From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 1997 02:23:13 +0800
To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: Oxley crypto update: vote in 90 minutes
Message-ID: <v03007804b04f0505fb1e@[168.161.105.141]>
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Today's vote will be held in less than two hours. Keep in mind that this is
just one committee out of five that's considering the SAFE bill. The impact
of the committee's draft of SAFE is not nearly as important, IMHO, as the
political impact of the vote. Can one of the nation's richest industries
muster up the votes to defeat law enforcement -- in the //Commerce//
committee, of all places? Many eyes will be watching the committee today.

I hear that Oxley is nervous and has been calling people he never did
before. His staff tells me that yes, he has been calling everyone on the
committee. He'll be distributing letters of support from groups --
including law enforcement groups in California -- that will buttress his
amendment. Oxley's staff tells me the version of Oxley II posted by CDT is
almost certainly inaccurate and out of date. Solomon, chair of House Rules,
is circulating a letter saying only SAFE with Oxley will go to the floor.

The pressure's on. Rumors are flying that industry may cut a deal (perhaps
brokered by White) that may give up civil liberties in exchange for export
controls. We'll see soon. As of yesterday Oxley appeared to have a majority
of perhaps 32-34 out of the 51 or so people on the committee.

-Declan


>In case anybody is counting votes, my own congressman (Brian Bilbray, R-CA)
>sits on the House Commerce committee. I just got a call back from his
>staff saying that Bilbray opposes the Oxley amendment and continues
>to support the original SAFE bill, which he co-sponsored.
>
>Any other word on how today's vote is going?
>
>Phil