This is a long post, but there is a lot to cover, from what was an incredibly busy day yesterday. On Wednesday, May 13th, I had the opportunity to spend the day on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC lobbying congress. This was a new experience for me and something I was very excited to participate in. The day was organized and run by the public policy staff of CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association. CompTIA is the global IT trade association, of which Jenaly is a member, and states its mission as that of “Advancing the global IT industry.”
I was one of 19 owners of IT services businesses from around the country, along with 7 CompTIA staff to attend several meetings and it was both an encouraging and fascinating experience. As the day moved on, three primary themes emerged. Perhaps to no one’s surprise, Health Care was the hot topic of the day, followed by small business access to economic stimulus funds and cybersecurity issues. One other theme that deserves mention is that everyone we met with encouraged us to contact our members of congress, either by phone, letter or e-mail (e-mail is most efficient). Every members office logs these contacts in a database and this information is reviewed with the member monthly, so they know what their constituents are concerned about. Without exception, everyone we met with says that these contacts make a difference, so I encourage you to contact your elected officials.
We began our day with a presentation from the Counsel for Science Policy for the Senate Commerce Committee. He spoke with us about a pending cybersecurity bill being sponsored by Senator’s Rockefeller and Snowe (from neighboring Maine). One of the key components of this bill is the creation of the office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor in the White House, for strategic oversight of cybersecurity policy and implementation. A theme we would continue to hear throughout the day was the belief that without this high level strategic position, directly reporting to the President, that implementation and enforcement of any passed legislation in this area would be difficult, if not impossible. From what I learned, it appears that any federal cybersecurity legislation, at least initially, will be focused on federal government systems and critical infrastructure systems, a catch-all term that refers to the national power grid, telecommunication networks and financial systems. At least for now, it does not appear that this federal legislation will impact small or medium sized businesses, though the potential and intent does seem to be there.
As it relates to you, this concerns me for several reasons. Currently, several states are adopting sweeping cybersecurity measures. Our neighboring Commonwealth of Massachusetts has enacted perhaps the most stringent privacy and data security legislation in the country and other states are watching this very closely. From what I learned this week, there are roughly 18 states that have some form of cybersecurity laws on the books, but by far, the Massachusetts law is the most restrictive and imposes the heaviest penalties for non-compliance. In our discussions with various Committee Counsels, I stressed the point that I feel it is critically important for any federal legislation to set realistic standards and best practices, with collaborative input from the IT industry, that state legislation will conform to. Otherwise, we run the risk of having states enact 50 different sets of requirements that will unfairly burden the business community. Imagine if you had to change how you store or communicate information depending on which state your customer may be in. It could create a huge financial, regulatory and compliance burden that would limit economic growth at a time when we are trying to stimulate growth. However this plays out, if you deal with any personal or sensitive data, you are hopefully encrypting that information and not using unsecured e-mail to communicate anything sensitive. If you are not doing this currently, the time to secure your systems is now, before laws are in place that could penalize you financially, for not doing so.
I also had the opportunity to meet personally with Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter’s Legislative Director, Mr. Robert Moller. Throughout the day, and specifically during this meeting, I was impressed with the sincerity of the reception we received. I went to this meeting with four specific items to discuss and without going in to too much detail, Mr. Moller, took copious notes, offered ideas and recommendations for follow-up and asked me to follow-up with him directly, to let him know how I make out. To me, this is what participatory government should be. I was impressed. Knowing that Congresswoman Shea-Porter is interested in sustainability issues, we spent some time talking about our Green IT initiatives and the work of our own local Green Alliance. I encouraged Mr. Moller to really watch and engage with the Green Alliance as I sense this could be a model for other communities around the nation and something we are fortunate to have available to us here in our local community.
All this brought me to 10:30 AM on this very busy day, so you can get a sense for the pace of DC when you are there for a specific purpose. It’s a vibrant place. Our next meeting was with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and we met with the Chief Counsel for Policy. This meeting also focused mostly on the pending cybersecurity legislation as well as health care reform. At lunch, we heard from a speaker from the Small Business Administration who discussed the current credit crisis and how the SBA will be using stimulus funds to help ease credit issues for small businesses. The banks are still the driving force behind the easing of the current credit crunch, but the SBA is marshalling resources and new programs designed to help the business community as best it can. There are encouraging things coming. If this is an area of concern for you, check www.recovery.org frequently as this is the central resource that several people referenced.
Our next meeting was with the senior aide to Maine’s Senator Olympia Snowe of the Senate Commerce Committee. This was our most challenging meeting as it took place in the Senate Cafeteria, which is a very loud place. Congress was in session throughout the day and numerous groups were on Capitol Hill lobbying, so meeting space was at a high premium. This was our most technical meeting, mostly discussing cybersecurity.
Our final meeting of the day was with the House Committee on Small Business with the chief counsel, healthcare counsel and procurement counsel. This meeting focused mostly on healthcare reform. As we heard throughout the day, there is a general feeling that meaningful healthcare reform will be passed this year. I thought it telling that the healthcare counsel commented that if you asked him a month ago, what the odds were of meaningful healthcare reform, he would have responded “slightly less than 50/50.” However he now feels very confident that we will see some type of meaningful reform passed in to law. He said the key constituencies have all come on board, including the insurance industry, which as you can imagine, is critical to making this work. While no one could share details of exactly what this reform will look like, the general sense of optimism and eventuality was very clear.
Here's a great picture of CompTIA Director of Public Policy, Lamar Whitman, preparing us for our meeting in the House Small Business Committee Hearing Room in the Rayburn House Office Building, shortly before the Counsel's arrived.
Perhaps the most insightful moment of the day came as we were walking off Capitol Hill shortly after 5 PM, which I will paraphrase as best I can. One of the CompTIA staffers said “I have not seen this city so busy in years. Ever since the inauguration, people have been coming to DC to talk about their concerns and raise their issues. Regardless of your politics, we have come through some very hard years and there is a growing sense that all the talk of change and hope is not just talk, it’s really happening.” I think that sums up my day perfectly.
I want to personally thank CompTIA, specifically Todd Thibodeaux, CEO, Bob Kramer, Vice President for Public Policy and Mike Wendy, Director of Public Affairs for coordinating this day and inviting me to participate. I appreciate the opportunity and came back with ideas and information that will help our business and our clients. There are many other CompTIA staffers and members to thank as well, including Chris, Lamar, Ted and Tom, to name but a few. I'm sure I'm neglecting to mention others, but I assure you the omission is not intentional.
Thanks for reading this long post!
