24 March 1999

    Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 15:59:23 -0500
    To: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
    From: Alan Davidson <abd@CDT.ORG>
    Subject: Crypto Legislation Passes House Judiciary Committee

    CDT's statement on today's Hill crypto action.

    ----------------

    The Security and Freedom through Encryption (SAFE) Act (H.R. 850) passed
    the House Judiciary Committee today by voice vote without amendment. In a
    small but significant victory for privacy online, a controversial amendment
    that mandated plaintext access as a condition for export was blocked by
    Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA) on jurisdictional grounds. The amendment, proposed by
    Rep. McCollum (R-Fl), would have placed serious limitations on SAFE's
    liberalization of encryption export controls by requiring "immediate access
    to plaintext." Rep. Lofgren (D-CA), a co-author of the bill, compared the
    amendment to the Administration's failed "Clipper Chip."

    CDT staff counsel Alan Davidson equated the provisions for plaintext access
    with "playing the 'name game'. Whether these features are called 'key
    escrow', 'key recovery' or 'plaintext access', they still introduce serious
    security risks for the end-user." CDT believes that measures for mandatory
    plaintext access infringe upon both Fourth Amendment privacy protections
    and Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.

    Although SAFE passed through the Judiciary Committee with relative ease,
    stiffer resistance is expected as the bill is considered by other
    Committees.  The bill moves next to the International Relations Committee,
    where an intense debate on the foreign availability of encryption products
    is expected.

    * Background materials on the SAFE bill:

    http://www.cdt.org/crypto/legis_106/SAFE/

    * Proposed McCollum Amendment:

    http://www.cdt/org/legislation/106th/encryption/McCollum.html

    * CDT's testimony in support of SAFE:

    http://www.cdt.org/crypto/alantestimony.shtml

    Alan Davidson, Staff Counsel                 202.637.9800 (v)
    Center for Democracy and Technology          202.637.0968 (f)
    1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 1100                  <abd@cdt.org>
    Washington, DC 20006                         PGP key via finger