* ITAA's autumn IT agenda
As Congress gets back to work this fall, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) high-tech trade association issued a report outlining the top 10 IT-related policy issues. Some of these issues are perhaps on your radar as an IT leader and perhaps others should be.
1. Promote U.S. competitiveness at home and around the world. Goals here include assuring the availability of technical talent by doubling the graduates in science, technology, engineering and math over the next decade, and strengthening the research and development tax credit. They also include increasing the H1-B visas and green cards and reforming Sarbanes-Oxley.
2. Promote information security to build trust and confidence in the global networked economy. In addition to protecting critical infrastructure, recommendations include adopting a national data breach notification standard and adapt cybersecurity standards.
3. Push for government procurement reform. In addition to having government adopt commercial procurement practices, recommendations include allowing outsourcing and expediting the security clearance process.
4. Defend intellectual property rights. Support passage of the Patent Reform Act of 2007 and resist overly burdensome regulation of social networking/Web 2.0 technologies.
5. Protect digital commerce from intrusive government intervention. Oppose attempts to impose overly burdensome data privacy regimes, promote identity management and prevent government from imposing higher, discriminatory standards for privacy of online or digital information.
6. Promote networking technologies such as RFID, content, services and applications that add value to broadband users, and support access to faster, ubiquitous broadband.
7. Oppose discriminatory taxation of Internet sales and ISPs. This includes state efforts to tax Internet access and other IT services.
8. Push for better market access for goods, services and software. One goal is achieving favorable World Trade Organization treatment for software downloads.
9. Fight against regulation of the Internet. Oppose an elevated role for national governments in Internet governance, but oppose non-commercial Internet charging arrangements.
10. Promote sound corporate governance principles.
