Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) said his majority counterpart, Mississippi's Trent Lott, had persuaded Republican senators to drop a threatened postponement of confirmation votes for FCC chairman-designate William Kennard and commission nominees Michael Powell, Harold Furtchgott-Roth, and Gloria Tristani. Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana) had threatened to hold up Kennard's confirmation until he got a promise for reconsideration of telephone universal service rules. The vote - after Lott's action, approval is a foregone conclusion - could come as early as today.
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A coalition of US, European, and Japanese companies has announced that it will hold international summits in January in London and a month later in Washington to formulate a plan for future Internet governance and operations.
The Internet Executive Summits will be jointly sponsored by the private coalition, domain-name registrar Network Solutions Inc. and the Interim Policy Oversight Committee involved in implementing the new global domain system created by the International Ad Hoc Committee earlier this year.
Among groups attending the sessions: the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Information Technology Association of America, the Interactive Services Association. The expected result: a sheaf of new recommendations to the US and other governments about domain registration and other issues.
