Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.)
For immediate release: Contact: Matt Raymond
Tuesday, January 28, 1997 (202) 224-8150
Peter Wilhelm
(202) 224-6137
"Pro-CODE" Rides Again in 105th
Burns to Push Bipartisan Bill Easing Limits on Encryption Exports
WASHINGTON, D.C. _ Montana Senator Conrad Burns today announced
that he will again introduce legislation in the next few days to ease
government restrictions on encryption, or data security, software and
hardware and to override the Clinton administration's encryption plan.
"Almost four years ago, the Clinton administration announced that
its plan to help secure the massive amounts of information we move
electronically was to give government a direct peephole into that
information," Burns said. "Four years later, the president has not
budged from this position.
"A significant bipartisan coalition in Congress and in the private
sector has consistently rejected that approach. We advanced the
debate significantly in the last Congress but came up short because of
White House obstructionism. This time around, we intend to put a bill
on the president's desk and find out if he is truly on the side of the
users and providers of rapidly expanding high-tech goods and
services."
Burns announced the legislation along with cosponsors Sen. Patrick
Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and with U.S. Rep. Bob
Goodlatte (R-Va.), who is sponsoring a companion bill in the House, in
a video teleconference with the RSA Data Security Conference in San
Francisco.
"We're working hard to get the same broad cosponsorship we had in
the last Congress, and we will be introducing a bill that is virtually
identical to Pro-CODE from the last Congress," Burns said.
Pro-CODE, or "The Promotion of Commerce Online in the Digital Era
Act," would ease export restrictions on encryption technology to a
level deemed "generally available" worldwide by the U.S. Department of
Commerce. It would also prohibit a mandatory system under which
producers or users of hardware and software would be required to
surrender a decoding "key" to a third party. An executive order
signed by President Clinton would ease export restrictions to a level
of 56 bits for applicants who agree to give up a copy of their
decoding keys.
"This debate comes down to a potential loss of billions of
high-tech dollars and thousands of high-tech jobs. It comes down to
significant harm to our global high-tech competitiveness. It comes
down to whether or not government can force people into making
business and consumer choices, and whether government should have
access to our most private communications."
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