The Office of Textiles and Apparel has announced that effective April 1, 2009, China's value-added tax (VAT) export rebate (duty drawback rate) for most textile and apparel goods will rise one percentage point to 16%. The rate for leather and leather apparel products will rise to 13%. The list of products and tariff number (partially in English) subject to the increase has also been posted. (See future issue of ITT for details.) (OTEXA press release with link to list, dated 03/30/09, http://web.ita.doc.gov/otexa/hotiss.nsf/7bfa72c94f543da685256e5b00498a4d/bb32a878458380a185257566004caeef?OpenDocument)

On March 11, 2009, the President signed into law H.R. 1105 (P.L. 111-8), the fiscal year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act. The following are highlights of the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act's funding and other provisions for the Food and Drug Administration.

The FCC is expected under chairman-designate Julius Genachowski to crank up pressure on those who make pitches at the commission to file more-detailed ex parte letters afterward than they have. Some filings have been skimpy, and meetings where deals resulting in orders were cut have gone undisclosed.

Specialized terms of service agreements with new media providers will allow federal agencies to have a presence on YouTube, Flickr and other sites while still complying with legal requirements, the General Services Administration announced last week. The agreements are the culmination of nine months of work by a coalition of some 17 agencies, led by GSA. “Millions of Americans visit new media sites every day. The new agreements make it easier for the government to provide official information to citizens via their method of choice,” said GSA Acting Administrator Paul Prouty.

Health care providers are sorting through the electronic health record requirements within the Recovery Act and awaiting regulations from the yet-to-be-confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services. During a webinar sponsored by the eHealth Initiative, Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, said there'll be a policy lag as providers shift from the paper-based HIPAA rules to the electronic rules in the act because the act passed so quickly. The act has two definitions of electronic health records, he said: one definition that applies if a provider wants Medicare reimbursement, and another, broader definition that applies to the privacy section. While it’s good to protect patient data even in electronic systems that don’t qualify for reimbursement, the definition raises questions about what records the privacy standards apply to, he said. Would they apply to a Microsoft Word document, he asked, that might be sent to a patient seeking records? Kristen Rosati, a partner at Coppersmith, Gorden, Schermer & Brockelman, said the requirement to provide electronic copies of records to patients also raises the question of whether those records will even be readable. Some systems require their own software to read the record, she said. Rosati said lawmakers missed an opportunity to create more straightforward language defining business associates. Under the new law, business associates of HIPAA-covered entities must report breaches of unprotected data. But because the HIPAA definition of business associate is so convoluted, she said, she predicted covered entities will get pushback from partners that don’t want to be defined as business associates. Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said some of the marketing provisions are still unclear as well. The law requires patient authorization before marketing to people based on their health information can occur, but makes an exception for drugs the patient is already taking. It’s not clear if generics would fall under that exemption, she said. The law also allows state attorneys general to pursue data breach cases, which Rosati said opens the door to “political mischief.”

Privacy officers would be installed in every unit of the Department of Homeland Security under a bill approved Tuesday by the House. The action has long been sought by privacy activists. DHS agencies include the Transportation Security Administration, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Directorate of Science and Technology, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis and the Directorate for National Protection and Programs. DHS has a department- wide privacy office. Its recently appointed chief, Mary Ellen Callahan, came from the online-advertising industry (WID Feb 20 p2). The Department of Homeland Security Component Privacy Officer Act (HR-1617) was introduced Thursday by Rep. Christopher Carney, D-Pa., and was approved on a suspension vote, an ACLU spokesman told us. “Americans need these officials in place to protect the privacy rights we all rely on, and to raise red flags when the potential for abuse arises,” said Caroline Fredrickson, the director of the ACLU Washington legislative office.

To seek broadband grant and loans at the NTIA and the Rural Utility Service, states need structures and systems, officials said, and fierce deadlines and scarce resources may drive those lacking such mechanisms to adopt or adapt established models.

The Port of Los Angeles states that continued weakened world economy and Chinese New Year observance factory closures contributed to a 32.56 percent decline in container traffic, year over year, for February at the Port of Los Angeles. Container volumes are down a total of 20.94 percent for the 2009 calendar year and 8.91 percent for the fiscal year, which began July 1, 2008. (News release, dated 03/12/09, available at http://www.portoflosangeles.org/newsroom/2009_releases/news_031309_econ_downturn.asp)

Of the $650 million in the economic stimulus package for the DTV coupon program, $490 million will pay for the actual coupons, new NTIA data show. That’s enough “recovery funding” for 12.25 million additional coupons, making about 46 million total with the original 33.5 million that the DTV Transition and Public Safety Act provided for. The new money raises the total for coupons to $1.83 billion from $1.34 billion. At the 55.4 percent redemption rate through Tuesday, 25.5 million coupons of the 46 million would be used. The 22 cents per envelope that the NTIA will pay IBM to mail 4.6 million envelopes under a Feb. 27 contract amendment (CD March 10 p4) is the cost to upgrade each mailing from “standard” rate to first class, including the postage and the envelope, an agency spokesman said. It started using the upgrades last week to begin clearing the backlog of coupons on the waiting list, he said.

Of the $650 million in the economic stimulus package for the DTV coupon program, $490 million in “recovery funding” actually will pay for 12.25 million additional coupons, new NTIA data show. That grows the program to 46 million coupons total with the original 33.5 million that the DTV Transition and Public Safety Act provided for. The new money raises the total for coupons to $1.83 billion from $1.34 billion. At the 55.4 percent redemption rate through Tuesday, 25.5 million coupons of the 46 million would be used. The 22 cents per envelope that the NTIA will pay IBM to mail 4.6 million envelopes under a Feb. 27 contract amendment (CED March 10 p1) is the cost to upgrade each mailing from “standard” rate to first class, including the postage and the envelope, an agency spokesman said. It started using the upgrades last week to begin clearing the backlog of coupons on the waiting list, he said.