A Nation of the People and IP Addresses

Minnesota: electronic health transactions the law

Government Technology: Beginning in 2009, Minnesota will equire electronic submission of health transactions. "The new requirements, signed into law by Governor Tim Pawlenty as part of the 2007 Omnibus Health and Human Services funding bill, apply to all health care providers and affects virtually anyone who bills for or buys health care services on behalf of a group of people," including "auto insurers, chiropractors, dentists, pharmacists, workers compensation insurers and others."

Senator calls for 100Mb national Net access

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) has introduced legislation establishing a national goal for the universal deployment of next-generation, 100 megabit Internet access by 2015, "and calling upon Congress and the President to develop a strategy, enact legislation, and adopt policies to accomplish this objective," according to Thomas. The goal is 10 megabit service by the end of 2010, and 100 megabits service by the end of 2015. 

NASCIO releases state health IT report

NASCIO has just released a compendium of state health IT efforts. Listed for each state, according to the introduction on the association's publications page, are standard descriptions, ranging from executive orders to legislative-driven initiatives to public/private or public/non-profit partnerships.

GovTech: Strategic Progress in New York

Government Technology reports on New York's progress implementing its 2006 strategic plan. Part of the progress includes a new, fully funded data center. The article also provides some added information on the planned statewide public safety wireless network and VoIP telephony.

CIOs seek to coordinate federal IT spending in states

Public CIO has more information on the most recent NASCIO Washington fly-in, touching on the announced reason for the trip, the need to coordinate federal IT outlays in state government with state CIOs:

The CIOs also met with members of non-governmental organizations such as the National [Governors] Association and the eHeatlh Initiative. While three-quarters of a state CIO's work involves implementing federal funds, [Wisconsin CIO Matt] Miszewski says, too often the allocation and dispersal of federal money for state IT projects occurs without the involvement of the CIO.

Hat tip: NASCIO Enterprise Architecture News Briefs

CIOs pursue Capitol agenda

According to Government Technology, state government CIOs visited Washington recently during the NASCIOs sixth-annual D.C. fly-in. One of the issues on the agenda was federal funding complexities. The group has just published a call to action on the issue, States Need Reform in Federal IT Funding:

Currently, the general guidelines attached to federal programmatic funding do not promote enterprise IT shared solutions, infrastructure optimization or the integrated channels of services sought by citizens. The state IT landscape has changed significantly, yet federal grant funding guidelines do not reflect this new environment. As millions of new federal dollars are spent on IT that supports human services, public health, justice and homeland security, a change in attitude toward enterprise IT solutions and flexible commingling guidelines with specific cost-allocation options could greatly improve the return on every federal dollar spent on information systems in the states.

According to Doug Robinson, executive director for NASCIO, "A total of 36 separate meetings were held. Of those, 30 were with Members of Congress or their staffs, 4 were with federal agencies..."

The organization also recently published this brief on the position of chief information security officer (CISO) and will likely follow up with a survey.

House passes telecom reform

According to this story, H.R. 5252 has been voted out of the House by a wide margin. The bill essentialy establishes a national video franchise. While voting, the House turned back efforts to build in network neutrality princples.

The Senate Commerce Committee, which is currently considering a much wider-ranging bill, has been slower to act. It is currently reviewing language that would give localities more of a say over video developments. As for network neutrality, the committee is also thinking about moving beyond an approach that would monitor for potential abuses, toward something more prescriptive. No decisions have been made.

While I was looking around for information, I found this CNN story from 1996 that reported on the signing of the 1996 telecom reform bill. I thought it would be interesting to compare the two.

Let's hope Congress exhibits a little more foresight this go around.

GovTech: Wisconsin Signs Broadband Bill

According to Government Technology, Wisconsin has signed into law a bill that it hopes will increase broadband availability in the state. Companies that demonstrate that they will expand broadband in areas of the state where there are one (or none) providers will be eligible tax credits.

Senate taking testimony on "network neutrality"

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has posted the prepared testimony from panelists scheduled to testify today before the committee on network neutrality.

The list of those scheduled to appear is impressive and includes Vinton Cerf, who spoke at the NASTD annual conference in Providence Rhode Island in 2004.

Om Malik has also included a guest editorial on his web log in favor of network neutral legislation. The Washington Post (free registration required) quotes Verizon as calling for an end to Google's "free lunch," a remark reminiscent of comments by Ed Whitacre of AT&T.

Public positioning on 'Net Neutrality'

More on network neutrality from Om Malik, who references this Fox News piece on the public policy dimensions now that Congress is set to take up the issue.

Malik, who has written critically of comments by AT&T's Ed Whitacre before, notes a shift in position in Whitacre's most recent statement. The CEO had previously said that service providers -- Google, for example -- were unfairly getting a free ride on the carriers' public networks. Whitacre now appears to agree that customers already pay for the connection (last mile broadband fees), but that service providers should have to cough up some cash for use of the "Internet cloud."

Read Malik's post. There's a lot of public positioning going on now for the benefit of lawmakers, who will undoubtedly be wrestling with this issue as they make new national communications laws.