Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) yesterday announced his intention to introduce such a bill, after he, and other members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee heard testimony about numerous highly sensitive government documents being found on P2P networks as a result of inadvertent leaks.

Examples of such leaks that were highlighted at the hearing included -- to be used in a national emergency -- being found on P2P networks.

Towns, who is the chairman of the House oversight committee, said that the leaks pointed to a continuing failure by developers of P2P software to implement features for preventing inadvertent data disclosure on file-sharing networks.

He said that a ban on P2P use on government and contractor computers and networks had become necessary because the developers had so far shown themselves to be "unwilling or unable" to ensure P2P user safety. "Its time to put a referee on the field," he said at the hearing.

The idea is an "excellent" one, said Thomas Sydnor, a director at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington based think-tank. "The real questions are over how it gets implemented and by whom," Sydnor said.