From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 07:53:26 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: KKK derails crypto bill, report from House Judiciary...
Message-ID: <v03007804af9ea94e831c@[168.161.105.191]>
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The Net's crypto wet-dreams were demolished this afternoon by a
Congressional committee's fear of coffee-drenched kids and the Ku
Klux Klan.

A two-hour debate over whether KKK volunteers could be sued for
spilling coffee on an 8-year old at a bake sale blew through
millions of dollars in billable lobbyist-hours and prevented the
House Judiciary Committee from voting on Rep. Bob Goodlatte's
(R-VA) SAFE crypto bill today.

Somnolent yet somehow alert, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich) wasted an
hour sparring with the avuncular Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois) over
the "Volunteer Protection Act," which insulates people volunteering
for nonprofit organizations from civil liability.

But would that apply to the KKK, wondered Conyers? Is the KKK a
registered 501(c)(3) organization under the IRS code? What about
501(c)(4) organizations? What if a KKK member decided to build houses
for Habitat for Humanity?

I kid you not: these are the questions that the august House
Judiciary committee grapples with. The members ran out of time
and never got around to voting on SAFE.

It was a bizzare meeting, to be sure, but at least one point made
sense: these decisions should be left to the states, not imposed on
them by the Feds. Some Congressmen even cited the landmark Supreme
Court decision in _Lopez_, which shortened the reach of the Federal
government. Conyers: "Someone has to explain why this is a federal
issue." Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY): "I don't see why it's necessary
for the federal government to invade."

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) coughed up an odd position: he likes the
bill, but wants to make sure his GOP colleagues appreciate that
this bill would screw the states. (It uses the Constitution's
"interstate commerce clause" to justify the Feds interfering.)
Frank said: "The notion that the coach of the Little League is
involved in interstate commerce -- unless the third baseline is in
another state -- strikes me as a hard sell. A dispute involving the
coach in a little league will now be federalized... I don't have a
problem with that... I do insist, however, that those in the past
who have invoked [states' rights understand that] this is an
obliteration of Lopez."

Those were the high points of the debate, and it went downhill from
there. Frank claimed that the Civil War meant that states have no
rights. Someone rambled about girl scouts in South Carolina.
Someone else spoke passionately about "standards of tortious
behavior." Then there was talk about tricyles and hammers.

By this time, the audience was falling asleep. I counted 10 people
nodding off before I ran out of fingers.

A frustrated Hyde tried to broker a deal: "If your staff person can
work with your staff person, can you draft replacement language?"
Conyers replied. "We're trying to help chairman Hyde. We've got 12
minutes [left]. There's no way in the world we're going to allow
hate group hangers-on to be exempted from simple negligence."

It worked. By 5:15 pm, after a dozen amendments, the committee
passed the "Volunteer Protection Act." As for SAFE -- well, if
you're a Congressman faced with the choice of bashing the KKK or
tackling crypto policy, what would you do?

-By Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) and Will Rodger
(rodger@worldnet.att.net), who refuses to wear a tie to these
events any more.