The excerpt below is from the Wash Post article today. Does anyone know the status of the Leahy/Goodlatte bills? BTW, it's been suggested that this article is sufficiently on topic to post to the list in its entirety. Anyone else whose seen it agree? ---------- The Washington Post, February 25, 1996, pp. H1, H4. Scrambling for a Policy on Encryption Exports [Long snip] Industry also is fanning Congress's interest in taking a bigger role in the encryption debate. "Without congressional interest, the administration has no reason to liberalize exports at all," said Becca Gould, director of policy at the Business Software Alliance. "This issue is in Congress's front yard because it affects the economy" as well as U.S. citizens' privacy rights. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.) agree. They plan to introduce bills in the Senate and House aimed at loosening the restrictions on encryption. "The federal government is taking an attitude that's based more in the 1970s than in present time," said Leahy in a telephone interview. "This is a matter that should be decided by legislation," he added. "We're talking about billions of dollars in revenues and thousands of jobs if we're handicapped in our global market, especiaUy if what we're told to do is to build an export encryption program that is so outdated that our 12-year-old computer experts wouJd laugh at it." The bills would do away with export licenses for any encryption technology considered to be "generally available," or "in the public domain." Leahy said that although he, too, worries about national security and terrorism, trying to bottle up technology won't solve the problem. Law enforcement has "got to figure out how to keep ahead ... and surprise, surprise, there will be some times when we won't be able to eavesdrop," Leahy said. Even now, criminals can make calls at pay telephones or avoid detection in other ways. The government shouldn't cripple the computer industry every time a new technology springs up that challenges law enforcement, he said. "What I'm suggesting is that if [the administration] works with the Congress, we'll find a solution," Leahy said. ...