Posted on 09/20/2006 4:42:02 PM PDT by jdm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate is trying to reach a deal before recessing next week on a bill that would ban the practice of impersonating someone to get telephone records, aides said on Wednesday, in light of a scandal at Hewlett-Packard Co. over how it probed news leaks.
The Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees were negotiating to finalize the language of a bill before the recess to campaign for November elections, they said.
"We're working on a compromise bill that would hopefully satisfy all parties," one of the aides said. "We every have intention of getting it done before the break."
The HP case, in which the computer maker's chairman, Patricia Dunn, hired investigators who pretended to be HP board members, employees and journalists to obtain their phone records, has given new life to legislation to outlaw the practice known as pretexting.
Amy Call, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, said he was awaiting a compromise bill. "We will work to pass the bill if an agreement is reached," she said.
Several proposals are pending in the Senate and House of Representatives that would take varying degrees of action to safeguard the privacy of consumer telephone records.
The Senate bill is expected to toughen criminal statutes by explicitly banning pretexting and also beef up civil penalties and improve regulatory safeguards of telephone records.
If the measure passes, any differences with legislation in the House would have to resolved. So far, the House has passed a narrower bill addressing criminal statutes for pretexting.
Federal prosecutors, the California attorney general and the Federal Communications Commission are investigating the HP incident for any illegal tactics used to obtain the information.
If lawmakers fail to reach an agreement before the recess, they are expected to return after the elections for a brief session before adjourning for the year.
Maybe they should spend their time a bit more wisely before their campaigns.
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