IP: House Committee Passes Domestic Crypto Controls

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 18:51:37
From: Alan Davidson <abd () cdt org>
Subject: Update: House Committee Passes Domestic Controls


[CDT's latest on today's DC activities. The Intelligence Committee did what
we expected and passed the FBI's domestic controls bill. The Commerce
Committee was looking bad as well, but ultimately postponed their markup 2
weeks to more fully consider their domestic controls amendment. -- Alan]




HOUSE COMMITTEE APPROVES UNPRECEDENTED DOMESTIC CRYPTO RESTRICTIONS


The House Intelligence Committee approved sweeping changes to SAFE (HR 695)
in a closed-door markup this morning by a voice vote.  The bill imposes
new domestic restrictions banning encryption products that do not provide
law enforcement with "immediate access to plaintext" for all encrypted
communications and data. The bill now becomes one of several versions of
SAFE that must be sorted out by the House leadership and Rules Committee
before being taken up on the House floor.


Also today, the House Commerce Committee postponed its vote for two weeks
after committee members objected to a similar, FBI-supported amendment to
be offered by Reps. Oxley (R-OH) and Manton (D-NY).  The committee wanted
more time to study the implications of mandatory domestic key recovery.


As of 5:00 pm ET, the Committee has not released legislative language or
any details of the proposal beyond a press release (link below) describing
the general thrust of the changes.


According to the Committee press release, and based on discussions with
staff close to the Committee, the amended bill would:


* Require that encryption products sold, distributed, or imported in the
  US by January 31, 2000 include a feature to allow law enforcement "immediate
  access" to the plain text of encrypted information.


* Require law enforcement to provide "delayed notification" when they
  have accessed plaintext from the subject of an investigation (similar
  to current wiretap law).


* Require law enforcement "to obtain a separate court order to have the
  data, including communications, decrypted."


CDT will post a detailed analysis of the Intelligence Committee amendment,
along with the text of the proposal as soon as more information becomes
available.