Leahy Wants Movement On Tech Issues
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy on Thursday reaffirmed his commitment to moving forward on several technology-related measures this summer. In opening remarks at his panel's first business meeting since Memorial Day recess, he stressed the importance of voting on a number of key judicial nominees, which have stalled in his committee, so members could begin to advance their legislative priorities on the intellectual property front. "Both the list of nominees and our legislative agenda continue to grow with new and important matters. We really need to make progress," Leahy said. While Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will consume much of the committee's time in the weeks ahead, the Performance Rights Act is still among his top priorities. That bill would end a long-standing copyright royalty exemption afforded to AM and FM radio stations that has been backed by the music business but panned by broadcasters.
Leahy also said he wants the Judiciary Committee to consider provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act that are slated to sunset on Dec. 31. The expiring sections include a "roving wiretap" provision that allowed government bugs on a phone used by a person being tapped as well as language broadening law enforcement access to library and bookstore patrons' records. Also set to sunset is a "lone wolf" amendment to a related intelligence law that covers a noncitizen who engages in or prepares for international terrorism. Another bill awaiting action would extend the Satellite Home Viewer Act, "so that those of our constituents who watch television through satellite reception do not see their service interrupted," Leahy said. The statute permits satellite systems to retransmit local and distant TV signals into markets across the country.
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