Elizabeth Hyman Posts

A look at the week of August 21 in public advocacy for the IT channel: Large retail chains like Walmart and Amazon are fighting to make sure that small businesses are taxed as much as they are under future online tax legislation, says the Philadelphia Inquirer. Small business owners were less optimistic about their future sales and growth in July, says The Hill. Republican senators are still debating the merits and details of online sales tax legislation, says the Daily Caller.Internet Tax Wars: ...

A look at the week of August 14 in public advocacy for the IT channel: President Obama is currently weighing an executive order that would help prevent cyber attacks on critical infrastructure one week after the Senate failed to pass legislation, says the National Journal. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believes that cloud computing is dangerous and will lead to major problems in the next few years, says the Huffington Post. GOP lawmakers in the Senate are firing back against Senate Democrats th ...

Recently, CompTIA and the Congressional Caucus on Small Business IT held a briefing on the issue of lagging interest in IT-related careers by our nation’s youth. A group of concerned representatives from CompTIA, Congress and a panel of IT, education and small business experts set out to frame the issue and offer possible solutions. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), the co- chair of the Congressional Caucus on Small Business IT, gave opening remarks, discussing the IT industry’ ...

A look at the week of July 16 in public advocacy for the IT channel: Republican governors have stopped their opposition to imposing state sales taxes on online purchases, which signifies the inevitable end of a no-tax Internet, says the Wall Street Journal. The Marketplace Fairness Act – which grants states the authority to tax “remote sellers” the same way they do local business – is long overdue, says the Washington Post. The Senate is going to consider a new cybersecurity bill next week, says ...

A look at the week of July 9 in public advocacy for the IT channel: The optimism of small business owners took the largest month-to-month dive from May to June since June 2010, says the Washington Post. For the eleventh year in a row, the federal government has missed its goal of contracting out its business to small businesses, says the Washington Business Journal. A new government report showed that cyberattacks on U.S. energy companies, public water districts and other infrastructure faciliti ...

A look at the week of July 2 in public advocacy for the IT channel: Electrical outages caused by storms over the past weekend at an Amazon data center in Ashburn, Va., are forcing federal officials to reconsider its shift to cloud computing managed by the private sector, says the Washington Post. Senators are hoping to move forward from a political standoff regarding two opposing cybersecurity bills once they return from the July 4th congressional recess, says The Hill. Unemployment rates for ve ...

A look at the week of June 19 in public advocacy for the IT channel: Small cloud companies are struggling to secure federal contracts and certification due to the overwhelming demand of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, says the Washington Post. Small business owners are embracing a new bill designed to keep productive immigrant workers in the U.S., says the Wall Street Journal. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee predicts that Obama will back down from his thre ...

Although still early, the 2012 Presidential election remains very close (within the margin of error).  According to Rasmussen Reports, Governor Romney leads President Obama 47 percent to 44 percent (5 percent support another candidate and 4 percent are undecided).  Expect these numbers to fluctuate throughout the election, but generally remain very close.Of course, some events may lead to slight changes in polling numbers in the near term, including the Supreme Court’s ruling on healthcare refor ...

A look at the week of June 13 in public advocacy for the IT channel: The revelation that the U.S. was partly behind a computer virus used to damage Iranian nuclear centrifuges has added urgency for Congress to compromise and push through cybersecurity legislation, says The Hill. Two cybersecurity bills are stalled in the Senate amid the growing media spotlight on the U.S.’s vulnerability to cyberterrorism, says the National Journal. A bipartisan group of senators is working out a compromise rega ...

A look at the week of May 29 in public advocacy for the IT channel:  With the celebration of Memorial Day weekend, The Washington Post renewed its focus on how to educate and train our nation’s returning veterans.  White House Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel testified before a congressional committee, defending the federal government’s efforts to take advantage of the latest technology. On the small business front, Small Business Administration Head Karen Mills s ...