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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.