From: jseiger@cdt.org (Jonah Seiger)
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 1996 10:30:08 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Latest info on the "counter-terrorism" bill
Message-ID: <v01520d01ae27fabe505a@[204.157.127.21]>
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The House passed a revised counter-terrorism bill this afternoon by a
substantial majority.  The bill is expected to be considered by the Senate
on Saturday 8/3, and is likely to pass.

The House-passed bill DOES NOT contain ANY of the privacy threatening
provisions.  Provisions dealing with funding for the Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (Digital Telephony) were REMOVED from
the bill just before the vote after civil liberties groups AND the FBI
objected to the language. Provisions dealing with emergency wiretap
authority and "roving wiretaps" were also not included in the House-passed
bill.

In addition, the bill does not contain any encryption provisions. Earlier
in the week, the Administration had circulated an outline of their
anti-terrorism proposal which included new, unspecified restrictions on
encryption.  Senators Burns (R-MT), Leahy (D-VT), Pressler (R-SD), Lott
(R-MS), and others worked hard to prevent any encryption provisions from
being included in early versions of the bill, and deserve a lot of credit
for fighting for the Net. It's nice to finally have a number of powerful
allies joining the usual defenders of net.freedom on Capitol Hill.

The bill passed today contains provisions increasing airport security,
studies on ways to improve US anti terrorism policy and other terrorism
issues, and a controvertial provisions expanding federal racketeering laws
to cover terrorist activity.

The bill also contains a small but not insigificant privacy victory. The
bill doubles the punishment from 5 to 10 years for unlawful disclosure of
information obtained from a warrant and increases certain penalties for
violation of the Privacy Act.

This is not over yet -- many of these issues, particularly encryption and
Digital Telephony funding, are likely to be back before the Congress in
September, so stay tunned...

Thanks to everyone who called Congress today to object to the new sweeping
surveillance provisions that were dropped from the bill! It looks like we
mave had really made a difference in this debate.

More as it comes...

Jonah

--
Jonah Seiger, Policy Analyst               Center for Democracy and Technology
<jseiger@cdt.org>                          (v) +1.202.637.9800

http://www.cdt.org/