    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 2, 2000]
    [Page 818]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 818]]

    Statement on Signing Legislation Amending Certain Federal Reporting
    Requirements
    May 2, 2000

        Today I signed into law S. 1769, a bill to continue a number of
    existing Federal reports scheduled to expire on May 15 of this year, as
    well as modify certain reporting requirements related to two of these
    reports.
        New section 2519(2)(b)(iv) of title 18 of the United States Code
    provides for general reporting by the Department of Justice of law
    enforcement encounters with encrypted communications in the execution of
    wiretap orders. In signing S. 1769, I state my understanding that the
    reporting required by section 2519(2)(b)(iv) is limited to general
    aggregate data concerning the total number of times law enforcement
    encountered encryption and the total number of instances in which
    encryption prevented access to plain text. The reporting requirement of
    S. 1769 does not require specific case-by-case or order-by-order
    reporting, which could jeopardize law enforcement sources and methods
    and provide clear direction to criminals seeking to use encryption to
    hide their unlawful conduct.

                                                          William J. Clinton

     The White House,

     May 2, 2000.

     Note:  S. 1769, approved May 2, was assigned Public Law No. 106-197.