[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8861]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            INTERNET PRIVACY

  (Mr. HUTCHINSON asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Federal Trade Commission 
released a report to Congress. This report dealt with the issue of 
online privacy. The report stated: ``Ongoing consumer concerns 
regarding privacy online and the limited success of self-regulatory 
efforts to date make it time for the government to act to protect 
consumers' privacy on the Internet.''
  The important impact of this report is that it urges action by 
Congress. It is time that we do not simply leave it to the regulators 
but that we take legislative action on the issue of privacy. The best 
vehicle for this purpose is the privacy study commission bill that I 
have introduced along with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran). It 
is a bipartisan bill patterned after the privacy study commission of 
1974 that gave us hallmark legislation. We need to address it again. It 
is comprehensive, it is bipartisan, it is a thoughtful approach to the 
issue of privacy. It is set for markup in the committee on government 
reform.
  I urge my colleagues to take a look at it because it is time that we 
were able to go back to the voters and say we are going to do something 
about the issue of privacy.

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