Microsoft licking its wounds

Date: Monday, December 11, 2006 5:54 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1607 -- 12/11/2006 >>>>>

Microsoft sure didn't get its money's worth this year. According to lobby
filings they spent over $4.8 million and yet they came home empty handed.
They didn't get the what they paid for -- huge tax breaks and the Skil
Bill.

Microsoft is very angry because they aren't going to get a ticket to ride
the cheap labor market.

"Without an increase in the number of H-1B visa and green cards
issued each year, our nation loses the opportunity to benefit
from the contributions of highly educated and skilled workers
from around the world," Jack Krumholz, Microsoft's top lobbyist,
said in a statement."American businesses and society in general
will be worse off due to Congress' lack of action on this issue."

Jack Krumholz talked about the contributions of H-1Bs to Microsoft's bottom
line but failed to mention the $4.8 million worth of "contributions" he
gave to Congress on behalf of Microsoft to game the results. You can bet
that there was much more spent off the record.

The enormous sums of money that Microsoft is willing to spend to promote
the Skil Bill says a lot about how much money they expect to save by using
the cheap young blood of foreign workers.

To see the document signed by Krumholz goto this link:

http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/opr_gifviewer.exe?/2006/01/000/242/000242109|19

Microsoft wasn't the only one to lose big time. The American Electronics
Association spent $1 million to buy Congress but got nothing in return.

"If they were going to get a grade, it would be an 'I' for failure
to complete all assignments," said John Palafoutas, senior vice
president and chief lobbyist for the American Electronics
Association, whose members include about 2,500 companies
Including Adobe Systems, Intel, Sun Microsystems and
Hewlett-Packard.

To see the lobby document signed by Palafoutas click this link:

http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/opr_gifviewer.exe?/2006/01/000/230/000230457|18

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http://weblog.infoworld.com/realitycheck/archives/2006/12/skil_bill_on_h1.html

SKIL Bill on H-1B visa increase tabled until next year

By Ephraim Schwartz

December 11, 2006

It looks like Senator Cornyn and co-sponsors in the Senate were unable to
bring Senate Bill 2691 to a vote last Friday as I reported last week.

However, with a strong lobbying effort from many high tech firms this is
probably only a temporary pause in the action. Washington insiders continue
to predict its passage.

You can track which high tech companies are paying what lobbyist firms, how
much they are paying them and what subjects they are paying them to lobby
for by going to this Federal Government link.

Click on Access the US Lobby Report Images for All Years and you will be
given search criteria. If you hold the CRTL key down you can search on
multiple criteria.

Once in the report see Item 16 for Lobbying Issues.

Please post in comments on any interesting discoveries.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6142709.html

Congress and tech: Little to show
12 / 11 / 06 |

Politicians in Washington, D.C., spent the last two years promising new
laws on everything from Net neutrality to computer security and social
networking Web sites.
But when the 109th Congress finally adjourned over the weekend, ending 12
years of Republican rule of the the U.S. House of Representatives, few
technology-related bills actually had made it through the legislative
process.

"If they were going to get a grade, it would be an 'I' for failure to
complete all assignments," said John Palafoutas, senior vice president and
chief lobbyist for the American Electronics Association, whose members
include about 2,500 companies including Adobe Systems, Intel, Sun
Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.

Legislative legacy
The 109th Congress approved only three of the following 12 bills:

APPROVED

Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act: Sent to president

Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act: Became law as part of
port security bill

Child Protection and Safety Act: Became law

FAILED TO ENACT

Deleting Online Predators Act: Approved by House, died in Senate

Network Neutrality Act: Amendment rejected

Global Online Freedom Act: Ignored

Data Accountability and Trust Act: Died in House

Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act: Died in Senate

Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act: Approved by
House, died in Senate

Internet Safety Act: Ignored in House and Senate

Patent Reform Act of 2006: Ignored

Audio Broadcast Flag Licensing Act: Ignored

One measure that was sent to President Bush on Friday night would make it a
federal crime to use fraudulent tactics to buy, sell or otherwise obtain
private phone record information--although it explicitly exempts police or
spy agencies like the National Security Agency.

"The practice of fraudulently obtaining a customer's phone records and
selling them over the Internet is wrong and must be stopped," outgoing
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said in a statement. "Consumers have a
right to expect that this information will be kept private, with very
limited exceptions."

Called "pretexting," the practice already is illegal in some states like
California and is probably prohibited by common law rules against fraud
that have existed for hundreds of years. Pretexting came to light this fall
in Hewlett-Packard's boardroom leak investigation that resulted in
journalists--including three CNET News.com reporters--having their phone
records accessed.

But the antipretexting bill was an exception. A review of outstanding
legislation shows both chambers of Congress approved only a handful of
technology-related items, leaving proposals on topics like data breach
notification, patent reform and Net neutrality to die in committee. Here's
a roundup:

H-1B visas: Because politicians went home for the holidays without voting
to raise the number of H-1B visas, tech companies didn't get a boost in the
controversial guest worker program they claim is necessary to fill critical
holes in their workforces.

"Without an increase in the number of H-1B visa and green cards issued each
year, our nation loses the opportunity to benefit from the contributions of
highly educated and skilled workers from around the world," Jack Krumholz,
Microsoft's top lobbyist, said in a statement. "American businesses and
society in general will be worse off due to Congress' lack of action on
this issue."

The H-1B program allows foreigners with at least a bachelor's degree in
their area of specialty to be employed in the United States for up to six
years. They're currently capped at 65,000 visas per year, with an
additional 20,000 visas set aside for foreigners with advanced degrees from
American universities, after peaking at 195,000 between 2001 and 2003.

Web censorship and filtering: Politicians' concern about children and sites
like MySpace.com reached nearly a fever pitch in 2006, with now-departed
Rep. Mark Foley introducing a bill in July that he described as protecting
"youth from exploitation by adults using the Internet."

The House did approve a proposal targeting social networking sites, but it
died in the Senate. Another bill protesting Chinese Web censorship expired
quietly in a House subcommittee. One measure that did become law makes it a
crime for Webmasters to use innocent words like "Barbie" but feature
sexually explicit content.

A Web labeling requirement stuffed into a massive spending bill was
narrowly avoided after Congress delayed a vote on it until February.
Similarly, Sen. John McCain's plan to force Web sites to report illegal
images is expected to resurface in the 110th Congress next year.

Net neutrality: A pitched battle between Republicans and Democrats over
network neutrality regulations--which say that broadband providers cannot
favor one site over another--was narrowly avoided.

First, the House definitively rejected the concept of strict Net neutrality
regulations in a 269-152 vote on June 8. Then a Senate committee, voting
largely along party lines, rejected a Net neutrality amendment backed by
Democrats by an 11-11 tie. (A majority vote was required.)

With the support of companies like Google and eBay, some Democrats had
pledged to try to insert that amendment during a Senate floor vote over the
broader bill, which would rewrite telecommunications laws. But that vote
never happened.

Copyright and digital rights management: After the Supreme Court's ruling
last year in the Grokster file-swapping case, neither the computer industry
nor the record labels and the Motion Picture Association of America have
shown much desire to seek new laws.

One exception has been the so-called broadcast flag, which started out as a
controversial form of copy-prevention technology for digital TV broadcasts
and then was expandedto digital radio . Copyright owners would like
politicians to make those flags mandatory for hardware makers, but no final
votes on the legislative proposals took place.

The broadcast flag for digital TV has, however, been inserted into a
telecommunications bill that's expected to resurface in the spring.

R&D tax credit: Technology companies had hoped that a popular tax credit
for research and development would be made permanent. It didn't happen.

As part of a broader tax relief package, Congress approved only a temporary
extension of the research and development tax credit. "Passage of a
(permanent extension) has been a critically important objective and is part
of our industry's agenda to promote innovation and enhance U.S.
competitiveness in the global economy," said George Scalise, president of
the Semiconductor Industry Association, whose members include Advanced
Micro Devices, Intel and IBM.

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