GOP tech agenda includes health IT, acquisitions

Electronic health records and competitive acquisitions have formally appeared on the information technology agenda for House Republicans.

The House Republican High-Tech Working Group today outlined its priorities for the 109th Congress. Among the new items to the list:

• Working with the Bush administration to promote e-health records.
• Pushing for commercialization of the federal marketplace as a way to have open competition for technology companies.
• Extending tax credits for research and development and continue federal spending in that area.

Other additions to the group’s agenda include: patent reform; an emphasis on an update to the Telecommunications Act of 1996; looking at ways to reduce spyware and phishing scams on the Internet.

Three items on the the list -- protecting employee stock ownership, encouranging broadband growth and fighting digital piracy -- were also on the GOP's technology agenda for the 108th Congress.