RFID:Tagged and Tracked
Communications, Technology and Interstate Commerce Committee
Wednesday, July 21, 2004 11:00 am – 12 Noon
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Senator Debra Bowen, California
Working to "make government make sense" has been Senator Debra Bowen's
aim ever since she was first elected to the Legislature in 1992. After
serving in the Assembly for six years, Senator Bowen was elected to the
California State Senate in November 1998. During her time in office, Senator
Bowen has focused her attention on opening government to the people, protecting
the environment, overhauling California's dysfunctional electricity market,
and protecting consumers. She sponsored landmark legislation to unlock
the Legislature's computer files, giving computer users instant access
to information about bills, committee analyses and legislators' voting
records via the Internet. She also authored the California Digital Signature
Act, and her "anti-spam" legislation gives consumers and businesses the
ability to guard against unsolicited email. Senator Bowen has introduced
privacy legislation to safeguard against supermarket club card tracking,
stop secret monitoring of employee email and Internet use, and prevent
identity theft. In 2004, Senator Bowen introduced legislation, SB
1834, that would prohibit a private entity from using radio frequency
identification (RFID) tags attached to consumer products or an RFID reader
to gather, store, use, or share information that could be used to identify
an individual unless the entity complies with certain conditions.
Senator Bowen has chaired the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications
Committee since 1999 and also serves on the Agriculture & Water Resources,
Appropriations, Constitutional Amendments, Housing & Community Development,
Natural Resources & Wildlife, and Revenue & Taxation committees.
She graduated from Michigan State University and earned her law degree
form the University of Virginia.
David A. Kosar, Director, State Legislative Affairs
Healthcare Distribution Management Association, Washington, DC
David A. Kosar, director, state legislative affairs, has been with
the Healthcare Distribution Management Association’s (HDMA) government
affairs team since 1987. In this role, David represents HDMA and
its full-service distributor members on numerous state legislative.
Prior to joining the HDMA team, he was the assistant director of promotional
services for The George Washington University Division of Continuing Education,
Washington, D.C. David first began advocacy as a student lobbyist
at Marshall University, where he was the vice president of the Graduate
Student Association. There he was involved in state and federal education
student loan issues affecting graduate students. A native West Virginian,
he received the Master of Arts in Journalism (MAJ) degree from Marshall
University, Huntington, W.Va., and the Bachelor of Science in Journalism
degree (BSJ) from West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.
Delegate Joe T. May, Virginia
Delegate Joe May is currently serving his fifth term in the Virginia
House of Delegates. He is chairman of the Science and Technology Committee,
the Joint Commission on Technology and Science, and the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Commerce and Technology. He has sponsored numerous technology
and commerce based laws. He was a key participant in Governor Warner's
recently enacted IT reform-bill. In September 2000, he received the Governor's
Legislative Leadership Award in Technology. Delegate May currently serves
as Vice Chair of NCSL's Communications, Technology and Interstate Commerce
Standing Committee, and he is Vice Chair of the new Foundation for State
Legislatures (FSL) Partnership Project on Identity Security. Delegate May,
a member of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers who holds 18
patents, is founder and CEO of the Virginia based electronic engineering
and manufacturing firm, EIT. In 2001 he received the Greater Washington
Area "Engineer of the Year Award" and was named "Virginia Biotechnology
Legislator of the Year." Delegate May is a graduate of the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute.
Ari Schwartz, Associate Director
Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), Washington, DC
Ari Schwartz is an Associate Director of the Center for Democracy and
Technology (CDT). Ari's work focuses on defending and building privacy
protections in the digital age by advocating for increased individual control
over personal information. He also works on expanding access to government
information via the Internet and online advocacy and civil society. Ari
is a leading expert on the issue of privacy on government Web sites and
has testified before Congress and executive branch agencies on the issue.
Ari was named to the 2003 Federal 100—the top executives from government,
industry and academia who had the greatest impact on the government information
systems community over the past year. He is the Chair of the World Wide
Web Consortium's Platform for Privacy Practices (P3P) Policy and Outreach
Working Group - the leading standards setting body for Web technologies
- and Co-Chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee
Task Force on E-Government. Ari is also on the steering committee of the
Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference and is a past Chair of the Conference.
Prior to working at CDT, Ari worked at OMB Watch researching and analyzing
the nonprofit sector's engagement in technology, government performance,
access to government information, and government information technology
policy.
Representative Stephen H. Urquhart
Utah
Stephen Urquhart is a member of the Utah House of Representatives and
chair of the Public Utilities and Technology Committee. Steve practiced
law with Morrison & Foerster in California and Washington and now practices
law in St. George, Utah. He also served as a judge pro tem in the
Utah court system. Steve is a Henry Toll Fellow through the Council
of State Governments. He graduated from Williams College and Brigham Young
University law school.
Richard J. Varn, President
RJV Consulting, Iowa
Richard J. Varn is President and founder of RJV Consulting. His firm,
founded in 1988, serves public and private sector clients and specializes
in information technology, business strategy, innovation, and public policy
consulting. Mr. Varn's first career was in public service. He began in
1981 as a state legislative staff person and went on to win elected office,
serving as a State Representative for four years and as a State Senator
for eight years. During that time, he was twice elected Majority Whip,
created and chaired the first Communications and Information Policy Committee,
and chaired the Education Appropriations, Human Services Appropriations,
and Judiciary Committees. He was the first Iowa legislator to install and
use a computer in the Iowa legislative chambers. He left the legislature
in 1994 to teach and be Director of Telecommunications and IT Production
Services at the University of Northern Iowa. He returned to state
government in 1999 to create the state's first Information Technology Department,
and he served as its first Director and as the state's first CIO. Mr. Varn
returned to full-time consulting in 2003. Mr. Varn has received numerous
awards and recognitions for his public service. He was named twice to the
Federal 100 and he received the National Association of State Chief Information
Officers Outstanding Achievement Award in the Field of Information Technology
for Iowa's Return on Investment Program. He is a Senior Fellow with the
Center for Digital Government, a Technology Policy Advisor to the National
Retail Federation, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Educational
Testing Service. He is currently engaged as the Chief Technology Officer
for the Business Gateway, a federal initiative to implement enterprise
e-forms solutions and streamline regulatory processes. His
degrees and academic honors include membership in Phi Beta Kappa and numerous
other honor societies, a B. A. with honors, in Political Science, and a
Juris Doctorate, with distinction, from the University of Iowa.
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