Tech Bills Approved Amid Rush To Recess

Welcome to the weekly Tech Policy Pod brought to you by National Journal's Technology Daily, www.technologydaily.com

This week, Congress was in full force as committees kept busy before leaving town for the Memorial Day recess.

For starters, the House Judiciary Committee took action on a variety of measures. It addressed a controversial telecommunications bill and took action on Internet gambling.

House Energy and Commerce approved two bills aimed at frauds who cheat customers -- either through identity theft or by stealing their personal information or by impersonating officials in phone calls.

Please tune in for the rest of our podcast to find out more about other hot tech policy and politics issues.

You Can Still 'Buy It Now' At EBay

The eBay online auction site had its day in court and won -- at least in the short term. The Supreme Court this week ordered a lower court to reconsider a ruling that would have blocked eBay from using its "Buy It Now" feature.

The case pits eBay against MercExchange, a firm that claims ownership of the technology behind the feature. A district court jury had agreed that the eBay feature was a patent infringement and awarded MercExchange $35 million. An appeals court said an injunction also should have been granted to stop eBay from using the patented feature.

In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court justices wrote that the district court took too broad a view and the appeals court took too harsh a view.

Other tech-related news this week involved surveillance by the National Security Agency, the separate pushes for patent and telecommunications reform, and homeland security spending. Listen to the podcast for details.

Uncle Sam Opens Wallet For Security Efforts

Spring is in the air, and in the Washington policy world, that is when Uncle Sam turns his attention to spending money.

The House Appropriations Committee continued its annual appropriations debates this week with subcommittee action on a bill to fund the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2007. The panel approved $32 billion but agreed to withhold funds for several major department priorities.

Subcommittee Chairman Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican, said the subcommittee is not hesitating to give the department "spankings and punishment" by denying funding for certain programs. A total of $500 million, for instance, would be withheld from the science and technology directorate.

Other topics on the Washington radar include the push for tools to check the work status of immigrants and the turf battle over telecommunications reform. Listen to the podcast for details.

Telecom Bill Delayed Over Turf Fight

This was supposed to be the week when the House went on record about telecommunications reform, but plans to push the issue to the floor hit a procedural snag. The House Judiciary Committee sought a referral of the bill.

The delay is likely to work to Judiciary's advantage. Judiciary Committee leaders have drafted their own version of legislation on "network neutrality," a key point of contention in the debate.

Kevin Madden, an aide to Majority Leader John Boehner, said parliamentarians are getting ready to address the jurisdictional dispute, and the House leadership wants to let that play out first before scheduling floor debate.

Other tech-related news this week involved the privacy of telephone records, the push to prevent terrorist attacks by screening cargo and the adoption of health information technology. Listen to the podcast for the details.