Natural disasters take lives. But can they affect national education policy?

A Tennessee lawmaker has withdrawn legislation to protect colleges from losing federal financial aid due to digital piracy on campus, saying he needs to help his constituents cope with devastating tornadoes in his district.

Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, had planned to introduce an amendment to the 800-page College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 on Wednesday. But he withdrew his amendment shortly before a 5 p.m. meeting of the Rules Committee after learning that tornadoes had killed dozens of people across a wide swath of the South, including his district in Memphis.

"We're dealing with FEMA right now," Cohen's press secretary and legislative director, Marilyn Dillihay, said. "Congressman Cohen wanted to offer the amendment himself, but he couldn't get back to Washington in time."

As a result, the education bill will go to the House floor today without the amendment, leaving open the question of how the legislation will affect college student loan programs.

The bill would require colleges to warn students of the legal liabilities of illegal file sharing, and to disclose what they are doing to prevent students from stealing digital copies of music and movies. Cohen sought to make clear in his amendment that Congress didn't intend to withhold federal funding from colleges that fail to comply.

Dillihay said she didn't know when Cohen might be able to revive his amendment.

Digital piracy on college campuses became an issue of national education policy after a 2005 study by the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry's reported $6 billion domestic losses resulted from college campus digital piracy.

Two weeks ago, however, the industry group acknowledged that the study grossly overstated the extent of college piracy. It now asserts that college students actually account for about 15 percent of piracy losses.

by Sam Gustin