Hatch, Bennett both on high-tech task force

WASHINGTON — Both senators from Utah have been named to a key, behind-the-scenes Republican policy-making arm, the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force, and both are promising that nothing less than the economic future of the nation hangs in the balance.

"We know that the future of our country depends on what this task force is doing," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

The task force's agenda was unveiled Wednesday at a press conference where Hatch and Bennett, the latter of whom was the first head of the group.

And it is an aggressive agenda, from getting more American children to study math and science to throwing up roadblocks to spyware, the insidious computer programs that monitor everything about your computer use.

One item on the agenda, reforms to class action lawsuits, has already been passed into law this year and has been signed by the president. Another, bankruptcy reforms, is well on its way to passage.

Supporters say the task force's broad agenda is about creating an economic and regulatory environment that reflects a 21st century technology environment.

Bennett compared the current "information revolution" to the "industrial revolution" that forever altered American culture. And he said the information revolution is happening 10 times as fast and that it is "confusing and it is challenging."

The challenge, he said, will be creating a legal and regulatory environment where innovation and creativity can flourish in this new environment.

The task force will propose legislation on a variety of specific issues, including a permanent moratorium on Internet taxation, an extension on research and development tax credits, an accelerated depreciation schedule for technology equipment and improvements to the federal government's information technology systems.

On a broader scale, the task force will propose reforms to medical liability and patent law, consider reforms to litigation that affects competitiveness, support efforts to protect U.S. agencies and industry from Internet attacks and expand telemedicine and medical databases.