Source: http://www.techlawjournal.com/alert/2006/07/07.asp
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 18:48:42+00:00

Document:
TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,406, July 7, 2006.
July 7, 2006, Alert No. 1,406.
This event is scheduled for 9:30 AM on Thursday, July 13, 2006 in the FCC's Commission Meeting Room, Room TW-C305, 445 12th Street, SW. The event will be webcast by the FCC. The FCC does not always consider all of the items on its published agenda. The FCC sometimes adds items to the agenda without providing the "one week" notice required 5 U.S.C. § 552b. The FCC does not always start its monthly meetings at the scheduled time. The FCC usually does not release at its meetings copies of the items that it adopts at its meetings.
7/5. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote a letter [21 pages in PDF] to Congressional committees titled "President's Justification of the High Performance Computer Control Threshold Does Not Fully Address National Defense Authorization Act of 1998 Requirements".
The Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) regulates and licenses the export of high performance computers, and related products and activities, pursuant to the Export Administration Act of 1979 (EAA). The EAA expired in 2001, and is no longer a statute in effect. Nevertheless, the BIS continues to promulgate and enforce regulations that implement the EAA.
The GAO report notes that the National Defense Authorization Act of 1998 (Public Law No. 105-85) "requires that the President provide a justification to Congress for changing the control threshold for exports of high performance computers to certain sensitive countries."
President Bush revised the control thresholds in February of 2006. He wrote a letter to Congressional leaders on February 6, 2006, in which he stated that "In accordance with the provisions of section 1211(d) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998 (Public Law 105 85), I hereby notify you of my decision to establish a new level for the notification procedure for digital computers set forth in section 1211(a) of Public Law 105 85. The new level will be 0.75 WT (Weighted TeraFLOPS)."
Also, the BIS published its updated high performance computer (HPC) rules on April 24, 2006. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 24, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 78, at Pages 20876-20894.
Neither the BIS nor the Executive Office of the President has published the text of the President's February 2006 report in their web sites. A BIS representative declined to provide a copy to TLJ.
The GAO report states that "The President's February 2006 report did not fully address the three requirements of the National Defense Authorization Act of 1998. Therefore, the report did not present the full implications of the threshold change to Congress."
It elaborates that "Although the President’s report indicated that foreign computing capacity below the new control level is currently widely available, agency officials (1) did not adequately document how they established the new export control threshold at 0.75 WT on the basis of their assessment of worldwide availability and (2) could not document that they verified key information used in their decision."
The GAO report also finds that the President's report "did not adequately assess the potential military uses of computers with performance capabilities at the new threshold (0.75 WT)." For example, it states that the "report could have disclosed, but did not, that U.S. government officials had identified 15 high performance computing platforms15 that would no longer need to be reviewed for a license at the new control threshold."
The GAO report also finds that "Since the President’s report did not adequately assess the potential military uses of computers at the proposed new threshold of 0.75 WT, it did not assess the impact that militarily significant uses of those computers would have on U.S. national security."
6/30. The U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir) issued is opinion [28 pages in PDF] in In Re Core Communications, a case regarding the intercarrier compensation rules for telecommunications traffic bound for internet service providers (ISPs) contained in the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 2001 ISP remand order.
The FCC granted CLEC Core Communications' petition to forbear from applying some of those rules, but denied its petition to forbear from applying others. Core Communications then filed a petition for review with the Court of Appeals challenging those parts of the FCC's order denying forbearance. ILEC BellSouth filed a petition for review challenging those parts of the FCC's order that granted forbearance.
47 U.S.C. § 251(b)(5), which was enacted as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, provides that local phone companies must compensate each other for handling each other's local calls. It requires that they "establish reciprocal compensation arrangements for the transport and termination of telecommunications."
The FCC wrote implementing rules in 1996 that provided that § 251(b)(5) applies "only to traffic that originates and terminates within a local area." The FCC then concluded in a 1999 declaratory ruling (DR) that dial-up calls to an ISP for connection to the internet constitute interstate traffic, subject to FCC jurisdiction under § 201 of the Act. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir) vacated this DR for inadequate explanation in its March 27, 2000, opinion in Bell Atlantic Telephone Cos. v. FCC, 206 F.3d 1.
Then, in 2001, the FCC adopted its ISP remand order, concluding that calls delivered to ISPs are not subject to the mandatory reciprocal compensation obligations of § 251(b)(5), but imposing an interim intercarrier compensation regime for ISP bound traffic. Four interim provisions regarding rates caps, the mirroring rule, growth caps, and the new markets rule, are the subject of Core Communications' petition for forbearance, and the present petitions for review.
See also, story titled "Reciprocal Compensation" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert 170, April 20, 2001.
The Court of Appeals denied all petitions for review.
This case is In Re Core Communications, petitioner, Level3 Communications LLC, et al., intervenors, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, App. Ct. Nos. 04-1368, 04-1423, and 04-1424, petitions for review of a final order of the FCC. Judge Garland wrote the opinion of the Court of Appeals, in which Judges Sentelle and Tatel joined.
The House will not meet on Monday, July 3, through Friday, July 7. It will next meet on Monday, July 10, at 2:00 PM. See, Republican Whip Notice.
The Senate will not meet on Monday, July 3, through Friday, July 7. It will next meet on Monday, July 10, at 2:00 PM, when it will begin consideration of HR 5441, the homeland security appropriations bill. See, 2006 Senate calendar.
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM. The Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) will host a day long conference titled "Demystifying §337 Investigations at the ITC". For more information, contact Clara Stanfield at cstanfield at ipo dot org or 202- 466-2396. See, notice and brochure [PDF]. Location: Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center.
10:00 AM. The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing titled "The Terror Finance Tracking Program". Location: Room 2128, Rayburn Building.
12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a panel discussion titled "The Supreme Court: The View from the Press Gallery". The speakers will include Joan Biskupic (USA Today), Charles Lane (Washington Post), Tony Mauro (Legal Times and American Lawyer Media), David Savage (Los Angeles Times), and Stuart Taylor (National Journal and Newsweek). The price to attend ranges from $15-$35. For more information, call 202-626-3463. See, notice. Location: Arnold & Porter, 555 12th Street, NW.
2:15 PM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) may hold a hearing on judicial nominations. Press contact: Courtney Boone at 202-224-5225. See, notice. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.
POSTPONED. 2:30 PM. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security will hold a hearing titled "Cyber Security: Recovery and Reconstitution of Critical Networks". See, notice. Location: Room 342, Dirksen Building.
12:30 PM. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) will give a speech. Location: National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor.

References: § 552
 § 251
 § 251
 § 201
 v. 
 § 251
 §337