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21 July 1999
Source: http://www.usia.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=99072103.clt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml

USIS Washington File
_________________________________

21 July 1999

Divisive Encryption Export Decontrol Bill Moving to Full House

(Administration opposes bill approved in three committees) (680)
By Bruce Odessey
USIA Staff Writer

Washington -- Legislation to deal with the divisive issue of
controlling encryption software exports is close to moving to a vote
in the full U.S. House of Representatives after a crucial stop in the
Rules Committee.

House committees with jurisdiction on encryption export controls have
reported out drastically different versions of legislation. Still
other legislation has advanced in the Senate.

The House Judiciary, Commerce and International Relations committees
have approved with little change a bill introduced by Republican
Representative Bob Goodlatte that would essentially overturn Clinton
administration policy by decontrolling U.S. encryption exports of any
strength that are generally available from non-U.S. manufacturers.

Existing controls require Commerce Department export licenses
generally for encryption software higher than 56-bit strength although
certain industrial sectors, such as finance and medicine, can export
stronger encryption to 44 countries.

More than half of House members, including the Republican and
Democratic leaders, have co-sponsored the Goodlatte bill; its chances
of passing the House are therefore quite good despite administration
objections.

Supporters argue that no one can control the proliferation of strong
encryption -- software far exceeding U.S. export-control thresholds
can already be purchased from many non-U.S. sources or even downloaded
from the Internet, they say -- and that existing controls simply
prevent U.S. manufacturers from competing for global markets.

"We are trying to control something that we can't control," Democratic
Representative Ellen Tauscher said at a July 21 House Armed Services
Committee meeting.

Opponents of the Goodlatte bill prevailed, however, in the House
Intelligence and Armed Services committees. Those committees approved
versions of the legislation that basically would still allow the
president to block any encryption exports for national-security
reasons and require exporters to identify intended end users for
exports approved under government license.

The Intelligence Committee version would set the threshold for
requiring export licenses at 64 bits, slightly higher than the current
56-bit threshold. The Armed Services version, approved 47-6 July 21,
would let the president set the threshold and revise it upward twice a
year after reviewing foreign availability of encryption products.

Siding with administration officials, opponents argued that the
Goodlatte bill would threaten national security by accelerating the
spread of strong encryption.

In July 1 testimony before Armed Services, Defense Deputy Secretary
John Hamre said the Goodlatte bill would create "a tidal wave that
would crush your national security and law enforcement agencies that
are protecting this country ....

"Unregulated release of the strongest encryption is going to do one
thing: put more troops' lives at risk," Hamre said.

The Goodlatte bill has now gone the same distance in this session of
Congress as it went in the past session. Last year, however, the
chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, who opposed the bill,
blocked it from going to the House floor. He has since retired.

Current Rules Committee members are divided over the Goodlatte bill.
The new Republican committee chairman is a cosponsor, but the
next-senior Republican is an opponent, for example. How the Rules
Committee shapes the five committee versions for consideration by the
full House is crucial to the outcome.

What influence Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert might
exert on House consideration of the bill was not clear.

The Senate remains divided over encryption export controls as well.
One bill has advanced there; the Senate Commerce Committee approved in
June a bill sponsored by Senator John McCain, its Republican chairman.

The McCain bill would decontrol exports of any encryption up to 64
bits and make possible exports of greater strength on a finding of
foreign availability but allow the president to block any encryption
export for national security reasons.

Meanwhile, in May a federal appeals court panel in San Francisco ruled
that the administration's existing encryption export controls violated
the First Amendment right of free speech, but that ruling has not
taken effect while the administration appeals it to a higher court.