[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 38 (Monday, March 30, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H1701-H1702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE SECURITY AND FREEDOM THROUGH ENCRYPTION ACT

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, strong encryption products are the locks 
and keys of the digital age. To ensure that the computer files of 
American citizens are protected, I have introduced H.R. 695, the SAFE 
Act, Security and Freedom through Encryption, which has 250 bipartisan 
cosponsors. The SAFE Act is supported by organizations from across the 
political spectrum. It is not often that legislation brings together 
such a diverse array of Members and interest groups.
  On one side of this debate are the United States Chamber of Commerce, 
the National Association of Manufacturers, the Law Enforcement Alliance 
of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Rifle 
Association, Americans for Tax Reform, Eagle Forum, the Center for 
Democracy and Technology, and a whole host of business organizations 
concerned about the security of their computer communications.
  Who is on the other side? The administration, which continues to 
pursue a policy that threatens the privacy of American citizens. If the 
Government can access your encrypted computer files, medical records, 
tax returns and personal financial information, then hackers can, too.
  I am pleased to be the sponsor of this legislation with the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren), the lead Democrat 
cosponsors. There are about 150 Republican cosponsors of this 
legislation, and over 100 Democrat cosponsors as well.
  This is truly a bipartisan effort. This legislation is designed to do 
three things: First, protect the privacy of law-abiding American 
citizens. People know today that their e-mail, their credit card 
numbers, their medical records, their tax returns, if they are 
submitted electronically, their industrial trade secrets, their 
copyrighted material, are all subject to invasion by hackers, by 
criminals and others who will make their communications available to 
who knows who for what reason.
  Privacy is important in the Information Age, and we need to protect 
it.
  Secondly, this is an important anticrime measure. This legislation 
will help to make sure that people who do use the Internet for 
electronic commerce will have that credit card number protected from a 
hacker stealing it.
  The New York Stock Exchange, which has to encrypt its financial 
communications, which go all over the world, to make sure somebody does 
not break into that system and cause a financial crisis by changing the 
numbers in the computer system, or the same thing for a nuclear power 
plant, somebody breaking into its computer system and causing a 
meltdown. This is something that protects the infrastructure of our 
country and it protects individuals using the Internet, making sure 
their medical records are secure.
  Industrial espionage is one of the largest problems we have in the 
criminal area in this country. The FBI has estimated more than $24 
billion and/or more a year in industrial espionage takes place, and 
what is the prime place of that? Breaking into somebody's computer to 
steal information. Encryption, the scrambling of information to make 
sure it cannot be decoded by somebody intercepting it, is the Number 
one way to make sure this is safe.
  Finally, this is an issue about jobs, jobs of American citizens. We 
dominate the software industry in the world. Today, nearly 75 percent 
of all the software sold in the world is created in the United States. 
But our foreign competition is on to the fact that this administration 
is using our export control laws to limit access to strong encryption 
by our software companies, by our citizens, and by those overseas who 
would like to buy the quality software products American companies make 
and cannot do so because of the fact that we have these export laws 
that limit access to this valuable software.
  So they are using that to gain a competitive advantage, and we will 
lose the advantage we have in the world as we move more and more into 
encrypted software, as we move into the next century.
  So these three things, protecting the privacy of American citizens, 
fighting crime, and making sure that we protect and create new jobs in 
a growing

[[Page H1702]]

dynamic Information Age industry, are reasons why this legislation has 
been offered.
  What does it do? It eases our export control laws and says that if 
foreign competition is offering a particular type of software, or if it 
is available off-the-shelf, our American industry should be allowed to 
compete and offer the same software overseas.
  It prohibits the Federal Government from setting up what is called a 
mandatory key recovery system. What is that? That is where the 
government requires you to put the key to your computer, your encrypted 
computer software, the contents of your computer, in a location where 
government can get ahold of it without your knowledge.
  Mr. Speaker, this is something that I would urge my colleagues to 
strongly support. This legislation has bipartisan support. Support the 
SAFE Act, H.R. 695.

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