May 2009

Senate health reform hearings focus on IT

Continued adoption of healthcare information technology is critical to healthcare reform, a spokesman for the nation's top corporations told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday. John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable, which represents chief executives of the nation's top corporations, offered his comments during the second of three roundtables to discuss healthcare reform. The committee is chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) "We have had many discussions with the committee about ways to create greater value in our healthcare system, Castellani said in a prepared statement. "And we applaud your commitment to identify options that are key to the success of reform." Top among the three measures Castellani said his group supports as key to reform is "continued adoption of uniform interoperable health information technology standards and incentives to use health information technology."

Recap: The Future of Journalism

On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing on The Future of Journalism.

Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) said the US government could provide tax breaks for newspapers or allow them to operate as nonprofits to help the struggling business survive.

Chairman Kerry and other Senators raised concerns that without newspapers there will be too few journalists investigating governments, companies and individuals. He said the hearing was the first in a series that will focus on how to help newspapers adjust to the new media landscape. Under consideration are tax relief methods, including how and when publishers can classify operating losses, and whether newspapers should be allowed to operate as nonprofit companies for educational purposes.

Under a bill proposed by Sen Ben Cardin (D-MD), newspapers turning to nonprofit status would no longer be able to make political endorsements but could report on all issues including political campaigns. Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt and contributions to support coverage could be tax deductible. Sen Cardin has said that his aim is to preserve local papers, not large newspaper conglomerates.

Former Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll said he supports Cardin's proposal, but he does not think many papers would be able to change to nonprofit status.

Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The Huffington Post, a Web site of opinion and news, said despite all the hand-wringing about the decline of the newspaper industry, these are good times for news consumers. "Can anyone seriously argue that this isn't a magnificent time for readers who can surf the net, use search engines, and go to news aggregators to access the best stories from countless sources around the world — stories that are up-to-the-minute, not rolled out once a day?" she said in prepared remarks. Huffington said the future of journalism is not dependent on the future of newspapers. "No, the future is to be found elsewhere," she said. "It is a linked economy. It is search engines. It is online advertising. It is citizen journalism and foundation-supported investigative funds. That's where the future is."

James Moroney III, the publisher of Belo Corp's Dallas Morning News, said Congress should set rules so Internet companies pay "reasonable compensation" for using newspapers' content on Web sites. He cited concern about "the use of newspaper-generated content for someone else's commercial gain." Payments for content could form "a financial bulwark for local journalism."

Nomination Hearing for Julius Genachowski

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a nomination hearing for Julius Genachowski to be Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, May 12.

We Need More Users (And How The Stimulus Can Help)

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association thinks broadband stimulus funding should focus on creating new users over new competition. You create new users by making broadband available to people who can't currently get it, and by getting more people subscribed to broadband. Both of these goals are core to what the broadband stimulus wants to support. Of course, if these increases in take-rates end up leading to nothing more than greater profits for incumbents without spurring them to increase their investment in capacity, then we've got a problem. But at the same time I'd hate for us to worry so much about enriching incumbents that we don't push all in on trying to enrich the country by getting more people online.

Nation Can't Afford Short-Sighted ARRA Spending

[Commentary] Recovery Act-funded investments in technology can have a long-term impact on the economy. Laying fiber optic cable is a construction project in itself, so that means jobs right away. But more importantly, it holds the promise of a long-term economic payoff by attracting companies to out-of-the-way towns; it's also a driver for the creation of small businesses. This just seems like good sense.

California seeks $1 billion in stimulus funds to bring broadband link to every household

The good news is that 96 percent of California's households have access to a high-speed Internet connection. The bad news is that despite the good news, 45 percent of California residents - a number greater than the populations of all but five states - still don't have broadband connections in their homes because of geography, disabilities, a lack of English language skills or poverty. Now the promising news: The state is poised to grab as much as $1 billion in federal stimulus money for closing what's referred to as a "digital divide" between Internet haves and have-nots. The federal money could be spent in a variety of ways: for construction of both wired and "wireless" Internet-access systems; for connection projects aimed at specific groups, such as senior citizens or patrons of public libraries; to subsidize access fees for low- income users; and for education and outreach programs designed to impress the Internet's importance on groups that currently don't use it much.

Libraries Seek Federal Money For Broadband

The American Library Association lobbying for some of the $7.2 billion in federal broadband stimulus money to be used exclusively in expanding broadband access in libraries across the country. The library association is arguing that such grants to libraries would be the way to extend high-speed service to the greatest number of people - intoning one of President Obama's stated technological goals for America. In support of their petition, the organization released statistics showing that almost 60 percent of associated libraries were unable to meet bandwidth demands during peak hours of use. The same report stated that 70 percent of the libraries claimed to be their community's only free public source of Internet access. "If the government's goal is to make sure everyone has access to broadband, the most fiscally responsible way to do that is attaching fiber to the libraries," said Emily Sheketoff, head of the association's Washington office. "By investing under $1 billion, you could hook up every public library in the country at high speed." Libraries and other public facilities are already penciled in to receive $200 million in the stimulus package. Additionally, the federal E-rate program already supplies public schools and libraries with funds for improving technological infrastructure. Library advocates have countered, however, with claims that they provide a vital service to low-income communities, particularly now as more and more unemployed citizens are turning to the Internet to search and apply for jobs - a pattern that has become increasingly prominent as the recession has begun to permeate all areas of the country.

North Carolina Lawmakers Put Municipal Broadband Bill on Hold

North Carolina lawmakers have put the brakes on a bill that would have crippled municipal broadband in the state. Wednesday morning, the House Public Utilities Committee sent the measure to committee for further study. The move means that lawmakers likely won't consider the bill for at least one more year. The measure, backed by Internet service providers Time Warner and Embarq, would have effectively prevented cities and towns from building their own high-speed Internet networks. Among other provisions, the law would have prevented cities from using revenue from other public utilities to finance broadband networks. The measure would also prevent cities from using federal stimulus funds -- including the $4.7 billion Congress specifically allocated to improve broadband -- to build new networks. The incumbents argue that the financial terms will prevent towns from gaining an unfair advantage over commercial providers.

Hawaii broadband bill fails

A proposal meant to speed up Hawaii's Internet speeds has died in the state Legislature. Disagreement among lawmakers, Internet providers and regulatory agencies caused the measure to stall out in its conference committee last week. The measure would have created a new Hawaii Communications Commission to regulate all Internet service providers, including phone and cable. Legislators say it will be reconsidered next year.

FCC Still Deciding Whether To Modify Cross-Ownership Rules

The Federal Communications Commission has told the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that it is still trying to decide whether or not to modify the newspaper/broadcast crossownership rules, saying there could be "further proceedings." A three-judge panel on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals April 14 agreed to delay ruling on challenges to the FCC's December 2008 loosening of the newspaper-broadcast crossownership rules until a newly constituted FCC could take another look at it, if it chose to. The court had also given interested parties 21 days to tell it why it should not lift the stay on the FCC rule change. That deadline was May 5. In a letter to the court, FCC acting general counsel Michele Elison did not say the FCC would definitely review the rule change, which loosened the ban on newspaper-broadcast crossownership to allow them, under certain circumstances, in the top 20 markets, and perhaps smaller markets under a waiver policy. But she did reiterate that the majority on the Commission does not support that December 2008 order loosening the ban. "The current Commission is in the process of determining whether to reconsider or otherwise modify the newspaper/broadcast crossownership rules contained in its 2008 order. Because there may be further proceedings on remand, the Commission at this time supports keeping the current stay in place with respect to the revised newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule." In its filing with the court, representatives of Promethues Radio Project, which challenged the ownership rule change as too deregulatory, said that the stay should remain in place because the FCC is likely to modify the rule on reconsideration. And if it doesn't, the court will likely reverse it as arbitrary and capricious.

Benton

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