A $301 million FCC appropriation stayed in the Senate Appropriations spending bill marked up Thurs. in full committee. An appropriations subcommittee approved that amount Tues. (CD July 12 p10). The committee approved the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill for fiscal 2007, giving the FCC $11.7 million more than FY 2006. It’s also more than the $294 million the House passed 2 weeks ago. NTIA received $17.8 million, as requested. The bill provides $22 million for a program to help public telecom facilities convert from analog to digital broadcasting. NIST got $764 million, $11.9 million more than FY 2006 and $182 million above the request. The FTC received $223 million, $12.9 million above FY 2006 and the sum sought. The National Science Foundation got $5.99 billion, $410 million above FY 2006.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a proposed rule to add a new Part 1119 (Civil Penalty Factors) to 16 CFR in order to describe the factors the CPSC and staff may consider in determining the appropriateness and amount of a civil penalty for violations of section 19(a) of the Consumer Products Safety Act (CSPA), which includes the failure to furnish information required by section 15(b) of the CPSA.

The FCC would get $301 million under a Senate appropriations bill (HR-5672) approved Tues. by the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee. The funding, $11.7 million above the budget request, exceeds the $294 million in a bill the House passed 2 weeks ago (CD June 30 p10). The Senate appropriations bill will be taken up Thurs. by the full Senate Appropriations Committee.

Having dropped ClearPlay, Thomson has thrown its support behind TV Guardian, which scans a DVD’s subtitle data and mutes the sound when offensive language is indicated. The TV Guardian feature is embedded in Thomson RCA DRC627N, 629N and 630N portable DVD players, which join a combo DVD recorder/VCR ($198) and several standard players that incorporate the tool. TV Guardian sells a stand-alone filter model 301 ($49) via Walmart.com. Thomson was among early supporters of ClearPlay, introducing 2 players in 2004 (CED April 9/04 p5) containing the company’s content- filtering software for skipping material users find objectionable on prerecorded DVDs. But Thomson’s ardor waned as ClearPlay became mired in litigation. In 2004, Thomson stopped supplying the RCA players, after DVD patent holder Nissim sued ClearPlay alleging infringement of patents on playback control software. A late 2005 settlement between ClearPlay and Nissim led to ClearPlay signing a licensing pact (CED Dec 2 p6). TV Guardian’s roster of 13 licensees includes Thomson, which signed in 2005, plus 7 other CE makers. Sanyo was the first licensee in 2002; earlier this year, 4 more CE vendors (CyberHome, Funai, Insignia and Polaroid) reached agreements, TV Guardian said. Insignia is Best Buy’s private label brand.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has received a petition from the Sierra Club requesting that any toy jewelry containing more than 0.06% lead by weight, for which there is a reasonably foreseeable possibility that children could ingest, be declared a banned hazardous substance under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA).

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice requesting comments in connection with its plans to conduct a Special 301 Provincial Review (SPR) of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in China. The USTR states that as a first step in this review, it is seeking comments concerning the locations and issues that should be the focus of the SPR.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a final rule, effective July 10, 2006, which amends 7 CFR Part 319 in order to provide for the importation of untreated citrus (grapefruit, sweet oranges, and tangerines) from Mexico for processing (i.e., extracting juice) under certain conditions. APHIS believes that the conditions of this final rule will be sufficient for safeguarding fruit that are moving from Mexico to Texas.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued proposed revisions to its interpretive rule which advises manufacturers (including importers), distributors and retailers of consumer products how to comply with the requirements of Section 15(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (Act), which requires such parties to report potential product hazards to the CPSC.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a notice announcing its fiscal year (FY) 2006 program for systematic review of its current substantive regulations to ensure, to the maximum practical extent, consistency among them and with respect to accomplishing program goals.

Chinese leaders say they'll crack down on intellectual property rights (IPR) violations, but “we need to see more than just statements,” a Commerce Dept. official told the U.S.-China Economic & Security Commission at a Wed. hearing. Citing improved IPR relations between the 2 giant economies, such as a Chinese vow to try to thwart piracy by importing only computers with preloaded software, International IPR Enforcement Coordinator Chris Israel said: “We consider all options to be on the table.” If China doesn’t clean up its IPR act this summer, “it’s very possible” the U.S. will bring a complaint at the WTO this fall, said Tim Stratford, asst. U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)-China Affairs: “We will not shy away from dispute resolution.”