Although the debt-limit discussions are sucking much of the air out of Washington DC, Congress and the Administration remain focused on many key technology issues. Having just passed the half-way point for 2011, the clock is ticking louder — hence the long list of hearings and events listed in our calendar this week!
Highlights for the week include the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on privacy this Thursday. The hearing, introduced as the first of several on broad internet privacy issues, will be led jointly by Reps. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and Greg Walden (R-OR), with the focus on identifying key issues for legislation. In what is getting to be a regular occurrence, the hearing will include testimony and questioning of the three key Federal Agencies: FCC, FTC and DOC.
Regardless of how much — or how little — gets accomplished between now and the August recess, it’s looking more and more likely that this month will be packed with work to set the stage for a flurry of activity on our favorite topics in the Fall. That is, given the major issues to be resolved and jurisdictional challenges on issues such as privacy, patent reform and cyber and data security, legislators’ best intentions to advance anything will have to break the current logjam, muddied by the looming debt discussions.
To discuss the outlook on these key issues for the remainder of 2011, we’ll be holding Technology Policy and IP Committee meetings on Monday and Tuesday of next week, respectively. For more information, or if you would like to participate, please contact me dleduc@siia.net.
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