Well, since that time there have been a number of bills in the House and Senate to address this problem. The House recently passed one bill unanimously, and a second bill was coming up in the House today. But it suddenly disappeared without a word right when the story broke about the Bush administration illegally spying on all of our phone records.
Coincidence? Not according to what Representative Markey may be hearing. He wrote to House Speaker Denny Hastert today asking what happened to the bill:
"With no notice or explanation, H.R. 4943 summarily disappeared from the House floor schedule that day and it has not been seen or heard from since. I am concerned about reports that some intelligence agency or interest had a hand in the bill's disappearance. . . Is it currently in some legislative 'Guantanamo Bay'?"Legislation that no one disagreed with - legislation to protect your cell phone records - suddenly disappears from the House floor on the very day that we find out George Bush is spying on - what? - our phone records!
Which begs the question of whether the Republican Congress has now suddenly changed its mind on the value of protecting your phone records. The House was for it with NO DISSENTING VOTES only a few weeks ago. Now the legislation is utterly missing, and no word from the Republicans as to where it went. And on the Senate side, we're still waiting to see a vote on the legislation.
Did George Bush just kill a bill that would stop people from selling your phone records for a $100? There's still hope since one bill already passed the House, but let's see if the Republicans have the backbone to pass a bill in the Senate and make this thing law.
(I knew about this story this morning, but a hat tip to Patriot Daily anyway for reminding me to post this after a very busy day.)
