SAFE HR 695

*Gives all Americans the freedom to use any type of encryption anywhere in the world, and allows the sale of any type of encryption domestically;

*Prohibits the government from creating a back door into peoples' computer systems (mandatory key escrow);

*Relaxes U.S. export controls to permit the export of generally available software, including mass market or public domain software such as PGP, and other types of software and hardware under a license if a product with comparable security is commercially available from foreign suppliers; and

*Creates criminal penalties for the unlawful use of encryption in furtherance of a crime -- up to 5 years imprisonment for a first offense, and up to 10 years for each subsequent offense.

The SAFE bill, written by Reps. Goodlatte and Lofgren, was intended to protect domestic use of encryption and dramatically ease export controls. The bill was ultimately co-sponsored by over 250 members of Congress, and voted on by five different committees -- some of which completely changed the bill.

The "SAFE" bill was identical to H.R. 3011 (104th Congress), which Goodlatte championed last year. H.R. 3011 enjoyed broad bipartisan support, and was the subject of a September 1996 hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

• Text of original bill
• Judiciary Committee Amendments
  • Amendment by Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA)
  • Amendment by Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL)
  • Amendment by Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR)
• International Relations Committee Amendment
  Amendment by Rep. Ben Gilman (R-NY)
• National Security Committee Amendment
  Weldon-Dellums National Security Committee Amendment [Approved on September 09, 1997]
• Intelligence Committee Amendment
  Amendment by Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL) and Rep. Norman Dicks (D-WA) [Approved on September 11, 1997]
• Commerce Committee Amendments
  • Markey-White Amendment
  • Oxley-Manton Amendment
  • Revised Oxley-Manton Amendment

• Analysis of the original Oxley-Manton Amendment
• Analysis of Revised Oxley-Manton Amendment
• CDT Policy Post 3.03 House Subcommittee Approves SAFE bill [April 30. 1997]
• CDT Policy Post 3.04 House Judiciary Committee Approves SAFE Internet Privacy Bill [May 14, 1997]
• CDT Policy Post 3.11 SAFE Clears Another Key House Committee [July 23, 1997]

• September 11-23, 1997 House Commerce Committee considers Oxley-Manton amendment to SAFE, which would criminalize domestic use of strong encryption.
  • 63 Groups Criticize Oxley/Manton Amendment in letter to Capitol Hill
  • Law Professors Call Oxley-Manton Amendment Unconstitutional And Unwise
  • Press Release with details about the law professors' letter
  • Text of other letters signed by CDT and industry groups sent to House Commerce Committee members
  • In advance of the Committee Vote, 63 organizations -- representing the entire breadth of the telecommunications, computer, and Internet industries along with public interest and civil liberties groups -- sent a letter to House Commerce Committee members expressing their opposition to the Oxley-Manton amendment.
  • Twenty-eight law professors from the nation's top law schools also sent a letter to Congress arguing that controls on the domestic use of encryption, such as the Oxley-Manton amendment currently pending before the House Commerce Committee, are "a profound mistake" that would "contravene fundamental principles of our constitutional tradition."
  • Chart of House Commerce Committee Vote, September 24, 1997
• September 11, 1997 House Intelligence Committee passes an FBI-backed version of SAFE that would make it a crime to sell or distribute strong encryption in the U.S. after January 2000.
  Intelligence Committee Press Release following the September 11 vote.
• September 9, 1997 House National Security Committee passes an amended version of SAFE with all of the beneficial export control provisions removed.
• June 24, 1997 House International Relations Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade approved SAFE by a 14-1 vote.
• May 14, 1997 House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved SAFE. The committee also agreed to three amendments, including an amendment to narrow a provision of SAFE creating new criminal penalties for the use of encryption to obstruct law enforcement investigations of federal crimes.
• May 8, 1997 House International Relations Trade Subcommittee held a hearing on the SAFE bill. Witnesses included William Reinsch, Undersecretary of Commerce; John Gage and Humphrey Polanen from Sun Microsystems; and Jerry Berman, CDT Executive Director.
  

  Witness List for May 8 Trade Subcommittee Hearing

• May 1, 1997 Rep. Gerald Solomon writes letter opposing SAFE
• April 30, 1997 House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property unanimously voted to send the SAFE bill to the full Judiciary committee without amendment.
  • CDT Policy Post 3.03 [April 30, 1997]
  • Text of CDT Letter to Courts and Intellectual Property Subcommittee Members [April 24, 1997]
  • Text of Internet Privacy Coalition letter to Congressman Goodlatte in support of SAFE [April 28, 1997]
• March 20, 1997 House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on SAFE.
  Among some of the witnesses at the hearing were William Crowell, Deputy Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), and Jerry Berman, CDT Executive Director.
  • Witness List for March 20th Hearing [Updated testimony links - April 25, 1997]
  • CDT Testimony submitted for the March 20th hearing
• February 12, 1997 Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) introduced H.R. 695, the "Security and Freedom through Encryption" (SAFE) Act.

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