Obama Plays Up Tech's Value in State of the Union

A look at the week of January 31, 2011, in public advocacy for the IT channel

Last week, technology played a key role in President Obama’s State of the Union address.  Senate Democrats reignited the debate over cybersecurity by introducing a cybersecurity placeholder bill.  The Senate bill repealing the 1099 tax provision in the healthcare law has reached a critical number of co-sponsors.

Obama Plays Up Tech's Value in State of the Union —Technology heavily underpinned President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address as he emphasized the importance of clean tech, broadband and science education in achieving his goal to “out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” In the speech, Politico reports, Obama made the case for the sort of broadband investment, corporate tax reductions and trade proposals that the technology industry has spent the past two years pushing for in Washington.

Dems Reopen Cybersecurity Debate — Several influential Senate Democratic Committee chairmen introduced a measure this week recognizing the need to act to secure the nation from cyber attacks and calling on the Obama administration and lawmakers to enact legislation, says Tech Daily Dose.

The non-binding legislation appears to set a marker for future cybersecurity legislation by outlining 10 areas to be addressed.

Johann’s Bill Repealing 1099 Provision Reaches 60 Co-Sponsors — A bipartisan bill in the Senate that would repeal the unpopular 1099 tax provision in the healthcare law garnered 60 co-sponsors on Thursday, giving the legislation its best chance at passage so far. According to The Hill, lawmakers quickly are signing onto the measure, which would eliminate the requirement that businesses file 1099 forms for every vendor with which they have at least $600 in transactions.