Roberts vote may delay data security debate

A trio of personal data security bills likely won't get attention from the Senate Judiciary Committee until next week, a committee representative said Tuesday. Instead, much of the committee's Thursday business meeting will be devoted to a decision on Judge John Roberts' Supreme Court nomination and continued work on a habeas corpus measure.

Still up for consideration are the sweeping Personal Data Privacy and Security of Act of 2005 and two shorter proposals, all of which propose prompt notification when security breaches occur, award increased regulatory power to the federal government, and set minimum standards for data security. The measures have appeared on the committee's executive business meeting agendas since before Congress' summer recess but have not yet come up for debate.