STATEMENT BY SENATOR CONRAD BURNS (R-MT)
ON INTRODUCTION OF THE "PRO-CODE" BILL
THURSDAY MAY 2, 1996
Thank you all for coming this afternoon. I'd especially like to thank the
original cosponsors of this legislation, some of whom are here today: the
distinguished Majority Leader Senator Dole; Senator Larry Pressler, who
chairs the full committee to which this bill has been referred; Senator
Leahy, our chief Democratic cosponsor; Senator Murray; Senator Wyden;
Senator Nickles; Senator McCain; and Senator Ashcroft.
I'd like to announce today that we are introducing the Pro-CODE bill, the
"Promotion of Commerce Online in the Digital Era."
Like the title of the bill states, my primary objective with this
legislation is to promote commerce both domestically and abroad. But I
have two other goals that I believe will be achieved by Pro-CODE: one is to
improve the competitiveness of American software companies with their
foreign competitors, the other is to protect the intellectual property and
privacy or both businesses and individuals.
Pro-CODE would have a profound impact on our economy and the way each of us
lives our life from day to day. It's a relatively simple bill, but it
deals with a term few of us are familiar with: encryption.
Encryption is simply the use of a string of letters or numbers _ or a "key"
_ to render our computer files and transmissions unreadable by people who
have no business reading them. If you have the right key, you can unlock
the code and have access to that information.
Unfortunately, American businesses and computer users face a threat _ and
it's a threat from their own government _ because the current
administration won't let American companies export encryption at a level
higher than 40 bits. That's a fancy word, but what I'm told it means is
that it's a level of security that can be cracked by your basic
supercomputer in about one-thousandth of a second at a cost of a tenth of a
cent. Companies can sell stronger encryption here at home, but it's too
expensive to create two different standards, so they don't.
What this means is that commerce and communication on computer networks
including the Internet is not reaching its full potential. How many of you
would feel secure sending your credit card number over the Internet _
especially when you learn that reported invasions by computer hackers
increased nine-fold between 1990 and 1994? Or when Internet World magazine
estimates that the actual number of unwanted computer penetrations in 1992
alone was 1.2 million? If you were a business, how many of you would feel
secure passing sensitive information to your branches around the world or
around the nation? If you were an ordinary citizen, would you feel secure
knowing that many of your records and files are subject to the kind of
security that the cyber-criminals of today just laugh at?
Yet that's the problem we face today, and my colleagues here today and I
find it unacceptable. Just three months ago we passed a historic
telecommunications law that is designed to make it easier to interact with
each other. But that law _ that vehicle which will take us along the
information highway _ is useless without the engine of information security
driving it forward.
Our bill would allow the unrestricted export of mass-market or
public-domain encryption programs. It would also require the Secretary of
Commerce to allow the export of encryption technologies if products of
similar strength are available elsewhere in the world. Finally, it would
prohibit the government from imposing a mandatory key-escrow system in
which the government or another third party would have a "back door" to
your computer files.
I come from a state where distances can often keep us apart. From Eureka,
Montana, in the northwest to Alzada, Montana, in the southeast is the same
distance as from Washington, D.C., to Chicago. Anything to bring us closer
together will give us benefits only enjoyed now by folks in larger areas.
It will also give the mom-and-pop businesses in our smallest communities a
leg up on their bigger competitors as we enter the information age.
But my concern is also based on the effect the current policy is having on
jobs and industry in this nation. Because of our current ill-advised
policy, American companies will lose their share of the world market _
which now stands at 75 percent _ to foreign companies who don't have to
abide by such restrictions. You'll notice, for example, in the press kit
we are making available to you, we have included a Web page from a South
African company that boasts 128-bit encryption. In many cases, these
encryption programs are available to download from the Internet.
American companies clearly are at a competitive disadvantage. A study by
the Computer Systems Policy Project found that within just the next four
years, American companies could lose $60 billion in revenues and American
workers could lose 216,000 high-tech jobs. Our bill is a jobs bill that
I'm sure the administration can agree with. But it's not only that. As
you can see, it's also a consumers bill.
One of the questions I have gotten is, "How does this legislation differ
from a bill you are also sponsoring with Senator Leahy?" The answer is, not
a lot. However, Pro-CODE is narrower in its scope. It deals exclusively
with the issue of commerce and omits the criminality provisions. In
addition, it does not set up guidelines for a voluntary key-escrow
arrangement. This is a streamlined measure that I hope to move quickly
through the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the
Science, Technology and Space subcommittee, which I chair. We will have
hearings on this bill, hopefully as soon as this month, and I hope to have
at least one of those in the field where the people are affected most by
this bill.
In addition to the diverse and bipartisan group of senators you see before
you, support for this legislation in the private sector is both broad and
deep. Letters and statements of support have been made available to you in
the press kit, and I can tell you that's just the tip of the iceberg. As
you can see on the monitor to my right, there are two homepages on the Web
that are dedicated to tracking encryption legislation and making people
aware of why it is needed. As with the "blue-ribbon campaign," which you
are probably familiar with, Internet users will be encouraged to download
the golden key and envelope symbol that you can see on this poster to my
left. They will then be able to link to one of the two encryption pages and
show their support for this effort.
A number of supporters have come to the Capitol today and they have offered
to make themselves available if you have any questions after this news
conference, or you can call them later at the numbers we have provided to
you in the press kit.
In addition to that grass-roots effort, I am also sending today an open
letter to the Internet community encouraging support for this bill, and I
expect it to be made available to hundreds of thousands of Internet users.
I will also plan to make myself available for at least two online forums to
discuss my bill with computer users.
I want to thank you again for coming today. Now I'd like to turn it over
to the distinguished Majority Leader for his remarks.
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