BXA Testimony at SAFE Hearing

[Declan McCullagh]

Keep in mind that what you have is prepared testimony, written sometimes
days before the guy actually speaks, often by his assistant. Often folks
depart from it substantially; sometimes they ignore it completely. 

The most interesting part of a hearing is the back-and-forth q&a period
where folks have to depart from prepared text and think on their feet. For
that you need the transcript.

-Declan


On Sat, 6 Sep 1997, John Young wrote:

> See William Reinsch's testimony on the administration's 
> encryption policy at the September 4 SAFE hearing:
> 
>    http://jya.com/bxa090497.htm
> 
> Perhaps dissimulating, or not then clued to the draft GAK bill,
> Reinsch states:
> 
> 1. Foreign crypto products are not as widely available as export
> control critics claim, and thus do not threaten US products.
> 
> 2. The administration is against mandatory key escrow.
> 
> 3. Finds the SAFE bill unhelpful but likes its crypto-criminalization
> provision and favors McCain-Kerrey's Secure Public Network 
> Act bill or other legislation that will:
> 
>   Expressly confirm the freedom of domestic users to choose 
>   any type or strength of encryption.
> 
>   Explicitly state that participation in a key management 
>   infrastructure is voluntary .
> 
>   Set forth legal conditions for the release of recovery 
>   information to law enforcement officials pursuant to lawful 
>   authority and provide liability protection for key recovery 
>   agents who have properly released such information.
> 
>   Criminalize the misuse of keys and the use of encryption to 
>   further a crime. 	  
> 
>   Offer, on a voluntary basis, firms that are in the business of 
>   providing public cryptography keys the opportunity to obtain 
>   government recognition, allowing them to market the 
>   trustworthiness implied by government approval.
> 
> ----------
> 
> Leads to the testimony of NSA's Cowell and Justice's Litt would
> be appreciated.
> 
> Representative Weldon remarked at length about encryption and
> defense matters on September 4, supporting the administration's
> policy:
> 
>    http://jya.com/weldon.txt  (46K)
> 
>