10 June 1999
Source: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html

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[Congressional Record: June 9, 1999 (House)]
[Page H3997-H3998]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr09jn99-155]


            CONTROLS ON EXPORTATION OF TECHNOLOGY IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about a
very important policy issue in this country and that is the policy of
export controls and specifically the controls that we place on the
exportation of technology.
  There has been a lot of talk about this issue today on the national
defense bill, a lot of concerns about the exportation of technology.
And I want to make a national security argument for changing some of
those controls and allowing actually for the greater exportation of
technology.
  We heard a lot of talk today about the dangers of technology and what
it can do to our national security. I think this is a misguided policy
based on Cold War philosophies that fail to recognize the changes that
have taken place in our economy and the emergence of a new information-
based economy and what that means for all manner of policy decisions,
particularly in the area of exportation of technology.
  The situation we have right now is we have very strict restrictions
on exportation of certain technology, most notably encryption software
and any sort of so-called supercomputer. I say ``so-called'' because,
basically, the laptops that we have on our desks today just a couple of
years ago were considered supercomputers. That shows how fast computers
advance and how much our policy fails to keep up with it.
  The national security argument that I wish to make is based on the
fact that our national security is best protected by making sure that
the United States maintains its leadership role in the technology
economy, maintains a situation where we in the U.S. have the best
encryption software and the best computers.
  If we place restrictions on the exportation of that technology, that
will soon fail to be the case. We will cease to be the leaders in this
technology area and we will cease to be able to provide that very
important R&D to the military that enables them to be the leaders in
technology.
  Our current policies are creating a situation where more and more
countries of the world have to go elsewhere to get access to either
encryption software or computers of any kind. And that is a very
important point in this debate.
  The limitations that we place on the exportation of technology is
based on two premises. One is correct but misinterpreted, and the other
is incorrect. The one that is correct but misinterpreted is that
technology matters in

[[Page H3998]]

national security. That is absolutely true. Computers, software, all
manner of technology give us a stronger national defense, and all
manner of technology can be a potential threat to any country's
national security. That is true.
  But the mistaken application comes from the belief that somehow the
United States can place its arms around that technology and not allow
the rest of the world to get it. That might have been true in the
1940's and in the 1950's. But in the new economy, in the Internet age
and in the age of technology, it is not true.
  Encryption is the best example. We believe that we are not going to
allow the rest of the world access to the best encryption technology by
restricting our Nation's companies' ability to export it. But we can
download 128 byte encryption technology off the Internet.
  Dozens of countries, not the least of which are Canada, Russia,
Germany, export that technology. Also not to mention the fact that if
we want to buy the best encryption technology possible, we can go to
just about any software store in the world, slip it into the pocket of
our suit, and climb on an airplane and go anyplace we want to go.
  Our restricting our Nation's companies' ability to export encryption
technology is not stopping so-called rogue nations or anybody out there
from getting access to that technology. What it is doing is it is
having them get that technology from some other country and also
hurting our companies' ability to export to legitimate users of
encryption technology.
  And in the long-run, or actually, given the way the technology
economy works, in the much shorter run than we would like, we are going
to cease to be the leaders in encryption technology. The rest of the
world is going to overtake us. And then our national security is really
going to be threatened because we are not going to be the best and we
are going to face other countries that have better technology than us.
  The same is true in the area of computers. We are but a couple years
away from creating a situation where most countries in the world will
not be able to export so-called supercomputers to the rest of the
country.
  What we are a couple of years away from, forgive me, I did not
exactly explain that right, is having our basic laptop not being able
to be exported because of the 2,000 MTOPS limit that we place on
exportation.
  I think that there is a false argument that has been set up in this
debate, and that is that this is a choice between national security and
commerce. And I could spew off a whole bunch of statistics about how
important technology is to the growth of our economy and how important
access to foreign markets is to that growth of our technology sector of
our economy. And all of that is true.
  But a lot of people look at that and say, well, you are just arguing
put commerce ahead of national security. We are not arguing that.
National security, as well as commerce, demands that we change the
export control policies that we place on technology.

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