A draft E-911 bill by Rep. Gordon (D-Tenn.) would offer VoIP providers protection from suits if emergency calls aren’t connected to public safety answering points (PSAPs), Gordon’s legislative asst., Dana Lichtenberg, said at an FCBA lunch Fri. The immunity provision is a key element in the bill, circulating among House Commerce Committee lawmakers and expected to be introduced within 2 weeks, she said. The bill updates one debated last year and resembles S-428, which the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously reported out April 25.
Congressmen and witnesses slammed DHS’s law enforcement information sharing network as ineffective, costly and redundant at a House Intelligence Subcommittee hearing Thurs. The Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN), a secure Web-based portal that the agency uses to share counter- terrorism intelligence with local and state police. But HSIN doesn’t work as promised, Chmn. Harmon (D-Cal.) said: “What we have instead is kind of a mess.” Rather than capitalize on existing state and local networks, DHS seems to have created a new network, to defend the agency’s turf, she said: Many at DHS “do not know what state and local needs are.” HSIN landed on the OMB’s watch list and high risk list of poorly executed projects that require executive attention, Harmon said: “It’s totally unacceptable.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that it published in the May 8, 2007 Federal Register a notice announcing that e-Manifest: Truck for advance cargo information purposes would be mandated for all land border ports in Idaho and Montana. The requirement to submit e-Manifests at these ports will be implemented on August 6, 2007. (See ITT's Online Archives or 05/09/07 news, 07050905, for BP summary of the FR notice.) (Adm: 07-0113, dated 05/08/07, available at http://www.brokerpower.com/cgi-bin/adminsearch/admmsg.view.pl?article=2007/2007-0113.ADM)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site a summary of the meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC), which was held in Washington D.C. on February 14, 2007.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a notice announcing that the fifth group of land border ports to become mandatory for the Automated Commercial Environment electronic manifest: Truck for advance cargo information purposes will be those in Idaho and Montana effective August 6, 2007.
LAS VEGAS -- More than 5 years after CableLabs wrote technical standards for digital cable set-top boxes and cable-ready DTV sets that can work on any cable system, top MSOs finally are preparing to introduce such devices. Of the top 10 cable operators, 4 -- Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Bright House - described Sun. how they soon will be equipping their systems with interoperable TV sets and set-tops. The operators are upgrading system headends to support digital boxes embedded with OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) middleware from CableLabs, a key element in the retail drive.
LAS VEGAS -- More than 5 years after CableLabs wrote technical standards for digital cable set-top boxes and cable-ready DTV sets that can work on any cable system, top MSOs finally are preparing to introduce such devices. Of the top 10 cable operators, 4 -- Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Bright House - described Sun. how they soon will be equipping their systems with interoperable TV sets and set-tops. The operators are upgrading system headends to support digital boxes embedded with OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) middleware from CableLabs, a key element in the retail drive.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site a notice which announces the phased enforcement of mandatory ACE electronic manifest: Truck for advance cargo information purposes at all land border ports in New Hampshire and Vermont as well as the remaining land border ports in North Dakota - St. John, Fortuna, Ambrose, Carbury, Noonan, Dunseith, Sherwood, Antler, Northgate, Westhope, and Portal, beginning July 12, 2007.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted Amendment 5 (dated April 2007) to the Customs Automated Manifest Interface Requirements (CAMIR)-Intermodal. According to CBP, the changes in Amendment 5 are as follows:
On March 13, 2007, the Senate amended and passed S. 4, the "Improving America's Security by Implementing Unfinished Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007," by a vote of 60-38.