The U.S. Senate was still expected Monday night to vote on a federal anti-spam bill that was passed by the House on Saturday.
But at press time, the vote still had not occurred and Jennifer O’Shea, spokesperson for Sen. Conrad Burns said that even if a vote occurred late Monday, the bill would have to go back to the House.
“There’s some technical corrections that will have to be voted on by the House,” O’Shea said.
Once the bill passes Congress, the White House said President Bush would sign the bill and the effective date would be Jan. 1, 2004, according to published reports.
The legislation, which is a compromise between the House versions and the Senate’s Can-Spam, which Burns sponsored, would override 37 existing state anti-spam laws. A California law is stricter than the House bill requiring that consumers opt in to receive e-mail.
The Direct Marketing Association issued a statement in support of the legislation, but said it is concerned about the creation of a do-not-e-mail registry. The registry will do nothing to reduce spam in consumers’ in-boxes while impeding the growth of legitimate e-mail communications, said the statement.
“No one should hold the illusion that any law can defeat the spam epidemic by itself,” said H. Robert Wientzen, in a statement. “It addition to technological solutions, it is critical that he spam problem is meaningfully addressed by law enforcement.”
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