Federal Communications Commission member Gloria Tristani criticized House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) for comments about FCC corruption and urged the lawmaker to provide any evidence of wrongdoing to the agency’s inspector general. “I am greatly disturbed by statements attributed to you of FCC corruption. Such statements undermine public confidence in our agency at a time when we are dealing with issues of importance to all Americans,” said Tristani, a Democrat, in a Feb. 17 letter to Tauzin. Ken Johnson, press secretary for Tauzin, said there would be no response to the letter. Johnson called Tristani’s remarks a “partisan defense of the indefensible.” He said Tauzin will hold an FCC reform hearing in March.
Key lawmakers reached agreement on satellite privitization legislation. The compromise, reached by House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), Senate communications subcommittee Chairman Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-Mass.), will serve as the legislative vehicle for a House-Senate conference committee. The panel is expected to meet shortly. The legislation fosters competition by mandating the privitization of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization and the International Maritime Satellite Organization. Comsat Corp. is the U.S. signatory to Intelsat and Inmarsat, both intergovernmental satellite consortia that enjoy legal protection and tax breaks not available to private satellite operators.
Export-Import Bank Chairman James Harmon called for a U.S.-India technology partnership. “As India continues to advance in the high technology markets, I believe that the United States can and should be right there beside it,” said Harmon on the fifth day of a one-week trade development mission to India, which included stops in New Delhi and Mumbai. India is potentially one of the world’s largest emerging markets for wireless communications. Harmon predicted India will be one of the top five global targets for technology investment by 2008.
Compiled from wire services, news reports and press releases.
