December 2009

Marketers of violent music, movies, and video games can do more to restrict the promotion of these products to children, according to the seventh in a series of Federal Trade Commission reports on marketing violent entertainment to children. The FTC's report states that the music industry still has not adopted objective marketing standards limiting ad placement for explicit-content music. As a result, the industry still advertises music labeled with a Parental Advisory Label (PAL) on television shows viewed by a substantial number of children. Music retailers routinely sell labeled music to unaccompanied teens. The report also finds that movie studios intentionally market PG-13 movies to children under 13, and the movie industry does not have explicit standards in place to restrict this practice. The growing practice of releasing unrated DVDs undermines the rating system, and confuses parents. Both the video game and movie industries can do more to limit ad placement on Web sites that disproportionately attract children and teens, according to the report.

A White House cyber chief should have budget authority for initiatives to protect computer networks and systems across all agencies to ensure the allocation of necessary resources, said former federal officials on Thursday. Currently, Congress appropriates cybersecurity funds to agencies and departments, which then have varying degrees of flexibility in deciding how exactly the dollars are spent within a given program. This decentralized strategy hinders the administration's ability to develop and implement a governmentwide cybersecurity strategy, said a panel of former federal officials at the AFCEA Solutions cybersecurity conference. Separately, government relations firm Livingston Group sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and minority leader John Boehner recommending Congress unify the plethora of committees that hold jurisdiction over cybersecurity. "Part of the problem preventing Congress from addressing this issue is that multiple committees currently have jurisdiction over cybersecurity," stated the letter, which was signed by former Louisiana congressman Robert Livingston, now a partner in the firm. He named seven committees that influence how cybersecurity, including the Appropriations Committee, which he chaired. Other committees focus on areas of energy, commerce, armed services and homeland security. "This diffusion of responsibility prevents the Congress from taking effective action," he wrote.

Rep Bart Stupak (D-MI) has introduced a bill to allow more than two Federal Communications Commission commissioners to meet privately, so long as there is at least one commissioner from each party in the room and the meeting's content is disclosed to the public. A number of commissioners have argued for letting commissioners get together to discuss issues. Currently, sunshine rules prevent more than two commissioners meeting in person outside of public meetings. That is because all meetings of federal agencies must be open if there is a quorum present, and since the FCC has five members, three represents a quorum. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps announced he was thrilled by the bill's introduction, saying "If there was only one action we could take to reform the FCC, this would be my choice. The inability of Commissioners to get together and talk as a group makes zero sense. The statutory bar on more than two Commissioners talking together outside a public meeting has had pernicious and unintended consequences-stifling collaborative discussions among colleagues, delaying timely decision-making, discouraging collegiality and short-changing consumers and the public interest."

Health information exchange will spring from a variety of sources and methods beyond the federal government's work to set-up a nationwide health information network (NHIN), Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health IT, said. Standards for interoperability will be the key to collecting data once for many uses of HIE, including clinical treatment, comparative effectiveness research, bio-surveillance, medical safety and post-marketing surveillance of new medications, the health IT leader said. The Office of the National Coordinator will produce regulations by the end of this month with standards and certification criteria for electronic health records, he said. The regulation will include definitions of data elements that EHRs must be capable of reporting.