Washington Trade Daily reports that the President's chief economic advisor recently said that the President is not likely to focus on the three pending free trade agreements until the U.S. and global economies improve. (WTD, dated 07/19/09) available at www.washingtontradedaily.com.)
In comments on the FCC’s inquiry for its national broadband plan, satellite companies and advocacy groups said satellites can be used for public safety initiatives as well as providing Internet connectivity for rural homes. The “FCC could also encourage service providers to integrate satellite-based communications offerings for public safety users to promote ubiquitous geographic coverage,” said Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corporation, in an FCC filing.
Electric industry representatives told a House subcommittee the electric grid is well-secured from cyber- attacks and that its greatest cybersecurity problem is a lack of information from the federal government. Their answers contrasted sharply with the opening statement of House Homeland Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., who scolded the electric industry for failing to take adequate steps toward protection. She cited statistics from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, that only 29 percent of generation plant owners and operators have identified at least one critical asset and 63 percent of transmission facilities owners have identified at least one critical asset. “Many in industry are apparently trying to avoid compliance with their own inadequate standards,” she said. “This effort seems to epitomize the head-in-the-sand mentality that seems to permeate broad sections of the electric industry.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has posted the statement from USTR spokeswoman Carol Guthrie on the recent conclusion of the 5th round of negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that was held in Rabat on July 16 and 17, 2009. Participants in this meeting agreed that the next round will be hosted by the Republic of Korea in November 2009. With regard to the progress of negotiations, participants confirmed their intention to conclude the agreement as soon as possible in 2010. (Press Release, dated 07/20/09, available at http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2009/july/statement-ustr-spokeswoman-carol-guthrie-anti-counte-0)
FCC appropriations for FY 2010 are set at $335.8 million in the Financial Services appropriation bill (HR-3170) which the House approved last week 219-208. The funding level is the same as in the Senate appropriations bill (S-1432) that awaits a vote in the full Senate. As in past years, the bill includes a provision allowing funds to be made available for interagency funding of national security and emergency preparedness telecom initiatives that may benefit multiple agencies.
TracFone asked the FCC to drop a condition imposed in a 2008 order making the wireless company an eligible telecommunications carrier under the Universal Service Fund Lifeline program. The condition requires TracFone to certify in states where it offers Lifeline service that it’s carrying out all its 911 and E-911 duties. In a petition Thursday, TracFone said the FCC imposed the condition based on statements by the Keystone chapter of the National Emergency Numbers Association. But the group’s secretary, Timothy Baldwin, later admitted making misrepresentations to the FCC, TracFone said. “The Commission’s stated reason for that condition ceases to exist,” it said. The condition has burdened TracFone and the FCC, the company said. “To date, two petitions to reject TracFone state law compliance certifications have been filed with the Commission.” Both are based on “unsupported allegations and unproven opinions,” and neither would have been allowed without the state compliance condition, it said.
In June 2009, the World Customs Organization Council adopted 221 sets of recommended amendments to the Harmonized System Nomenclature, to enter into force on 1 January 2012. Contracting Parties have 6 months during which they can object to a recommended amendment. Recommended amendments available here. (Notice, available at http://www.wcoomd.org/home_wco_topics_hsoverviewboxes_tools_and_instruments_backgrounddocumenths2012.htm)
State officials argued for passage of a bill (S-251) to allow jamming of illegal cellphones in prisons, at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday. But public safety and the wireless industry pressed for alternative methods to solve the problem until the technology is refined enough to protect emergency and consumer communications from interference. Bill sponsor Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R- Texas, said she would include suggestions by industry and public safety in a revised draft of the bill she hopes to release next week. The committee ranking member said Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, signed on as a co-sponsor Wednesday.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D- W.Va., sent a letter to 11 agencies on Tuesday asking for their cybersecurity provisions in light of a reported July 4 distributed denial of service attack against several federal and private sector sites that kept the sites unavailable for days. The letter asks for plans and procedures, how often the agencies test emergency recovery, how often they probe their own systems and whether contractors have cybersecurity- related service agreements that assure attackers can’t use them as a backdoor means of entry. He sent the letters to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, and Transportation, the FTC, the FCC, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Maritime Commission. Rockefeller is the sponsor of the Cybersecurity Act (S-773).
The Commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission are scheduled to vote by July 20, 2009 on a policy statement concerning the tracking label requirement for children's products1 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA2).