Acting NTIA Dir. Michael Gallagher told a Computer & Communicatio...

Acting NTIA Dir. Michael Gallagher told a Computer & Communications Industry Assn. (CCIA) conference in Washington Wed. that a proposal to move NTIA into the Technology Administration (TA) remained a Commerce Dept. priority, but he acknowledged time is running short this year in Congress. “No matter how you slice it, there’s not much time left,” Gallagher said. TA Undersecy. Philip Bond has been in discussions on Capitol Hill on how the reorganization, which Gallagher said required congressional approval, would help in areas such as better serving govt. needs. He said there was “active dialogue with the Hill to make sure that all questions are being answered.” The Administration’s proposal would create a new agency called the Technology & Telecom Administration, with the NTIA’s head continuing as the President’s telecom adviser, even though the agency no longer would be a standalone organization under the Commerce Dept. The proposal by Commerce Secy. Donald Evans received a lukewarm reception on the Hill earlier this summer, failing to attract much interest from House or Senate Commerce Committee leadership. In other areas, Gallagher said the creation of a task force on Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) was “imminent.” The protocol is designed to facilitate interoperability for terrestrial wireline, wireless and satellite communications and information technology systems. Gallagher noted that President Bush had issued an executive memorandum earlier this summer creating a task force to recommend how to stimulate more efficient govt. spectrum use. The task force held its first meeting earlier this summer and representatives of federal agencies have been meeting in a working group to move forward. Gallagher told the CCIA conference in a Q&A: “These issues are difficult and we need to maintain the interest level of the political leadership in these agencies as well as work the details at the staff level. Those issues continue to be advanced very aggressively.”