24 June 1997
Source: Mail list cypherpunks@toad.com
To: cypherpunks@toad.com Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 21:30:24 -0400 From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: SAFE clears House subcommittee, with amendments *************** [Since I showed up late today and missed some of the early discussion, I asked my friend Amy for permission to pass along her report. She graciously agreed. --Declan] ***************** SAFE Act Nears Home in House After Subcommittee Tosses It Out Favorably By Amy Branson LEGI-SLATE News Service WASHINGTON (June 24) -- Casting the only opposing vote to H.R. 695 -- the "Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act" -- Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., knew his position was the lonely one at a subcommittee markup Tuesday. "The goal must be to balance between the competitiveness of U.S. companies and U.S. national security goals," Bereuter began. "However, this bill fails that balance because it significantly relaxes U.S. export control of encryption without requiring a key recovery policy ... to those exports." Despite Bereuter's problems with the bill, the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade passed H.R. 695 by a recorded vote of 14 yeas and 1 nay [Vote 1]. H.R. 695 lifts export restrictions on many kinds of strong encryption products, prohibits federal or state governments from requiring anyone to give up the key to their encrypted communications, and establishes criminal penalties for using encryption to further a criminal offense. "This is a vitally important piece of legislation if we're going to continue to promote the United States dominance of the software industry worldwide," the bill's sponsor, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday afternoon. Goodlatte, who does not sit on the International Relations Committee, spoke on behalf of his bill at the markup session. "This legislation is also very important from the standpoint of promoting the safety and security of American citizens and others in the use of the Internet," he added. Subcommittee members also adopted by voice vote an "en bloc amendment" that made what they described as mostly "technical" changes to the bill. Subcommittee aides emphasized that the purpose of the amendment language was to close loopholes and fix unintended omissions contained in the underlying legislation. For example, the amendment expands the kinds of products that do not have to have a validated license for export or re-export to include "any consumer product commercially available in the U.S. or abroad using encryption capabilities which are inaccessible to the end user and is not designed for military or intelligence end use." The amendment also expands the term "generally available" as it is used in the bill to include hardware with encryption capabilities. As the bill now is written, only software with encryption capabilities is covered. Also, the en bloc amendment added a "Sense of Congress" section to the end of the bill. In addition to "finding" that the president "has not been able to come to agreement with other encryption producing countries on export controls on encryption," the amendment suggests the president immediately should call an international conference to reach a policy agreement with other encryption exporting countries. Administration officials disapprove of this language because they say they are "close" to reaching an encryption export policy agreement with these countries, one House aide said. But the administration has been making this claim for several years, the aide said. This legislation already has been reported favorably by the House Judiciary Committee, which did not have jurisdiction over the export language. The International Relations subcommittee, however, had jurisdiction over the most controversial parts of the bill: the export provisions. The bill still faces a markup in the full International Relations Committee where there likely will be another technical amendment, the aide said. Meanwhile, the Senate Commerce Committee recently adopted a so-called "compromise" encryption bill [S.909] that satisfies Clinton administration concerns about the availability of strong encryption technology overseas. But industry officials decry the legislation, sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Robert Kerrey, D-Neb. Senate legislation [S.377] that more closely resembles Goodlatte's SAFE Act has been put on the back burner because of Clinton administration objections. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., is sponsoring that bill, which also is known as Pro-CODE, or Promotion of Commerce Online in the Digital Era Act of 1997. -30- TYPE*MARKUP BILL*HR695 DATE*6/24/97 ------------------------- Declan McCullagh Time Inc. The Netly News Network Washington Correspondent http://netlynews.com/