Senators to Introduce 1099 Repeal

A look at the week of January 10, 2011, in public advocacy for the IT channel

This week, the Senate moves forward with efforts to repeal the 1099 provision.  The House is considering legislation to enable foreign students studying science and technology to remain in the U.S. for work following graduation.  Construction began on a new $1.2-billion national cyber center in Utah.  As electronic medical record adoption gains steam, the Department of Health & Human Services plans to track health information technology (HIT) breakthroughs.

Senators to Introduce 1099 Repeal This Month— Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) plans to introduce legislation later this month that would repeal the controversial 1099 rule included in last year's healthcare law, which requires companies to report goods and service transactions valued over $600 to the IRS.  According to The Hill, Congress was close to repealing the language last year, but efforts stalled in the Senate when Democrats proposed eliminating the language without providing any way to make up the lost revenue.

House Mulls Bill to Keep Foreign Students Employed in U.S. — Tech companies have long struggled with a shortage of American students in their field.  Half of all graduate students earning advanced degrees in math, engineering and science at U.S. universities are foreign-born.  The Hill reports that a new bill introduced in the House might pave the way for up to 55,000 foreign graduate students at American universities to obtain green cards in order to fill these jobs.

Work Starts on National Cyber Center— Officials are constructing a $1.2-billion National Security Agency (NSA) cyber security center at a Utah National Guard camp near Salt Lake City, says The Associated Press.  The center is designed to help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies protect national security networks and identify cyber threats, although the NSA has refused to disclose its full purpose or function.

HHS Preps to Track HIT Breakthroughs— The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will collect information about technology trends along with subject-matter experts, health IT innovators and developers.  According to Government Health IT, this effort will update health agencies on the most promising health IT innovations with the goal of supporting adoption of health IT as well as other program efforts that will be affected by technological advances.