STATEMENT BY SENATOR CONRAD BURNS
RE:  INTRODUCTION OF THE "ENCRYPTION
COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY ACT OF 1996
DATED MARCH 5, 1996


	I believe that one of the biggest concerns that folks have in my home State of 
Montana is the increasing level  of governmental regulation and intrusion into their 
daily lives.  There is no question that this legislation will have a direct impact on 
the federal government's abiliy to monitor folks communications or review their 
personal computer files.  I gotta tell you, I don' know too many people who feel that 
he IRS doesn't have enough power as it is, and the last thing we want to do is give 
the IRS essentially free access to folks tax records.   

	However, my primary interest in offering this legislaion is that it has 
profound and far-reaching impacts on both America's economy and upon individual 
Americans.

	First,  let me talk about the bill's impact upon the American economy.
  
	--  This bill, by eliminating the outdated export restrictions that are 
presently in place, frees up American companies to compete in the global market.   
This will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, it will translate intot $100 billion 
in increased revenues for our country over the next couple of years, and it will 
insure that America will remain the world leader as we make the transition to the 
Global Information Infrasructure.

	--  I've explained these impacts in greater detail in my Statement introducing 
the bill, copies of which are floating around the room.

	Next, and more importantly, I want to focus today upon what this legislation 
means to individual Americans.

	--  Aside from protecting American's personal files and communications from 
unauthorized "hacking." I believe that the most profound impact of this legislation 
will be upon the growth of the Inernet.

	--  For the past seven y ears while I've been doing telecommunications work 
here in Congress, I've watched he Internet flourish.  I see unbelievable opporunity 
for all Americans, both financially and personallly, if we allow the Inernet to 
continue to grow.

	(1)	Folks will be able to use the Internet to conduct banking and other 
financial transactions from their home over the Inernet;

	(2)	They'll be able to purchase an unlimited array of products and services 
directly from their homes;

	(3)	Furthermore, the Net will play a vital role in the development of 
Telemedicine. 

	(4)	The possibilities are endless.  They are bound only by American's 
imagination.


	HOWEVER,  all of these opportunities will be lost if we don't allow companies 
to use adequate encryption capabilities.  We've witnessed over the past couple of 
months examples of this very fact:

	--  There's the case of the doctor in West Virginia who wanted to save his 
patients money  and increase the quality of medical care they receied by putting their 
records on the Internet so that other physicians could review them for consultation 
purposes.  He decided not to do it because the Net didn't have a high enough level of 
security because of these outdated governmental export restrictions to insure that 
these records wouldn't become immediately accessible to the public.

	--  Then there's the case where a couple of Russian students "hacked" into the 
Citibank system and stole several million dollars.  The only way they caught the guy 
is because his girlfriend  turned him in after he broke up with her.

	--  The list goes on and on.

	I believe that this legislation will  allow American companies to develop 
computer technology that will create consumer confidence in the security of 
transmissions over the Internet which will create unlimited opportunity for both 
businesses and the American consumer.

	Finally, this legislation will allow the Telecommunications Bill which we 
recently passed here in Congress to work; without it, I question whether much of our 
work was in vain.

 	--  For example, the Teleco bill allows the cable companies, and utility 
companies to compee against one another to provide a comprehensive package of services 
to the consumer across one line.  Over this line, folks will be able to watch 
television, call their children, access the Internet,  insure that their home is 
protected by an alarm system while they're away, and have utility services.  But if 
this line isn't secure, who's going to want to purchase such a package in the first 
place?

	It is for these reasons that I am pushing forward with this legislation.  I 
believe that it will not only take  the handcuffs off our American companies to 
compete in the world market, it will more importantly open up unprecedented 
opportunities for both businesses and individual consumers.  I look forward to holding 
a series of hearings on these issues in the Subcommittee on Science, Space and 
Technology of the Commerce Committee this Spring.