The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates opposed petitions by i-Wireless and Head Start, both of which ask the FCC to forbear from enforcing a requirement that eligible telecom carriers offering Lifeline service provide service at least partly over their own facilities. Both companies are resellers which offer service using other carrier’s facilities. The National Emergency Number Association also raised concerns, saying the FCC should impose the same E-911 requirements imposed on wireless resellers TracFone and Virgin Wireless.
The FCC’s national broadband plan must allow some network management in case of a national emergency, said ChicagoFirst, a nonprofit association of Chicago financial institutions including Allstate and Bank of America. In a filing at the FCC, the association said any plan “must include options for addressing the network congestion that would result in the event of a serious pandemic, bioterrorism attack, or other possible disasters.” To recover quickly from an emergency, financial firms may have to do extensive telecommuting, requiring significant bandwidth in local neighborhoods, ChicagoFirst said. Federal policy “must ensure that the data flows critical to the nation’s economy continue,” it said. “Thus, traffic should be prioritized on its criticality to national and economic security.”
On June 24, 2009, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Highways and Transit approved for full Committee action the draft Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009.
During the recession, venture capitalists in the U.S. telecom industry are focusing on keeping their current investments afloat instead of expanding their portfolios, experts said in interviews. But some wireless and IP investors are filling the gap, they said. Meanwhile, venture capital firms are interested in funding companies that might receive economic stimulus money.
People with disabilities would have better access to communications devices under a bill (HR-3101) introduced last week by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., former chairman of the House Telecom Subcommittee. Markey introduced similar legislation in the last Congress but it didn’t pass. HR-3101 would require the disabled to have access to phone-type equipment and services used over the Internet. Internet phones and other devices would have to be hearing-aid compatible under the bill. Money from the universal service program’s Lifeline and Link-up programs could be spent on broadband services, and up to $10 million a year from USF could be used for equipment for the deaf or blind. The bill also would require closed captioning decoder circuitry in all video programming devices, and extend the close captioned obligations to video programming on the Internet. Other parts of the bill would require easy-to-use TV program selection menus for blind people, and require access to televised emergency programming for people with low-vision or no sight. The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, Communications Service for the Deaf, and National Association of the Deaf, and American Council of the Blind praised the bill.
An audience gathered for technical and policy updates on the Nationwide Health Information Network and the open source Connect software developed by more than 20 federal agencies got a personal view Monday of the problems that health information exchange is supposed to address. Sarah Wade, wife of retired Army Sgt. Ted Wade, spoke of the difficult medical journey she’s undertaken with her husband since he was severely injured in Iraq in 2004. In the past five years he’s been cared for at 15 facilities and is currently eligible for care through three government agencies -- the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services -- and through two government insurance programs -- Tricare and Medicare, she said. Yet none of those government agencies, and none of the civilian providers he sees, can share information or access each other’s records, she said.
GENEVA -- Draft ITU-T standards aim to spur international involvement, collaboration, evidence exchange and information sharing for cybersecurity, participants said after an ITU-T meeting last week.
On June 8, 2009, China's Ministry of Health published a draft regulation to implement the risk assessment aspects of China's new Food Safety Law (FSL), which was scheduled to go into effect June 1, 2009. The goal of the regulation is to standardize food safety risk assessments.
The Government Accountability Office has issued its report to congressional requestors entitled "Aviation Security: Better Data and Targeted FAA Efforts Needed to Identify and Address Safety Issues of Small Air Cargo Carriers." (Report, dated June 2009, available at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09614.pdf)
The Census Bureau has issued an Automated Export System broadcast announcing that it has developed AESDirect and AESPcLink Sample Shipment Guides which provide screenshots of the entire filing process in each respective application, along with important information and helpful tips that appear among Census' most frequently asked questions. (Notice, available at http://www.aesdirect.gov/support/userguide.htmlsample_shipments)