January 2010

Consumer advocates say that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's sweeping call Thursday for global Internet freedom lends support to their calls for new domestic laws about matters like text messaging, net neutrality and privacy.

The Open Internet Coalition seized on Sec Clinton's remarks to support the need for network neutrality laws in the U.S. that would require Internet service providers to let consumers access all lawful content. "We must also protect the rights of individual free expression on the Internet at home as well as abroad because neither government nor network provider should be able to interfere with this freedom," the Open Internet Coalition said. "The current effort at the FCC to enact common-sense rules to ensure the Internet remains a platform for free expression at home is critical to making sure that the freedom of choice for our own citizens is protected."

Advocacy group Public Knowledge added that Clinton's remarks about texting highlighted the need for laws banning censorship of SMS. "While Secretary Clinton commented on the benefits of text messaging as a means of expression abroad, there are no legal protections for text messaging here," Public Knowledge president and co-founder Gigi Sohn said.

Julius Genachowski is not a member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet, but the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is likely to have more influence on our lives than many Obama Cabinet secretaries. Why? In a word, broadband. President Obama has asked Chairman Genachowski to come up with a road map to make speedy Web access more ubiquitous and robust so the U.S.—an international broadband laggard—can gain a technological edge. The FCC will present its recommendations to Congress in mid-March.

The National Black Caucus of State Legislators, National Foundation for Women Legislators, National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women, National Conference of Black Mayors, and the National Association of Black County Officials have sent letters to the White House and Congress calling on them to intervene in a rulemaking -- the Federal Communications Commission's open Internet proceeding -- they warn could widen the digital divide rather than close it.

The groups are asking President Obama to keep the FCC focused on the National Broadband Plan. While they said they were "enthusiastic supporters" of an open Internet, a point which both sides of the debate usually concede, they said they were "concerned that some of the net regulations currently being contemplated by the FCC lend themselves to the creation of unmanaged networks that would increase consumer costs, hinder new job creation, diminish service quality and reduce broadband adoption and use, particularly among the underserved."

The House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation held a hearing Jan 21 to discuss the challenges faced by small- and medium-sized manufacturers, as well as Department of Commerce initiatives to support entrepreneurship and job creation and retention.

Even before the economic crisis, American firms faced difficult economic circumstances including increasing competition from foreign manufacturers. Today, manufacturers confront challenges such as adjusting to the slowdown of large customers, accessing credit, and finding skilled workers. Today's hearing explored how Department of Commerce programs can most effectively strengthen small- and medium-sized manufacturers and help them create more jobs. During the hearing, Members and witnesses met to discuss initiatives to address these challenges. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program run through the Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a network of centers that advise manufacturers on how to improve their competitiveness. NIST reports that assistance from the MEP program has helped create or retain more than 57,000 jobs and created or retained $10.5 billion in sales in 2007 alone. MEP was reauthorized as part of the 2007 America COMPETES Act and will be included in the reauthorization that the Committee is currently working towards.