THE LEDE: The tech industry is rallying around Thursday’s unveiling of “fast-track” trade legislation.
The bipartisan, bicameral bill could have a profound impact on Silicon Valley’s bottom line and has been near the top of lobbyists’ lists of priorities for the year. The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) announcement from Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was cheered from seemingly every tech group in Washington. Now, it’s sure to face a vigorous lobbying battle as the companies work to sway reluctant lawmakers to back the bill.
{mosads}”Congress must seize this rare bipartisan opportunity to modernize TPA and give American businesses that rely on trade a chance to compete and succeed in today’s global marketplace,” TechNet CEO Linda Moore said in a statement.
The tech sector has been pushing Capitol Hill on trade for months ahead of the possibility of a TPA bill, which would prevent Congress from being able to weigh in on trade deals beyond a simple up or down vote. The legislation would empower the Obama administration as it seeks to finalize a deal with 11 countries in Asia and Latin America, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as well as a deal with Europe, called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. But Congress hasn’t passed a TPA bill since 2002, and companies have been eager to make sure that the new agreement protects against laws that force companies to store data in one place or another, or that limit the flow of data.
“Obstacles to digital trade are proliferating around the world,” IBM vice president Chris Padilla said in response to the bill. “If left unchecked, they could significantly undermine the ability of U.S. companies to compete fairly in critical markets.”
The new bill appears to protect against those threats, said Intel’s Lisa Malloy. It “has an updated negotiating objective to facilitate digital trade, including through protections for cross-border data flows, and to recognize the significance of the Internet in international commerce,” she wrote in a blog post. “It contains updated provisions addressing cyber theft, protecting trade secrets and calling for a high standard of [intellectual property] protection. It also has a new negotiating objective that addresses forced localization of facilities and related barriers to U.S. goods and services exports.”
The path forward is anything but clear-cut. “Fast-track” efforts have received opposition from lawmakers in both parties. Some Republicans have raised concerns about empowering the Obama administration at Congress’s expense, while some Democrats have feared that the trade initiative would cost Americans jobs and weaken U.S. protections.
WYDEN, POLIS WANT DMCA UPDATE: Wyden and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) have a new bill that would reform the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to create more exemptions to the law’s limits on circumventing protections for copyrighted works. The Breaking Down Barriers to Innovation Act would seek to make it easier to unlock access for many purposes that would otherwise fall within the confines of the law. Critics say those current limits often end up inhibiting competition or fair use of copyrighted works.
BILL WOULD END DIVERSION OF PATENT FEES: A bipartisan group of nine House members reintroduced a bill that would allow the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to keep all the fees that it collects. The bill meant to end fee diversion from the agency is the same as one that was introduced last Congress and is sponsored by Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and a host of other lawmakers.
“The current funding mechanism for the USPTO has failed the patent system by not preventing the diversion of nearly $150 million in collected user fees in fiscal year 2013 due to the sequester and the estimated $1 billion in fees diverted over the last two decades,” Conyers said in a statement.
JINDAL GROUP HIRES TECH STAFF: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) political advocacy group is staffing up on the technology front. The American Future Project hired Bradley Engle as its digital director and Blaise Hazelwood as a senior advisor to help with technology and innovation issues. Engle has previously worked for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican Governors Association and Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R). Both could transition to Jindal’s presidential campaign if he decides to enter the race.
EX-BIDEN AIDE, EBOLA CZAR TO JOIN TECHNET COUNCIL: Vice President Biden’s former Chief of Staff Ron Klain will be the latest addition to TechNet’s executive council, joining the ranks of Google’s Eric Schmidt, Salesforce’s Marc Benioff and Microsoft’s Brad Smith, among others. Klain — who also worked for former Vice President Al Gore and more recently was tapped to lead the Obama administration’s response to the U.S. Ebola scare — said in a statement that he looks forward to creating “a climate where innovative and disruptive companies can grow and thrive.” Currently, he’s the president of Case Holdings and general counsel at Revolution.
FCC GETS NEW TECH OFFICER: Alison Neplokh, a 13-year veteran of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is taking the role of deputy chief technologist at the agency. Neplokh joined the FCC in 2002 and is currently chief engineer at the commission’s Media Bureau and helps manage the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee. She will continue with both of those positions. She received congratulations from FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Neplokh served as the commissioner’s acting legal advisor in 2014.
EX-FCC AIDE JOINS iHEARTMEDIA TEAM: The former director of the FCC’s congressional outreach shop is heading to iHeartMedia to become its senior director of government affairs. Sara Morris previously spent time at the Commerce Department and worked under then-Rep. Ed Marker (D-Mass.), in addition to a stint as a policy analyst with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker.
SHOULD APRIL 30 BE ‘INTERNET INDEPENDENCE DAY’?: A group of libertarian-leaning tech pioneers including Mark Cuban and John Perry Barlow want Congress to make April 30, 2015, ” Internet Independence Day.” The date would mark the 20th anniversary of the commercial Internet, and Congress’s designation would commemorate “the remarkable success” of the “light touch approach” to the Web, they wrote in a joint letter. That’s in contrast, they say, with the new federal net neutrality rules.
1776 EXPANDS TO VIRGINIA: Washington-based tech hub 1776 is expanding out to Crystal City, Va., and is acquiring Disruption Corporation, it announced on Thursday. The move should help the organization grow throughout the region, it said, including the growing high tech sector in Northern Virginia.
ON TAP:
The FCC will hold an open meeting at 10:30 a.m.
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The head of a major industry trade group says he is “quite confident” of defeating the government’s net-neutrality regulations in court.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants the music industry to push Congress on supporting the arts.
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