30 March 1998
Source: http://www.senate.gov/~mccain/encryp.htm

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
NANCY IVES 202-224-7130
MIKE MARINELLO 202-224-6551

McCAIN, KERREY ANNOUNCE ENCRYPTION PLAN

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE), Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today announced modifications to the McCain-Kerrey Encryption bill, S. 909, the "Secure Public Networks Act." In addition, they announced their intention to move the bill to the Senate floor for a vote in May.

"I look forward to sitting down with officials from both the computer industry and the Administration and negotiating the bill's specific issues so that we can develop a workable consensus," McCain said.

"The compromises announced today are yet another example of the efforts to bring all of the interested parties together to solve the five-year debate that has been raging over encryption exports, and moves us one step closer to enacting legislation," Kerrey said.

Following are the modifications to the bill:

EXPORTS -- The Encryption Export Advisory Board, now made up of eight industry representatives and four government representatives, will approve levels of encryption for export based on worldwide availability or anticipatory availability. The President still has the power to veto the Board's decisions, only as it relates to national security issues, and if a level of encryption is vetoed, Congressional notification is required.

End user approval: allows U.S. companies to export with optional recovery features to approved end users.

DOMESTIC CONTROLS -- The bill continues to prohibit any domestic encryption controls. No domestic controls on encryption allowed. No keys -- or similar technology -- are required to be turned over to agents. Key recovery -- or any other similar type of technology -- is encouraged but not required. The bill will also preserve the requirement that if a key is handed over to an agent, such key can only be obtained by the government with a court order subpoena.

The dual registration language regarding certificate authorities and key recovery agents has been eliminated.

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