With last week's revelation that the National Security Agency

has collected data from tens of millions of telephone records,

lawmakers this week introduced legislation aimed at maintaining

Americans' privacy rights.

"We need to consider the effects of intelligence and information

gathering now that new government powers threaten to erode our

most cherished freedoms, and technological advances appear to

outpace our ability to protect personal information," Sen.

Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, said of his bill, S. 2827.

The measure would give the chief privacy officer of the Homeland

Security Department authority to ensure that new technologies

and information-gathering methods do not erode privacy.

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., also filed a nonbinding resolution,

H. Res. 819, that seeks detailed information on what calling

records have been collected by the NSA and other agencies

without warrants. "While all Americans support taking legal

measures to fight terrorism, it is clear that they do not

support whitewashing laws put in place to ensure that their

civil liberties are not trampled," Wexler said.

On the telecommunications front, House Judiciary Committee

leaders introduced a bill on network neutrality to compete with

language approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Judiciary was denied a referral of that bill this week.

The new measure, H.R. 5417, would require high-speed Internet

operators to provide services "on reasonable and

nondiscriminatory terms." It further would stipulate that

providers interconnect their facilities with other entities and

not block or impair Internet customers.

Concerns about U.S. competitiveness also proved popular among

lawmakers. According to Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the U.S. share

of technology exports has dropped dramatically over two decades.

He authored a bill, S. 2802, that aims to increase research

investment, advance science and technology talent, and develop

an innovation infrastructure.

The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved the

legislation Thursday.

Two Senate and House bills, meanwhile, aim to ease the

regulatory burden on small businesses. The measures, S. 2824 and

H.R. 5405, are a reaction to a 2002 accounting law.

The Senate bill would allow small businesses to voluntarily

comply with standards that are better suited to their size while

still maintaining investor protections.

On the intellectual property front, Rep. Darrell Issa introduced

a bill, H.R. 5418, that would establish a test project in at

least five U.S. district courts to increase expertise on the

technical issues facing patent law.

"Roughly 40 percent of all patent cases in federal district

courts are reversed and ultimately decided by the Federal

Circuit Court of Appeals," the California Republican said. "This

legislation is designed to help courts reduce errors that lead

to appeals."

Two other tech-related measures were introduced this week. The

first, S. 2831, would create a legal "shield" to ensure that

journalists typically do not have to reveal their sources, but

the measure would not offer that same protection to the authors

of most Web logs.

The other bill, H.R. 5422, is related to the moratorium on

taxing Internet access.

- by Brittany R. Ballenstedt