U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) outlined his ten top priorities for his chairmanship of the Senate Communications Subcommittee during the current 108th Congress. The “Burns NexGenTen Tech Agenda” includes:
the reintroduction of the Burns-Wyden CAN-SPAM bill, which requires senders of unsolicited commercial email to provide an easy “unsubscribe” option for consumers and imposes harsh penalties on transgressors who falsify information to mask the origins of the sender.
Spectrum Management Reform to move away from the failed auction model and possibly toward a royalty based approach
an E-911 bill that mandates 911 as a universal wireless emergency number.
an initiative to take aim at The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ ( ICANN) “half-hearted” efforts to self-reform. Burns charges that ICANN ineffectiveness poses serious problems for American national security, as evidenced by the recent “denial of service” (DOS) attack on nine of the 13 Internet “root servers” in October.
a new bill that would protect wireless privacy by prohibiting the use of scanners or other technologies to eavesdrop on wireless callers without their knowledge
an online privacy bill that adopts a “two-tiered” approach, requiring an opt-in consent for sensitive information and opt-out for everything else. The bill also preempts inconsistent state laws or regulations.
legislative support for a “U.S.-Asia Network” program that would address the problem of national government favoritism for domestic technologies and seek to expand consumer choice in the Asia-Pacific region
a new Broadband Expensing bill that would provide tax incentives to business that invest in broadband, with a focus on accelerating the deployment of high-speed Internet access across the country, especially in rural America. The broadband bill creates a temporary tax incentive for providers in the form of “expensing,” allowing an immediate deduction of a capital expenditure in the first year of service rather than depreciating that investment over time. In the case of “current generation” broadband investments in rural and underserved areas, the bill would allow 50% expensing of the investment, with the rest to be depreciated according to normal depreciation schedules. When providers build out “next generation” broadband networks, the bill would provide for 100% expensing.
support a solvent and stable Universal Service Fund that sustains consumers in rural America
more support for digital democracy initiatives, such as webcasts and online documents.
http://www.senate.gov/~burns/
