[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 18 (Monday, May 8, 2000)]
[Page 975]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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.