John McCain on Technology Republican nominee for President; Senior Senator (AZ)

$686K in donations from telecoms as chair of telecom cmte

For example, one week after the bill cleared McCain's committee, the founder of EchoStar Communications, a satellite television concern, threw a fund-raiser for McCain, raising $47,000. The bill eventually passed Congress. A couple of years later, McCain was also one of the leading voices against Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of DirecTV. DirecTV is, of course, the biggest competitor to EchoStar's Dish Network.

Ban Internet taxes & new cell phone taxes

• Ban Internet Taxes: We must make a farsighted, robust, and fervent commitment to innovation and new technologies to sustain our global competitiveness, meet our national security challenges, achieve less costly and more effective health care, reduce dangerous dependence on foreign sources of oil, and raise the quality of education in the United States.
• Ban New Cell Phone Taxes: McCain understands that the same people that would tax e-mail will tax every text message--and even 911 calls.
• Permanent R&D Tax Credit: Innovation is fueled by access to sufficient risk capital, a light regulatory burden, skilled workers, and good incentives to pursue new ideas. John McCain will reform and make permanent the research and development (R&D) tax credit to keep America competitive and provide a stable environment for entrepreneurs.

Don’t police Internet crime; go after money to reduce crime

A: Absolutely not, but I also want to point out this Internet child pornography is a terrible evil. It’s got to be addressed. And everybody knows the way you stop it is go after the money.

Ban TV boxing; college football betting; & online gambling

He also supports the ban on online gabling because "a lot of these outfits that do it are located outside the US," and "there is no confidence that you're in a fair game, there are absolutely no rules, no regulation."

Veto pork barrel; focus transportation spending on repairs

A: We passed a $50 billion transportation bill that had $2 billion in pork barrel earmarked projects: $233 million for a bridge to nowhere in Alaska, to an island with 50 people on it. Not one dime in those pork barrel projects was for inspection or repair of bridges. They were for pork barrel projects. I’ll veto every single bill that comes across my desk and [publicize] the authors of those pork barrel projects.

Special interest influence corruptly took HDTV frequencies

A: I was talking about the fact that the special interests have kept the spectrum, which the American people are supposed to have and our first responders are supposed to have--we gave the broadcasters high definition television. In return, they were supposed to give a spectrum that was going to be reserved for the first responders. Again, the special interest influence prevailed over the public’s interest.

FactCheck: Special interests only delayed HDTV transfer

It is true there has been a delay. A decade ago Congress set 2006 as the deadline for broadcasters to give up the vast swaths of frequency space they now use to send programs by old-fashioned analog technology & start using different frequencies & more modern digital technology exclusively.

But McCain oversimplifies when he blames “special interests” for the delay. While it is true that broadcasters were in no rush to give up their analog channels, they had good reason: As recently as two years ago 21 million US households still relied exclusively on analog sets and would have been unable to receive TV programs without the purchase of a converter box. The truth is that other “special interests” helped push through the legislation McCain favored. These included Motorola and other electronics manufacturers.

Provide unused spectrum to emergency officials

Government needs to develop a comprehensive, interoperable emergency communications plan and set equipment standards, fund emergency and interoperable communications equipment, and provide the radio spectrum that will allow communicating over long distances using the same frequencies and equipment. We should have done it years ago. We must do it now before disaster, man made or natural, strikes us again.

1996 Telecomm Bill: public interest was not at the table

McCain believed that the current campaign finance system was more of a plague on the body politic than ever. He said, “It’s badly skewed our priorities, and blocked badly needed legislation to help the American people. It’s never been worse in my time here. It affects everything: the tax code, the military, Medicare, Social Security, gambling--you name it. I can give you a list of twenty issues that haven’t been acted on, or cite the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was nothing like reform.” Of that bill, McCain often said, “All the interests were at the table but the public interest.”

Uses Internet to read news & to get donations

Digital Divide requires tax credits for equipment & teachers

Internet tax ban saved consumers $600M this Xmas

Free TV & radio to candidates as a public interest

A: The TV and radio stations use the public’s assets, the spectrum, in order to function. When they get a license to use that, they sign a piece of paper that says they will act in the “public interest.” It seems to me that the public interest is clearly that they should help with the political process. These folks are good at enticing people to watch their stations. I think they could do a good job helping candidates attract viewers.

Make Internet tax moratorium permanent

HATCH: Yeah, we ought to do it because it’s far overblown to think that people buying over the Internet is going to [hurt store sales]. But we [should] be encouraging one of the most important innovations in the history of the world, the Internet. And I’ll tell you what I’m worried about: the almighty hand of the federal government coming in & oppressing the Internet & stifling innovation and creativity. We want to keep government’s mitts off as much as we can. And if we do, we’ll reap the benefits from it.

Encourage teachers to learn high tech

Technology can hasten end of haves vs. have-nots

Get more government documents on-line

Telecommuncations Act was an influence-peddling scheme

Internet access, with filters, at every school & library

No government control over computer encryption

McCain introduced the “Promote Reliable On-Line Transactions to Encourage Commerce and Trade (PROTECT) Act” (S.798) which:
• Legalize development, sale, and use of encryption
• Prohibits government from requiring an encryption key (solution) or other computer access
• Prohibits the government from adopting any standard that establishes an encryption standard for use by businesses other than for federal computer systems
• Prohibits restricting the export of encryption products.

Voted NO on restoring $550M in funding for Amtrak for 2007.

Proponents of the bill say to vote YEA because:
• [In my state], Philadelphia's 30th Street station is the second busiest train station nationally, with over 3.7 million boarding a year. And 3,000 people are employed by Amtrak in Pennsylvania. Amtrak and the health of Amtrak is important.
• Last year the Senate transportation bill had $1.45 billion for Amtrak, which is obviously more than the $900 million in the current budget proposal. I am offering an amendment to increase that funding from the $900 million which is in the bill right now to the $1.45 billion level and adding $550 million.
• I support funding through the section 920 account [without a tax increase]. We have seen that without raising the cap or without raising taxes, the Senate has been able to come up with a robust number for Amtrak which I will support within the context of a responsible budget.
• We have spent less money on Amtrak in the last 35 years than we will on highways in this year alone. And highways don't pay for themselves, even with the gas tax. Neither does mass transit, either in this country or anywhere else in the world. But we subsidize them because they improve the quality of our lives.
• We have never provided the kind of commitment to Amtrak that we have for other modes of transportation, and this amendment will be an important step to getting Amtrak off the starvation budgets that it has subsisted on for far too long.

Opponents of the bill say to vote NAY because:
• The problem with that is there is no money in the section 920 account. If we want to talk about "funny money" financing, that is it--taking money from an account that has no money. This whole budget takes money we don't have. The result is we keep running up the debt.

Voted NO on disallowing FCC approval of larger media conglomerates.

Voted YES on Internet sales tax moratorium.

Voted NO on telecomm deregulation.

Sponsored bill requiring text on TV for visually-impaired.

OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY: A bill to reinstate the Federal Communications Commission's rules for the description of video programming.

SPONSOR'S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: Sen. McCAIN: This bill would require television broadcasters, during at least 50 hours of their prime time or children's programming every quarter, to insert verbal descriptions of actions or settings not contained in the normal audio track of a program. This can be accomplished through technology commonly referred to as "video description services," which allows television programming to be more accessible and enjoyable for the visually impaired.

This bill is necessary due to a 2002 decision by District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2000, the FCC, recognizing the need to make television programming accessible to the visually impaired, mandated that television broadcast stations provide 50 hours of video descriptions during prime time or children's programming every calendar quarter. Television programmers challenged the Commission's authority to promulgate such rules. The Circuit Court held that the Commission did not have authority to issue the regulations.

This bill would provide the Commission the authority to promulgate such regulations and reinstate the FCC's video description rules issued in 2000. Since the spectrum that television broadcasters utilize is a public asset, one would expect that programming over the public airwaves is accessible to all Americans. Unfortunately, that is not the case today and that is why we must pass the TIVI Act. I sincerely hope that television broadcasters will work with us to provide video descriptions for individuals with visual disabilities.

LEGISLATIVE OUTCOME:Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; never came to a vote.

Permanent ban on state & local taxation of Internet access.

Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007 - Amends the Internet Tax Freedom Act to make permanent the ban on state and local taxation of Internet access and on multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce.

Related bills: H.R.743, H.R.1077, H.R.3678, S.156.

Website for competitive federal awards.

A bill to strengthen transparency and accountability in Federal spending.

• Improving application programming interface and website data elements.
• Recipient performance transparency. [For federal awards, show on internet...]
• a unique award identifier that identifies each individual award vehicle;
• the date that the financial award was made;
• the agency and department as well as subagencies and suboffices that have authorized the Federal award;
• in negotiated procurements, the highest, lowest, and median offered price among all technically acceptable proposals or bids.
• For all contracts after 2010, [show on internet...]
• both a copy in a format that reproduces the original image of each page and a copy in searchable text format of the request for proposals, the announcement of the award, the contract, and the scope of work to be performed;
• information about the extent of competition in making the award, including the number of qualified bids or proposals during the competitive process, and if the award was not competed, the legal authority and specific rationale for making the award without full and open competition;
• PRESENTATION OF DATA- The website shall present information about Federal awards providing search results for novices displayed in summary form; and
• providing more detailed information for more sophisticated users
• Performance Transparency- performance of individual contractors and recipients of financial assistance starting with awards given in fiscal year 2008 including an assessment of the quality of work performed on Federal awards during the past 5 years; and information about Federal audit disputes and resolutions.