RFID Law Blog

Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have sent a letter to their colleagues announcing their intention to form an RFID Caucus.

There is a Senate Caucus for just about everything - a tourism caucus, a bicycle enthusiast caucus, etc. As such, a Caucus has no official function, authority or responsibility -- it is a way for Senators or Congressmen to identify to the public their particular interest in a topic. Usually it is driven by constituent interests in their state or district, but often is just a personal interest.

There has been discussion within both House and Senate for months about the creation of an RFID Caucus. The existing Internet Caucus in both the House and Senate had already done some RFID-related programs, allowing companies to showcase their technology and explain how it does or does not work. Some had an interest in trying to keep RFID-related issues within that context rather than as a separate Caucus of its own. Either way, the formation of the Caucus shows that your elected Representatives in Washington are becoming increasingly aware of RFID and its increasing role in the private and public sectors -- and intend to have something to say about it.

Those providing or using RFID services should see this as a wake up call that they have an opportunity to proactively help federal legislators adopt positive legislation that moves RFID forward, or risk responding to legislation as it plows ahead.

I will note that the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force was first out of the box with specific policy principles related to RFID. Here is their complete policy statement from March 2005, with the RFID segments bolded:

High Tech Task Force Unveils Policy Goals March 9th, 2005 - Washington, D.C. - A permanent end to taxes on Internet access, tax relief for American corporations looking to return foreign assets to American soil, and the defeat of stock option expensing are among the policy goals of the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force, task force Chairman Senator John Ensign announced today.

"Our policy platform reflects our desire to keep America at the forefront of technological advancement, and to encourage our country's most creative entrepreneurs," Senator Ensign said. "The High Tech Task Force will continue to serve as a voice for the tech industry on Capitol Hill and together we will achieve great success in the 109th Congress."

The Senate Republican High Tech Task Force Policy Platform, as unveiled today:

Strengthening the Economy through Sensible Fiscal Policy

* Make permanent the Internet Tax Moratorium.

* Ensure implementation of successful Repatriation legislation maximizes return to the United States of funds that are currently stranded overseas.

* Stop or delay implementation of Stock Option Expensing rules that will lead to the destruction of broad-based employee ownership plans and will impact U.S. global competitiveness, until field testing can occur and valuation models can be improved or fundamentally changed.

* Extend and seek a permanent R&D Tax Credit.

* Accelerate the depreciation schedules for technology equipment and enhance the expensing of broadband equipment to encourage deployment to currently unserved areas. Extend expensing of equipment for small businesses.

* Support efforts to eliminate or cut spending on existing programs that are inefficient; have high levels of fraud, waste, or abuse; are duplicative of other programs; are no longer necessary; are not based on sound policy; or cannot be justified within the current budget.

* Support efforts that improve the federal government's Information Technology (IT) systems to ensure better service to citizens and the delivery of systems that are secure, on time, and on budget.

Eliminating Barriers to Innovation

* Build on the success of the Class Action Reform bill with additional tort reform measures that seek to eliminate frivolous lawsuits and protect innovators.

* Reform medical liability system that is driving up costs for consumers and negatively impacting our global competitiveness with excessive costs to innovators and entrepreneurs that cannot afford these burdensome costs.

* Eliminate Patent Fee Diversion to keep the funds necessary to modernize the office within the Patent and Trademark Office. Use funds to reform and modernize the office and hire adequate number of examiners to ensure that U.S. entrepreneurs receive swift, but precise, responses from USPTO to secure their intellectual property and speed development of exciting new technologies.

* Consider Patent Reforms to ensure patents continue to provide strong incentives for innovation and economic growth by establishing administrative mechanisms that will increase patent quality by allowing more input by interested parties into the review process and the mechanisms necessary to mitigate the disruptive effects and litigation-related delays resulting from the enforcement of patent rights.

* Consider Litigation Reforms to reduce both the economic incentives and the practical ability of parties to employ the threat of litigation and litigation-related delays to disadvantage competitors or to coerce financial payments that are not commensurate with the market value of the rights asserted

Protecting Americans from Malicious Computer Activity

* Consider federal Spyware legislation to avoid piecemeal state-by-state actions that will stifle innovation and threaten consumer confidence in the Internet as a viable medium for electronic commerce. Legislation should not create more burdens for consumers or stifle innovation but should address the bad actors and empower the FTC to take action.

* Examine whether new federal policies are needed to address 1) Phishing (sending out fraudulent emails to capture credit card numbers or other personal information), 2) Pharming (diverting traffic to fraudulent websites), or 3) falsifying digital certificates.

* Build on the success of the CAN-SPAM Act and ensure FTC enforcement is swift and certain for spammers.

* Support efforts that give law enforcement, U.S. agencies, and private industry the tools necessary to secure the Internet against foreign and domestic network attacks. Bolster cooperation among international governments, federal agencies, and the private sector in this area.

Establishing Communications Laws for the 21st Century

* Prevent application of legacy regulation from the monopoly world of the past to new services and networks such as IP applications or successor technologies, which could stifle innovation. Instead, get government out of the way and allow market forces to deliver exciting new products faster and at a better price.

* Recognize national, if not international, nature of digital voice, video, and data products and eliminate patchwork quilt of state and local regulations.

* Bring technology and communications industry taxes in line with other traditional industries. Support efforts to promote a rationalized policy for the taxation of Interstate technology by eliminating the discriminatory tax policies of some state and local governments.

* Enact a hard date for return of analog television spectrum to speed deployment of HDTV, provide for licensed and unlicensed wireless uses, while minimizing consumer disruption.

* Encourage exciting new wireless broadband products that will use this new spectrum to help bring communications services to consumers.

Avoiding Government Competition with Private Industry

* Discourage state, local or federal government competition with private industry.

* Ensure that, where a market failure exists, private industry has an opportunity to compete to provide the service or product under the same terms and benefits of which the government entity would avail itself.

Supporting E-Health Initiatives

* Reduce health care costs by enabling the use of technology to reduce administrative overhead.

* Reduce harmful and costly medical errors by employing technology to minimize risk such as errors in filling prescriptions.

* Eliminate barriers to legitimate sharing of medical information across state lines while protecting patient privacy.

* Encourage use of the latest technologies available to ensure a safe food supply.

Promoting Education and Technology

* Support reforms to key educational programs to improve America's math and science programs.

* Refocus existing government retraining and job skills programs to boost math, science, and computing skills.

* Support efforts to provide the workforce of tomorrow with the knowledge necessary to compete in a digital age. Focus resources on programs that prepare workers for an information economy.

Safeguarding Copyright in the Digital Age

* Encourage aggressive enforcement of existing laws to protect intellectual property and encourage legitimate, legal digital distribution of copyrighted works.

* Encourage private-sector solutions to protect intellectual property to avoid the government's selecting winners and losers or backing specific technology solutions or mechanisms to protect copyrighted works from piracy.

Protecting Privacy and E-Commerce

* Encourage market-based solutions to lead the way in protecting individual privacy, and such solutions should be fair to both online and offline entities.

* Protect exciting new technologies from premature regulation or legislation in search of a problem. RFID holds tremendous promise for our economy, including military logistics and commercial inventory efficiencies, and should not be saddled prematurely with regulation.

Enhancing Trade Opportunities for American Companies

* Support the creation of additional Free Trade Agreements that boost American jobs and economic competitiveness.

* Ensure new trade agreements contain requirements that foreign governments adequately protect U.S. intellectual property rights and take strong enforcement action against piracy.

* Ensure trade agreements also support policies which protect U.S. companies from unfair trade practices consistent with international commitments and obligations.

Fostering Emerging Technologies: Biotech and Nanotech

* Ensure that these sectors of technology are allowed to flourish in the marketplace.

* Encourage appropriate funding levels and promote a mechanism or process of technology transfer to the commercial marketplace.