NASA Budget Puts Mars Mission on Thin Ice: The United States had planned to team up with the European Space Agency on ambitious explorations of Mars in 2016 and 2018, but Anne Kim reports in CQ Weekly that budgetary constraints make it likely NASA will pull out of the project. What comes next for NASA remains uncertain, but the Mars mission appears to have lost priority as the Obama administration has shifted space policy to boost the commercial space industry. Unlike the James Webb space telescope or NASA's human spaceflight program, both of which were on the chopping block in recent years, the Mars project lacks powerful political constituents with jobs in their home districts to protect. 9/11 Commission Chiefs: Cybersecurity Too Important for Turf War: CQ Homeland Security's Jennifer Scholtes reports that the former heads of the 9/11 Commission blamed jurisdictional conflicts between congressional committees for the legislature's failure to act on the critical issue of cybersecurity. The pair say cybersecurity is too important to be bogged down in a turf war, which is why they recommended a single committee to oversee homeland security. The leadership of the Senate Homeland Security Committee has united behind a comprehensive cybersecurity bill (S 2105) after resolving a prolonged battle with Senate Commerce, but chamber Republicans have voiced objection to creating a new security mandate for critical private sector networks under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. The GOP has offered alternative legislation (S 2151) without any new regulations, and has challenged the fitness of DHS to oversee security at federal agencies, preferring instead to place the intelligence community in charge. House Takes Up FCC Process Overhaul: The full House Energy and Commerce Committee will mark up legislation on Tuesday from telecom subpanel chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., that would overhaul the way the Federal Communications Commission does business. The two bills (HR 3309, HR 3310) would consolidate some of the agency's reporting requirements and make it more difficult to pass new regulations. The FCC would first have to identify a market failure or regulatory barrier before initiating any new regulations and then perform a cost-benefit analysis to justify the rules. The bills would also limit the types of conditions the commission can place on media mergers and codify the informal shot clock used for merger reviews. While Walden has been careful to emphasize that the bills are not aimed at the current leadership of the FCC, he and his GOP colleagues were vocally displeased by the length of the commission's review of the NBC Universal-Comcast merger, as well as the number and types of conditions attached to the deal. NIST Talks Cybersecurity and Smart Grid: CQ Homeland Security's Rob Margetta has a nice Q & A with George Arnold, the national coordinator for smart grid interoperability at NIST, about the updated framework for smart grid security the agency released last week. Arnold emphasized that an interoperable smart grid would improve the reliability of the nation's electric grid and cut back on outages, saving billions of dollars. But that interoperability also comes with a greater threat from cyberattacks, making it more important to design security into the grid as it's designed rather than bolting it on later. Study: Health IT May Not Cut Waste: CQ HealthBeat editor John Reichard brings us some cold water for the Obama administration, which has positioned the adoption of information technology as a means to cut down on cost and duplicative testing in the healthcare industry. A study posted Monday by the policy journal Health Affairs notes physicians that have access to medical imaging tests via computer were 40-70 percent more likely to order an imaging test. The results are a blow for health IT advocates, who say adoption of electronic medical records will allow caregivers to track the effectiveness of treatments and cut back on extra testing. The 2009 Recovery Act included more than $27 billion aimed at encouraging the development and adoption of health IT by subsidizing the costs of implementation for providers. MPAA Boss: Online Piracy Bills Are Dead, For Now: CQ's Ambreen Ali reports that former senator and Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Chris Dodd told the National Association of Attorneys General that movement is unlikely on online piracy legislation ahead of this year's election. The MPAA was one of the strongest supporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act (HR 3261) and Protect IP Act (S 968), which would have allowed copyright holders to obtain court orders directing Web firms to delete links to foreign rogue sites hosting pirated content. Despite a prolonged lobbying campaign by the content community and bipartisan support, the bills stalled in January after massive online protests by the Web community, including blackouts by prominent sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit. The entertainment industry has since stepped back and softened its rhetoric, after previously accusing critics of engaging in hyperbole and profiting from copyright violations. FTC Requires Divestiture by Hard Drive Maker: The Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced that Western Digital will be required to sell assets used to make computer hard drives to Toshiba as part of its $4.5 billion acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. The deal would have left Western Digital and Seagate in charge of the entire global market for hard drives. The FTC contends that Toshiba, which currently manufactures mobile hard drives, has the ability to replace Hitachi and maintain competition in the hard drive market.