The Senate Republican High Tech Task Force (HTTF) unveiled an amb...

digital certificates. Chmn. Ensign (R-Nev.), along with Majority Leader Frist (Tenn.), Sens. Hatch (Utah), Allen (Va.) and others, unveil their priorities and announced new task force members. Participants want to build on the success of the CAN-SPAM Act, ensure spammers get “swift and certain” FTC enforcement and support efforts to give law enforcement, agencies and industry tools to fight foreign and domestic network attacks. They will advocate aggressive enforcement of existing laws to protect intellectual property and encourage legitimate, legal distribution of copyrighted works. To strengthen the economy, HTTF wants to cast in stone the Internet tax moratorium, seek a permanent R&D tax credit and make federal IT systems more secure and efficient. Members said they wanted to move beyond the Class Action Reform bill with additional tort reforms to “eliminate frivolous lawsuits and protect innovators.” The task force also vowed to protect new technologies from premature controls -- “legislation in search of a problem,” as they called it -- and said RFID could help the economy. The Retail Industry Leaders Assn. lauded the agenda, saying HTTF adheres to its view that “lawmakers should tread very lightly when considering whether to regulate the emerging applications of this important technology.” In regard to protecting privacy and e-commerce, HTTF said market-based solutions should lead the way, with fairness to both online and offline stakeholders. A notable addition to HTTF’s 40-point agenda called for e-health initiatives using technology to cut administrative overhead, minimize risk such as errors in filling prescriptions and eliminate barriers to legitimate sharing of medical information. Ensign and several colleagues said they would pay more attention to math and science education. “We've got our priorities messed up,” he said, noting the frequency with which students opt not to study math and science, pursuing other careers instead.