What Judd Gregg bodes for high tech
Commerce Secretary-designate Judd Gregg (center) speaks Tuesday at the White House, accompanied by Vice President Biden and President Obama.
(Credit: White House photo by Pete Souza)Republican senator Judd Gregg on Tuesday officially became President Obama's nominee for secretary of commerce, bringing a pro-business and pro-law enforcement record to a cabinet position with significant influence over the new administration's technology policies.
In remarks at the White House, Obama called the New Hampshire senator "an outstanding addition to the depth and experience of my economic team, a trusted voice in my Cabinet, and an able and persuasive ambassador for industry who makes it known to the world that America is open for business."
A review of Gregg's actions as senator shows that his record on technology policy is mixed. His skepticism of Internet taxes and support for more H-1B visas has made him a frequent ally of the tech industry, but he was the first -- and only -- senator to call for a global ban on secure encryption products after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The U.S. Department of Commerce oversees the administration's position on Internet regulation, the patent office, and tech-related standards including an algorithm used in digital signatures. Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration calls itself the "president's principal adviser on telecommunications and information policy issues." In addition to its traditional involvement with Internet governance, NTIA is responsible for overseeing the coupon program for digital TV converter boxes.
Because Commerce oversees regulations relating to the Web posting and export of encryption code, Gregg's pro-surveillance views are causing a bit of nervousness in Washington circles. On the Senate floor on September 13, 2001, while the World Trade Center complex was still smoldering, Gregg said: "This is something that we need international cooperation on and we need to have movement on in order to get the information that allows us to anticipate and prevent what occurred in New York and in Washington."
Gregg said that encryption makers "have as much at risk as we have at risk as a nation, and they should understand that as a matter of citizenship, they have an obligation" to include decryption methods for government agents. Gregg, who previously headed the appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department, then told the Associated Press he was writing legislation "to give our law enforcement community more tools."
That proposal echoed legislation approved by one House of Representatives committee four years earlier, which would have made it a felony to distribute or sell encryption products unless they provided police with "immediate access to plaintext." That would have prohibited the distribution of Web browsers with built-in SSL encryption, operating systems with disk encryption, and software using standard Internet protocols including IPsec and SSH.
A month later in October 2001, without explanation, Gregg abandoned the legislation he was drafting.
"We are hopeful that as Commerce Secretary, Sen. Gregg will not revive the discredited idea of limiting the use of strong encryption," Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said on Tuesday. "Requiring a backdoor in encryption systems to help the government conduct surveillance would create vulnerabilities that would ultimately make us less, not more, secure."
A friend of the business community
In other areas and in other ways, though, Washington representatives of the high tech industry say Gregg is a solid choice.
The Business Software Alliance said the senator "has the potential to be an outstanding Secretary of Commerce." The Information Technology Industry Council said: "He has been a strong proponent of opening overseas markets to U.S. exports, he backed a permanent R&D tax credit and has voted favorably on litigation reform."
Gregg has been a friend of the business community, receiving a cumulative score of 88 percent in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's most recent congressional scorecard. (By comparison, Obama received a 42 percent rating, and Vice President Joe Biden a mere 35 percent.) On CNET's 2008 scorecard that rated a broader range of votes including ones relating to gambling and wiretaps, Gregg received a 50 percent.
He has been a champion of eliminating any limits on H-1B "guest worker" visas, telling Microsoft's Bill Gates in 2007 that he "agreed 100 percent" that there should be no limits on them. Gregg acknowledged that his colleagues would not be inclined to support such a radical proposal; he introduced legislation last year raising the limit on H-1B "guest worker" visas from 65,000 to 115,000 and the advanced-degree exemption to 30,000 visas for the next three years.
Gregg has also suggested making it illegal to sell someone's Social Security number without their consent, and has consistently supported efforts to restrict Internet taxes.
The news of Gregg's nomination comes a day after the Senate confirmed Eric Holder as attorney general. Holder supported laws mandating Internet traceability, limits on domestic use of encryption, and restrictions on free speech online; during his confirmation hearing last month he said the president has inherent wiretapping and surveillance authority that "cannot be infringed by the legislative branch."
CNET's Stephanie Condon contributed to this report
Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan. 
I'm disappointed by the Obama administration, again!
Obama/Judd Gregg Abandoning the Middle Class
http://www.cato.org/weekly/index.php?vid_id=64
The H-1B and L-1 guest workers programs have ?RESERVED? millions of high-value jobs for citizens of foreign countries.
And, we have plenty of evidence that these ?Fake Job Ads? consistently and routinely DENY, DEPRIVE and EXCLUDE United States Citizens from Equal Employment Opportunities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cNnK2M4OTs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
http://www.numbersusa.com/index
E-Verify Keeps Getting Delayed...
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2009/01/31/wian.killing.everify.cnn
Microsoft lobbied Obama transition team on high-skilled immigration weeks before announcing layoffs
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/02/02/microsoft_asked_the_government_in.html
Octopus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxJJXVdxuvk
Octopus Yacht in St. Lucia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdHTBCz3luQ
Paul Allen's Yacht the Octopus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvLGWnh_8FU
New- Inedito Video Yacht Octopus (microsoft)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS3qtfJdaCU&feature=PlayList&p=FE3E579388C674D5&playnext=1&index=34
Paul Allen's Motor Yacht Tatoosh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LY-wCloSBU
TATOOSH YACHT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e4Y2LETpSM
Fire Foreigners First
Discussing Americans priority in job retention, with Rob Cox, Breakingviews.com U.S. editor
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1019715332&play=1
Fire Foreigners First?
Should American companies lay off foreign workers first?
Mark Krikorian, of the Center For Immigration Studies, and Stuart Anderson, of the National Foundation for American Policy, share their insight.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1019862800&play=1
Fact is and fact remains that the H1 helps the American economy.
For example, without Linus Torvalds getting an H1, Linux would probably have remained an obscure operating system from Finland. Having Mr. Torvalds here on an H1 (and now a Greencard) increased the visibility of Linux tremendously.
You should be able to work in the US only if:
A) US citizen
B) Naturalized CITIZEN
C) Green Card holder are already exempt from doing some type of government work (go get a citizenship and bump your self to a B
D) Only strategically SUPER IMPORTANT people who have amazing skills of importance to the security of this nation should be allowed within D
Everyone else, stay in your country and build it, eventually you'll enter the Global Market place one way or another and you'll make good money
Re: "[...TheNerd: How many developers actively work on eCS and what are they currently working on?
Joachim: We have several developers working on various parts of the operating system, like ACPI and other important low-level drivers, we co-fund the development of UniAud (audio subsystem), a lot of volunteers work on translating and maintaining the NLV (national language versions) of eComStation up to date. The official development team consists of 74 people at this moment, however not all of them are equally active of course. (http://ewiki.ecomstation.nl/eDG)...]"
http://www.themadfatter.com/2008/12/17/an-interview-with-mensys-about-ecomstation/
And we talk about "Jobs-Baby-Jobs" while the foreign competition are beating us at our own games.
If companies can't get qualified people here, they would go abroad. That would mean: say goodbye to your paycheck, and be prepared to grow your own food. You can go to see the Amish to learn how it would be.
We have a global economy, and America relies more on other countries than other countries relying on the US.
Do you really think intelligent people would stay in a xenophobic US?
But of course, rednecks like you don't think. They don't know how to think.
There is also the education issue. Let's give people one more reason not to study here, and take away more money from public and private universities. This isn't dark ages. People don't learn to build their nations by staying in them and closing themselves off. That only contributes to ignorance.
A huge chunk of the H1B jobs require skills that few Americans have or can obtain without years of education.
This is the price of relegating Mathematics to the fringes.
2. Get rid of the illegal aliens.
3. Use e-verify to check all new job applicants and all current job holders. Use e-verify at hospitals, emergency rooms, banks, any place you can send money out of the country, schools, drivers licence and car registration locations, police, jails and prisons, all government locations, housing.
4. Take away all federal money from sanctuary cities, states, and organizations.
5. Put foreign legal residents on notice that providing sanctuary or material aid to illegal aliens may put their legal status in jeopardy.
6. Remember: Blanket amnesty for illegal aliens is TREASON!!!!!!!!!!!11
You need to learn that unemployment numbers by themselves don't mean much.
Anybody with an education would know all that. So, start by educating yourself, instead of posting xenophobic BS.
- by SpiritMatter February 4, 2009 4:18 PM PST
- "but he was the first -- and only -- senator to call for a global ban on secure encryption products"
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(18 Comments)The only probable reason he backed off is that after he was confirmed "safe", he was allowed to know that the right people have bent over and there already is a back door in place. Those who think they are encrypted will use this communication format that they might otherwise have avoided. Electronic mind access is coming. Will he support prying into all our minds for the sake of our "safety"? God forbid!
Anyone that is willing to throw out all morals and do anything to defeat the "bad" guys has become a bad guy and does not deserve to succeed.