Technology

For too long, government has turned a blind eye to online pornography, which has allowed this industry to expand.  Parents should have more control over the content children view in their own home. Schools and libraries should too. That’s why Sen. Baucus (D-Mont.) and I have proposed basic protections, such as requiring adult websites to use age verification software and clean homepages.  This legislation is part of a multifaceted approach we need to take in order to help clean up the internet for kids.

Yesterday we heard from Vice President Al Gore about his views on Global Warming.  During his testimony, he said that he believes that no new coal plants should be built in the U.S. unless they are carbon-capture ready.  A carbon capture-ready plant, without actually capturing carbon, is configured differently than non-carbon capture-ready plant, and is much more inefficient.  This amounts to increased carbon emissions until the carbon capture equipment is installed.  Yet, the recently released MIT Coal Study tells us that carbon capture is not credible until it has been commercially demonstrated -- and it hasn't been.

With all due respect to the Vice President, I hear from my constituents every day that electricity prices are too high.  ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, has said that unless new generation capacity is built in Texas, we will not have enough electricity to ensure reliability within the next 5-10 years.  I believe that we need to keep the lights on, while continuing to invest in technology -- and demonstration.

As we all know, pernicious spyware is growing exponentially. Very few are still unaware of this problem because almost everyone's computer - your father's or mother's or brother's or daughter's -- has become infected by unwanted applications that are noticed when they slow or even cripple your machine. These programs not only monitor a person's Internet usage, but can steal your Social Security and credit card numbers and even use your own webcam to keep an eye on you and your family.

To my mind, invading a personal computer and planting spyware is not much different than breaking and entering a person's house. This bill encourages regulators to slam the window closed on the spies, cheats and thieves who sneak into people's computers.

In a hearing today with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, I referenced the fact that we are not very popular around the world, and that one of the unquestioned and positive programs that we have is the space program. It’s universally well thought of around the world, and it gives us a great opportunity to cooperate and collaborate with other nations.

When the Jet Propulsion Lab in my district landed its rovers on Mars, there were nine billion hits in the first two months on the NASA web page. This is one great enterprise that captures the world’s imagination and really shows off what’s best about our country, so I was exploring with the NASA administrator how we can use the space program as an instrument of our public diplomacy. Read more...

For years, the U.S. was the leader of innovation, science, and research, but unfortunately we have lost some of our competitive edge. Where we have continued to succeed and surpass others is with super-computing. This legislative victory will provide the tools this country needs to strengthen our leadership in information technology, an industry that creates high-wage jobs, provides for rapid communication throughout the world, and drives economic growth.

NASA is a key component of our nation's pursuit in the areas of science, space and technology. The benefits of that investment permeate nearly every aspect of our lives. Congress must continue to sustain a consistent, incremental investment in NASA. With the reductions to the NASA budget in the FY07 Joint Resolution, it is vital that Congress return to the path it blazed when passing the NASA Authorization Act and fund the Moon-Mars Initiative at a level consistent with preventing Orion and Ares from being delayed to 2015, widening the gap of U.S. human access to space once the Shuttle is retired in 2010.

NASA's long-term vision for space exploration comprises a balance of robotic and human exploration programs and it is playing a key role in inspiring the next generation of America's scientists and engineers from every state across the country. Such inspiration is a huge tangible benefit from which we will maintain globally America's competitive position. Read more...

To be frank, I didn’t expect to be asked to testify at the XM-Sirius hearing – Public Knowledge hasn’t been much involved in media consolidation issues (unless you consider net neutrality to be one). But my indignation over the National Association of Broadcaster’s hypocrisy in opposing the merger and our concern that the merger could be conditioned on some sort of audio flag or other tech mandate for digital radio probably helped to get us the nod.

My written testimony discussed these issues, but a briefing document I received just prior to the hearing calling efforts to require the industry to pay a performance right to artists and recording companies a “tax Read more...

Ten years ago this week, scientists at Scotland’s Roslin Institute announced they had successfully cloned the first animal from an adult cell – a sheep named Dolly.  Animal clones are exact genetic copies of an existing animal – essentially an identical twin.  In the decade since Dolly’s introduction, animal cloning technology has advanced significantly.  Today, we are poised to utilize this technology to enhance food production, food security in developing countries, the health of farm animals and the safety of our food supply.  Cloning will also tackle the challenge of the extinction of wild animals like the giant panda.

Just two months ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a draft risk assessment that concluded that meat and milk products from animal clones and their offspring are safe for human consumption, and are no different from foods produced through other breeding methods.  While currently there are no known products from animal clones and their offspring on the market, in the future, consumers will benefit from a healthier, consistent, and more abundant meat and milk supply produced from animal cloning.  This is because animal cloning, as an assisted reproductive technology, allows farmers and ranchers to accelerate the reproduction of their most productive livestock.  Ultimately, this technology will be another tool for farmer and ranchers to raise healthier farm animals, and health animals produce healthy foods.  Read more...

For those who are still trying to determine responsibility for global warming, this new U.N. report on climate change is a scientific smoking gun. We ignore it at the peril of our children and their children.

The debate about climate change has rapidly moved from 'if' to 'when.' The world's scientific community is stating with one clear voice that human activities are causing climate change and we can no longer afford to move at a glacial pace in stopping, stabilizing, and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that we know are causing global warming. It falls to this Congress to meet this challenge by moving aggressively to transition away from forms of energy which have the capacity to destroy the planet as we know it.

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