draft [122 pages in PDF] of its Federal Information Processing Standard titled "Digital Signature Standard (DSS)". This is FIPS Pub 186-3. See also, notice in the Federal Register, March 13, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 48, at Pages 12678-12679.

Deadline to submit comments to the Department of Defense's (DOD) Defense Acquisition Regulations System (DARS) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) with respect to the exemption from the Buy American Act for the acquisition of commercial information technology. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 12, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 70, at Pages 18694-18695.

Deadline to submit applications to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) for Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Program grants. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 11, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 69, at Pages 18271-18276.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Copyright Office regarding its proposal to amend its rules governing the submission of royalty fees to the Copyright Office to require such payments to be made by electronic funds transfer. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 27, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 81, at Pages 24829-24831.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding Draft Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 186-3 [122 pages in PDF], titled "Digital Signature Standard (DSS)".

The House will meet at 9:30 AM for morning hour, and at 11:00 AM for legislative business. The House will consider three non-technology related items under suspension of the rules. It will also consider HR  5576, the "Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2007", subject to a rule. See, Republican Whip Notice.

8:45 AM - 5:00 PM. Day one of a two day meeting of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology. See, notice in the Federal Register: May 24, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 100, at Page 29919. Location: Employees Lounge, Administration Building, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD.

10:00 AM. The Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) will hold the third of three hearings on S 2686, the "Communications, Consumer's Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006". See, notice. Press contact: Aaron Saunders (Stevens) at 202-224-3991 or Andy Davis (Inouye) at 202-224-4546. The hearing will be webcast by the SCC. Location: Room 106, Dirksen Building.

10:30 - 11:30 AM. Vint Cerf (Google), Whitfield Diffie (Chief Security Officer of Sun Microsystems), and Susan Landau (Sun Microsystems) will hold a telephonic news conference to discuss how imposing CALEA mandates on VOIP services will harm security and innovation. The call in number is 1-800-309-5940. The conference ID number is 1398835. For more information, contact Bob Cohen (Information Technology Association of America) at 703-284-5301 or bcohen at itaa dot org.

3:00 PM. The House Judiciary Committee's (HJC) Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law will hold a hearing titled "State Taxation of Interstate Telecommunications Services". See, notice. Press contact: Jeff Lungren or Terry Shawn at 202-225-2492. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding mandatory thousands-block number pooling. See, notice in the Federal Register, March 15, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 50, at Pages 13323-13328. This NPRM is FCC 06-14 in CC Docket No. 99-200.

5:00 PM. Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding its Draft Special Publication 800-96 [169 pages in PDF] titled "PIV Card / Reader Interoperability Guidelines". PIV is an acronym for Personal Identity Verification.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM legislative business. See, Republican Whip Notice.

9:00 - 11:00 AM. Day two of a two day meeting of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology. See, notice in the Federal Register: May 24, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 100, at Page 29919. Location: Employees Lounge, Administration Building, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD.

9:00 - 11:30 AM. The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC) will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, May 30, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 103, at Pages 30717-30718. Location: Embassy Suites Hotel, Capital A Meeting Room, 900 10th Street, NW.

9:30 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) may hold a hearing titled "Reconsidering Our Communications Laws: Ensuring Competition and Innovation". See, notice. The SJC frequently cancels or postpones hearings without notice. Press contact: Courtney Boone at 202-224-5225. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

10:00 AM. The House Homeland Security Committee will meet to mark up several bill, including HR 4941, the "Homeland Security Science and Technology Enhancement Act of 2006", which adds a new section to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 titled "Cybersecurity Research and Development". Location: Room 311, Cannon Building.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Department of State's (DOS) International Telecommunication Advisory Committee (ITAC) will meet to prepare for the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2006 on November 6-24, 2006, in Ankara, Turkey. See, notice in the Federal Register, March 29, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 60, at Page 15798. Location: __.

10:30 AM - 12:30 PM. The New America Foundation (NAF) will host a panel discussion titled "Sharpening Our Competitive Edge Through Investment in Advanced Technology Tools for Learning". The speakers will include Henry Kelly (Federation of American Scientists), Lawrence Grossman (Digital Promise), Michael Calabrese (NAF), Marland Buckner (Microsoft), Walter Cheek (BreakAway Games), and Dexter Fletcher (Institute for Defense Analyses). See, notice. Location: Room HC-5, Capitol Building.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The DC Bar Association's Intellectual Property Law Section will host a panel discussion titled "Fair Use (Part II) -- Fair Use of Copyrighted Works in the Digital Environment". The speakers will include Jonathan Band and Robert Kasunic (Principal Legal Advisor, Copyright Office). The price to attend ranges from $20-$40. For more information, call 202-626-3463. See, notice. Location: D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1250 H Street NW, B-1 Level.

12:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Cable Practice Committee will host a brown bag lunch. The topic will be "Views from the Hill". The scheduled speakers are James Assey (Minority Senior Counsel for Communications, Senate Commerce Committee), Will Nordwind (Counsel and Policy Coordinator, House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet), Johanna Shelton (Minority Counsel, House Commerce Committee), Lisa Sutherland (Majority Staff Director for Sen. Ted Stevens). RSVP to Frank Buono at fbuono at willkie dot com. Location: Willkie Farr & Gallagher, 1875 K Street, NW.

RESCHEDULED FROM JUNE 7. 2:00 PM. The House Commerce Committee's (HCC) Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing titled "Violent and Explicit Video Games: Informing Parents and Protecting Children". See, notice. The hearing will be webcast by the HCC. Location: Room 2322, Rayburn Building.

2:00 PM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) may hold a hearing titled "Judicial Nominations". See, notice. The SJC frequently cancels or postpones hearings without notice. Press contact: Courtney Boone at 202-224-5225. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

7:00 - 9:00 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) will host a reception. See, registration form [PDF]. Prices vary. Location: Corcoran Art Gallery, 500 17th Street, NW.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM legislative business. See, Republican Whip Notice.

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Day one of a two day meeting to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure. See, notice in the Federal Register, May 22, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 98, at Page 29356. Location: NSF, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 1235, Arlington, VA.

8:30 AM - 4:00 PM. The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Privacy Office will host a public workshop titled "Operationalizing Privacy: Compliance Frameworks & Privacy Impact Assessments", to explore policy, legal, and operational frameworks for Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) and Privacy Threshold Analyses (PTAs). See, notice in the Federal Register: May 24, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 100, at Page 29968. Location: GSA Regional Headquarters, Auditorium, 7th & D Streets, SW.

9:00 AM. The House Judiciary Committee's (HJC) Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property will hold a hearing titled "Patent Trolls: Fact or Fiction". See, notice. Press contact: Jeff Lungren (HJC) or Terry Shawn (HJC) at 202-225-2492, or Beth Frigola (Rep. Smith) at 202-225-4236. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

POSTPONED TO JUNE 21. 9:30 AM. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a meeting. The event will be webcast by the FCC. Location: FCC, 445 12th Street, SW, Room TW-C05 (Commission Meeting Room).

The Defense Science Board 2006 Summer Study on Information Management for Net-Centric Operations will hold a one day close meeting See, notice in the Federal Register, April 11, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 69, Page 18292. Location: 3601 Wilson Boulevard, 3rd Floor, Arlington, VA.

Deadline for the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) entity titled "Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks" to submit its report to the FCC.

8:00 AM - 2:00 PM. Day two of a two day meeting to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure. See, notice in the Federal Register, May 22, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 98, at Page 29356. Location: NSF, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 1235, Arlington, VA.

9:30 AM - 5:30 PM. The Antitrust Modernization Commission (AMC) will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, June 1, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 105, at Pages 31152-31153. Location: Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Conference Center, 601 New Jersey Ave., NW.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding its Draft Special Publication 800-80 [49 pages in PDF], titled "Guide for Developing Performance Metrics for Information Security".

10:00 AM. The Senate Commerce Committee's (SCC) Subcommittee on Technology, Innovation, and Competitiveness will hold a hearing titled "High-Performance Computing". Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) will preside. Location: Room 562, Dirksen Building.

12:15 - 1:45 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Young Lawyers Committee will host a brown bag lunch titled "Copyright Overview and Hot Topics for Communications Lawyers". For more information, contact Tarah Grant at tsgrant at hhlaw dot com or 703-610-6155 or Brendan Carr at bcarr at wrf dot com or 202-719-7305. RSVP to Brendan Carr. Location: Wiley Rein & Fielding, 1776 K Street, NW.

6:00 PM. The filing window closes for the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Auction 66. This is the auction of Advance Wireless Services (AWS) licenses in the 1710-1755 MHz and 2110-2155 MHz (AWS-1) bands. See also, notice in the Federal Register, June 2, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 106, at Pages 32089-32091.

6/7. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its Draft Special Publication 800-100 [huge Zipped PDF] titled "Information Security Handbook: A Guide for Managers". The deadline to submit comments is August 7, 2006.

6/5. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its Draft Special Publication 800-97 [huge PDF] titled "Guide to IEEE 802.11i: Robust Security Networks". The deadline to submit comments is July 7, 2006.

5/25. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its Draft Special Publication 800-85B [149 pages in PDF] titled "PIV Data Model Test Guidelines". PIV is an acronym for Personal Identity Verification. The deadline to submit comments is June 22, 2006, at 5:00 PM.

5/23. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released its Draft Special Publication 800-96 [169 pages in PDF] titled "PIV Card / Reader Interoperability Guidelines". The deadline to submit comments is June 13, 2006, at 5:00 PM.

6/9. The Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) released a paper titled "Rhetoric vs. Reality: Lessig on Network Neutrality". The author is the PFF's Kyle Dixon. He rebuts the op-ed titled "No Tolls on the Internet" by Lawrence Lessig and Robert McChesney published in the June 8 issue of the Washington Post.

6/6. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), and other members of the House Commerce Committee sent a letter [3 pages in PDF] to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting that it conduct a study on the use of (or failure to use) information technology by dealers in credit-derivatives markets. The Congressmen wrote that "Dealers are relying on telephones and faxes to conduct and confirm trades instead of using information technology systems to help them conduct and manage their credit derivative activities and exposures." The letter asks the GAO, among other things, to "Determine the extent to which dealers are using information technology systems to conduct, confirm, transfer, and manage the risk of credit derivatives transactions, as well as the reliability, resiliency, and security of any such systems."

6/1. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing that it will hold a public hearing on August 29, 2006, at 10:00 AM, regarding its notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) pertaining to the application of 26 U.S.C. § 199, which provides a deduction for income attributable to domestic production activities, to certain transactions involving computer software. In addition, August 30 is the deadline to submit comments. And, any persons who wish to make presentations at the meeting must submit copies by August 8. This notice also recites the proposed rules changes. See, Federal Register, June 1, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 105, at Pages 31128-31129. The IRS also published a separate notice that announces, describes, and recites, temporary rules changes on the same subject. See, Federal Register, June 1, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 105, at Pages 31074-31077. Finally, the IRS published a third notice that announces, describes, and recites, rules changes pertaining to Section 199 generally. See, Federal Register, Federal Register, June 1, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 105, at Pages 31267-31333.

5/30. The European Union's (EU) Court of Justice (COJ) issued its judgment in European Parliament v. Council of the European Union, annulling the 2004 agreement [7 pages in PDF] between the U.S. and the EU regarding providing airlines' passenger name record (PNR) data to the U.S. government. This annulment takes effect on September 30, 2006. See also, COJ release [PDF] explaining the judgment. This annuls the Council of the European Union's decision (No. 2004/496/EC) dated May 17, 2004, regarding the "Agreement between the European Community and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of PNR data by Air Carriers to the United States Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Customs and Border Protection". It also annuls the European Commission's decision (No. 2004/535/EC) dated May 14, 2004 on the "adequate protection of personal data contained in the Passenger Name Record of air passengers transferred to the United States Bureau of Customs and Border Protection". The European Commission stated in a release that "The Commission will respect the Court's judgement and is currently analyzing its full implications. The Commission remains committed to the fight against terrorism while fully respecting fundamental human rights, such as the right to privacy."

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