July 20, 1994 Letter from VP Gore to Rep. Maria Cantwell

July 20, 1994

The Honorable Maria Cantwell
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C., 20515

Dear Representative Cantwell:

I write to express my sincere appreciation for your efforts to move the 
national debate forward on the issue of information security and export 
controls. I share your strong conviction for the need to develop a 
comprehensive policy regarding encryption, incorporating an export 
policy that does not disadvantage American software companies in world 
markets while preserving our law enforcement and national security 
goals. 

As you know, the Administration disagrees with you on the extent to 
which existing controls are harming U.S. industry in the short run and 
the extent to which their immediate relaxation would affect national 
security. For that reason we have supported a five-month Presidential 
study. In conducting this study, I want to assure you that the 
Administration will use the best available resources of the federal 
government. This will include the active participation of the National 
Economic Council and the Department of Commerce. In addition, consistent 
with the Senate-passed language, the first study will be completed 
within 150 days of passage of the Export Administration Act 
reauthorization bill, with the second study to be completed within one 
year after the completion of the first. I want to personally assure you 
that we will reassess our existing export controls based on the results 
of these studies. Moreover, all programs with encryption that can be 
exported today will continue to be exportable. 

On the other hand, we agree that we need to take action this year to 
assure that over time American companies are able to include information 
security features in their programs in order to maintain their admirable 
international competitiveness. We can achieve this by entering into an 
new phase of cooperation among government, industry representatives and 
privacy advocates with a goal of trying to develop a key escrow 
encryption system that will provide strong encryption, be acceptable to 
computer users worldwide, and address our national needs as well. 

Key escrow encryption offers a very effective way to accomplish our 
national goals, That is why the Administration adopted key escrow 
encryption in the "Clipper Chip" to provide very secure encryption for 
telephone communications while preserving the ability for law 
enforcement and national security. But the Clipper Chip is an approved 
federal standard for telephone communications and not for computer 
networks and video networks. For that reason, we are working with 
industry to investigate other technologies for those applications. 

The Administration understands the concerns that industry has regarding 
the Clipper Chip. We welcome the opportunity to work with industry to 
design a more versatile, less expensive system. Such a key escrow system 
would be implementable in software, firmware, hardware, or any 
combination thereof, would not rely upon a classified algorithm, would 
be voluntary, and would be exportable. While there are many severe 
challenges to developing such a system, we are committed to a diligent 
effort with industry and academia to create such a system. We welcome 
your offer to assist us in furthering this effort. 

We also want to assure users of key escrow encryption products that they 
will not be subject to unauthorized electronic surveillance. As we have 
done with the Clipper Chip, future key escrow systems must contain 
safeguards to provide for key disclosure only under legal authorization 
and should have audit procedures to ensure the integrity of the system. 
Escrow holders should be strictly liable for releasing keys without 
legal authorization.

We also recognize that a new key escrow encryption system must permit 
the use of private-sector key escrow agents as one option. It is also 
possible that as key escrow encryption technology spreads, companies may 
established layered escrowing services for their own products. Having a 
number of escrow agents would give individuals and businesses more 
choices and flexibility in meeting their needs for secure 
communications. 

I assure you the President and I are acutely aware of the need to 
balance economic an privacy needs with law enforcement and national 
security. This is not an easy task, but I think that our approach offers 
the best opportunity to strike an appropriate balance. I am looking 
forward to working with you and others who share our interest in 
developing a comprehensive national policy on encryption. I am convinced 
that our cooperative endeavors will open new creative solutions to this 
critical problem.

Sincerely,

Al Gore

AG/gcs