[Congressional Record: November 7, 1997 (Senate)] [Page S11959] ENCRYPTION Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, I wanted to take a moment to associate myself with the comments of the majority leader from October 21, 1997. Senator Lott has correctly highlighted the FBI's constantly shifting arguments and the Bureau's seemingly relentless attempts to grab more power at the expense of the Constitution, particularly the fourth amendment's protection of privacy and the fifth amendment's guarantee of due process. The FBI legislative proposal goes far beyond the Commerce Committee's misguided encryption legislation in further disregarding our Constitution. Instead of working with those who understand that S.909 gives the FBI unprecedented and troubling authority to invade lives, the FBI has attempted to grab even broader authority. The Senate would be foolish to pass S.909. In no way can we even consider the ill-advised FBI approach. The reach of the FBI has now extended so far that the President has taken the other side of the issue and supported a free market approach, according to his public comments delivered abroad. I can only conclude that the FBI has introduced its proposal as a ploy to make S.909 look like a reasonable compromise. The only other explanation for the FBI's proposal is that the Bureau will not be satisfied with S.909, but instead will continue to work to erode our Constitutional protections. In fact, the new proposal only draws attention to the many problems of the Commerce Committee language. Neither proposal is acceptable. The issue of encryption must be revisited in a real and serious way next year, both at the committee level and in the Senate chamber, to examine the many Constitutional implications of the various proposals. I look forward to working with the Majority Leader and other Senators who have expressed interest in encryption legislation. I yield the floor. [End] See Senator Lott's comments on encryption: http://jya.com/lott-crypto.htm