Like Isaac Newton said, "What goes up, must come down." That's the case this week of a fast-moving telecom bill, which was speeding toward House passage after last Wednesday's approval by the House commerce committee.

Prospects plummeted Monday, Technology Daily reports. Legislation to grant Bell telephone companies quick entry into the pay-television market will not be on the House floor this week.

The House Judiciary Committee has sought a referral of the bill, particularly for its "network neutrality" language.

The delay is likely to work to Judiciary's advantage.

Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, and top panel Democrat John Conyers have drafted their own version of net neutrality legislation, which they are expected to release this week.

The Energy and Commerce Committee approved the telecom bill, largely along party lines.

Congressional and industry sources said Republican leaders are worried that voting against a network neutrality amendment -- one that would keep dominant Bell and cable companies from charging competitors more to transmit high-speed Internet content -- could be a political liability.

For daily coverage of politics and policy in the high-tech community, visit National Journal's Technology Daily at Technologydaily.com.

Congress has a full plate of technology issues on its radar for the remainder of the year, and the Center for Democracy and Technology is doing its part to influence the agenda.

At an event that served as a legislative roundup, the group raised an alarm over a plan by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to require warning labels on sexually explicit Web sites.

The plan also would require Internet service providers to retain extensive records about their customers in order to aid law enforcers' searches for criminals.

John Morris, a CDT staff attorney tracking the issue, said the first proposal would be ineffective because it would fail to reach content generated overseas and likely would be found unconstitutional.

He said the second idea could be solved by quicker responses from the Justice Department to reports about child pornography online. CDT members also discussed bills on privacy, intellectual property, data breaches and secretly installed computer "spyware," among other topics.

For daily coverage of politics and policy in the high-tech community, visit National Journal's Technology Daily at Technologydaily.com.

A communications firm has asked the nation's telecommunications regulator to establish a trust to license spectrum for public-safety communications.

But skeptics say the idea could derail congressional action to free spectrum for emergency responders, Technology Daily reports.

There has been a long-time debate over how the government should effectively dole out spectrum to companies that broadcast radio and television programs, but also give some airwaves to first responders for communications during emergencies.

Cyren Call Communications urged the FCC to reallocate 30 megahertz of spectrum and devote it to a shared public-private network for high-speed Internet access.

The proposal would establish a Public Spectrum Broadband Trust. It would manage a fund for developing future networks.

The trust, in turn, would lease spectrum capacity to commercial operators to foster deployment of wireless broadband networks.

The new spectrum would be in addition to airwaves already allocated by Congress for public-safety use when lawmakers set Feb. 19, 2009, as the date when the nation must complete its transition from analog to digital television.

For daily coverage of politics and policy in the high-tech community, visit National Journal's Technology Daily at Technologydaily.com.

The House has passed a bill designed to protect the records of phone customers.

The vote was 409-0, Technology Daily reports. The bill would create criminal penalties for the fraudulent sale or solicitation of cell phone records.

Some questionable Internet companies obtain individuals' phone records using a tactic known as "pretexting."

The firms have people impersonate employees of cell-phone companies to obtain information about customers. They sell that data to third parties.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, a Texas Democrat, said the bill would protect people from acts of retaliation and domestic violence by those who might buy the information.

The measure would impose prison sentences of up to 20 years and fines on individuals who obtain phone numbers under false pretenses.

Extra prison time could be added for using such information against federal officials, law enforcers or domestic violence victims.

The legislation also would prohibit the sale of account information without prior authorization from consumers.

The legislation is supported by the wireless industry group CTIA, Justice Department and major telephone companies.

For daily coverage of politics and policy in the high-tech community, visit National Journal's Technology Daily at Technologydaily.com.

The government is aiming to reduce medication errors by requiring bar-code labels on some prescription drugs. These regulations take effect Wednesday.

Manufacturers, re-packers and re-labelers of certain prescription drugs, products such as blood and over-the-counter drugs commonly used in hospitals are subject to the rules.

At minimum, the machine-readable bar codes must contain national drug code numbers, Technology Daily reports. They also can include the drugs' expiration dates and lot numbers.

The Food and Drug Administration estimated that the rules it issued two years ago could prevent as many as 500,000 errors in medication and blood transfusions over 20 years.

The FDA further estimates that the economic benefit of implementing such technologies could save the healthcare industry $93 billion.

While there are no requirements for hospitals, as many as 600 already have begun to administer medications using bar-code scanning.

That number is expected to double by the end of this year. The cost for hospitals, which could reach up $2 million, would be recovered in the first year, experts say.

For daily coverage of politics and policy in the high-tech community, visit National Journal's Technology Daily at Technologydaily.com.