WASHINGTON-Education Secretary Roderick Paige refused to retreat from President Bush’s plan to scrap the schools and libraries Internet program, a posture that prompted Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) to demand that the administration come forward with more details about how it will pay for an initiative that costs wireless carriers and other telecom service providers $2.25 billion annually.
“We need to make sure students have access to technologies even if their parents don’t have money for computers,” said Mikulski, a leading Democratic member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, at a hearing last Thursday.
Mikulski said she is not keen on Bush’s proposal to overhaul the discount Internet education initiative, known as E-rate, as part of a sweeping education reform package Bush wants Congress to tackle early this year. The feisty Maryland Democrat and other lawmakers fear E-rate-which has connected many millions of students to the Internet-will die if it has to depend on yearly appropriations from Congress. There is also concern that block grants could discriminate against private and parochial schools, which now are eligible for E-rate funding.
Today, wireless carriers and others underwrite E-rate as part of an expanded universal service program included in the 1996 telecom act. The two main authors of E-rate, Sen. Olympia Snow (R-Maine) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), met privately with Paige recently to voice their objections.
Wireless carriers have been frustrated because the E-rate program they pay into has not promoted wireless technology for classrooms to any significant degree. Otherwise, the wireless industry is doing its best to stay clear of the highly-charged political debate on E-rate between Congress and the White House.
“We’re looking at the best way to consolidate E-rate and other technology programs. I’m not in a position to say what the outcome will be,” said Paige.
Mikulski grew visibly frustrated with Paige when he declined to explain exactly what Bush wanted to do with E-rate. Mikulski ended her questioning of Paige by asking Paige to supply her with more details of Bush’s E-rate plan. It’s unclear how carefully Bush’s advisers have thought out funding and administrative aspects of E-rate overhaul and how well they calculated the backlash in Congress. It is unclear, too, whether Bush would risk jeopardizing his education plan over E-rate.
E-rate was not the only issue with Internet and wireless implications that Congress dealt with last week.
The Senate communications subcommittee leveled more criticism at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, adding to the pounding ICANN took a week earlier from the House telecommunications subcommittee. The fireworks began after ICANN last fall selected seven new Internet names from 47 applications to join a list that today includes dot-com, dot-gov, dot-org and dot-edu. Applicants had to pay ICANN $50,000 each to seek new Internet names. Some of the losing applicants were angry at the outcome of last year’s selections and complained to Congress.
Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate communications panel, called last week’s hearing the “first step of examining ICANN.” While there are no strong signals that the GOP-led Congress wants to legislate, members are clearly concerned about Internet domain name selection procedures. ICANN partially derives its authority from the Department of Commerce, with subcontracts with the Internet organization.
Karl Auerbach, an engineer and a relatively new member of ICANN’s board said improvements are desperately needed.
“ICANN is ill designed, has been ill operated, has brought upon itself significant ill will within the Internet community, and has greatly exceeded its proper scope,” said Auerbach. “I believe that significant restructuring of ICANN is needed so that the corporation can fulfill its purposes and fulfill its obligations toward its stated beneficiaries.”
Elsewhere, the House last week passed legislation to help small and medium-sized businesses get access to electronic commerce technologies and take advantage of the Internet.
Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) reintroduced a bill to ban Internet spam. Meanwhile, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) are sponsoring legislation to extend the Internet sales tax moratorium another five years. The current e-commerce tax moratorium ends in October. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) introduced a similar bill as well.
