By
Stewart Baker
(
[email protected])
Michael Hintze
[email protected]
October 1997
Attached below is the full statement that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss) recently made concerning encryption. The statement, in the form of a letter to President Clinton, was entered into the Congressional Record last week.
Senator Lott's statement contains a very strongly worded condemnation of the FBI's proposal for domestic controls. He notes that the technology to meet the FBI's standard does not yet exist. "The FBI proposal would force a large unfunded mandate on our high technology firms, at a time when there is no practical way to accomplish that mandate." He also raises privacy concerns and questions the constitutionality of the FBI proposal. Senator Lott also questions whether the FBI really needs these capabilities, and he notes that foreigners would be even less likely to buy American encryption products if they know that the FBI can have access to the
