Re: Oxley Amendment

>The future, however, is uncertain. The bill now goes to the
>House Rules committee, whose chairman said today in a
>strongly-worded letter that he'd only allow a bill to go to
>the floor if it included Oxley's amendment. Look for a hell
>of a lot of behind-the-scenes lobbying on this now...
>
>-Declan

What's the path?  Given the multiple committees, is there a prescribed
sequence or do they work in parallel?

What about the Senate bills?  Suppose Solomon allows SAFE to go to the
floor.  Does SAFE need to be reconciled somehow with any Senate bill?
Could Oxley's amendment could be made on the floor, with little or no
warning?  In some sort of conference committee?

I'd love to see a simple map/diagram of all the inflection points where the
FBI/NSA forces can further twist SAFE.  Call it morbid curiosity.  Last
year's model was bad, and it's only gotten worse.

Lee

I'm sure others can expand on this, but to me the big four inflection
points seem to be:

1. In the version of the SAFE bill the House Rules committee chooses. There
are now four substantially different versions. We have: the "original" SAFE
(with criminal penalties for crypto-in-a-crime); SAFE with domestic
crypto-controls; SAFE with its export relaxation section gutted;
yesterday's SAFE with more studies and doubled criminal penalties. This is
likely to be done in closed-room negotiations with the heads of Judiciary,
Intelligence, etc. I'm told that the first meetings are already being
scheduled. The House leadership will play a big role in anything the Rules
committee does.

2. In the way the House Rules committee reports the bill. Which amendments
will be allowed during floor debate, and in what order?

3. There are countless points during the Senate proceedings where FBI/NSA
can work on the legislation. McCain-Kerrey will probably go to the Senate
Intelligence committee, for instance. It's sure to go through Judiciary,
where Kyl and Feinstein are waiting eagerly. Sen. "Digital Telephony"
Leahy, whose original crypto-bill last year was a key escrow fetishist's
wet dream, is sure to get involved.

4. Conference committee between the Senate and House versions.

Underlying all this is the threat of a presidential veto. What pro-crypto
legislation can survive it? That will give the FBI/NSA more leverage when
pushing for their kind of "compromise." Especially because of the slothful
speed of the Senate, the process will take close to a year, probably.

-Declan


At 08:45 -0700 9/25/97, Lucky Green wrote:
>On Wed, 24 Sep 1997, Lee Tien wrote:
>>
>> I'd love to see a simple map/diagram of all the inflection points where the
>> FBI/NSA forces can further twist SAFE.  Call it morbid curiosity.  Last
>> year's model was bad, and it's only gotten worse.
>
>Such a diagram would be interesing to have. Not everybody watched "How a
>bill becomes law". :-) And there is sigificant interest in this issue from
>our international readers that are not as familiar with the political
>process in the US as perhaps some of us US citizens are.


-------------------------
Declan McCullagh
Time Inc.
The Netly News Network
Washington Correspondent
http://netlynews.com/

On Thu, 25 Sep 1997, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> 4. Conference committee between the Senate and House versions.
> 
> Underlying all this is the threat of a presidential veto. What pro-crypto
> legislation can survive it? That will give the FBI/NSA more leverage when
> pushing for their kind of "compromise." Especially because of the slothful
> speed of the Senate, the process will take close to a year, probably.

Yeah, well, except that there isn't a year left for this Congress.  If it 
doesn't get done before the next recess (in which we don't see Congress 
again until it becomes teh 106th, next year) the slate is wiped clean and 
we start from ground zero.

At 11:06 AM 9/25/97 -0700, Brock N. Meeks wrote:

>Yeah, well, except that there isn't a year left for this Congress.  If it 
>doesn't get done before the next recess (in which we don't see Congress 
>again until it becomes teh 106th, next year) the slate is wiped clean and 
>we start from ground zero.

A strangly appropreate choice of words. ]:>

---
|              "That'll make it hot for them!" - Guy Grand               |
|"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer:         |
| mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!"  | Ignore the man      |
|`finger -l alano@teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key  | behind the keyboard.|
|         http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/       |alan@ctrl-alt-del.com|

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

At 11:06 AM 9/25/97 -0700, Brock N. Meeks wrote:

>Yeah, well, except that there isn't a year left for this Congress.  
If it 
>doesn't get done before the next recess (in which we don't see 
Congress 
>again until it becomes teh 106th, next year) the slate is wiped 
clean and 
>we start from ground zero.
>
Forgive my seeming political ignorance, but since 90% of those there 
now will be there then, does having a 'new' Congress really mean 
anything?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0
Charset: noconv

iQA/AwUBNCqsnjKf8mIpTvjWEQIlUACfQvpShsUkinrB3Mx09qRZ7zScS+cAnA1i
bmKlZDVM38Y3Sm2P3lQhFsvP
=GQ4i
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

At 11:06 -0700 9/25/97, Brock N. Meeks wrote, quoting me:
>> Underlying all this is the threat of a presidential veto. What pro-crypto
>> legislation can survive it? That will give the FBI/NSA more leverage when
>> pushing for their kind of "compromise." Especially because of the slothful
>> speed of the Senate, the process will take close to a year, probably.
>
>Yeah, well, except that there isn't a year left for this Congress.  If it
>doesn't get done before the next recess (in which we don't see Congress
>again until it becomes teh 106th, next year) the slate is wiped clean and
>we start from ground zero.

That's not right. The 106th Congress doesn't begin until January //1999//,
after the elections. The slate is not wiped clean in 1998; we don't start
from ground zero. Bills will carry over to next year when Congress returns
in January for the second session of the 105th.

That's why it may take close to a year -- perhaps until next summer -- for
Congress to finish compromising away your rights to use whatever encryption
software you like.

-Declan


-------------------------
Declan McCullagh
Time Inc.
The Netly News Network
Washington Correspondent
http://netlynews.com/

On Wed, 24 Sep 1997, Lee Tien wrote:
> 
> I'd love to see a simple map/diagram of all the inflection points where the
> FBI/NSA forces can further twist SAFE.  Call it morbid curiosity.  Last
> year's model was bad, and it's only gotten worse.

Such a diagram would be interesing to have. Not everybody watched "How a
bill becomes law". :-) And there is sigificant interest in this issue from
our international readers that are not as familiar with the political
process in the US as perhaps some of us US citizens are.


 -- Lucky Green <shamrock@cypherpunks.to> PGP encrypted email preferred.
   "Tonga? Where the hell is Tonga? They have Cypherpunks there?"

Lucky Green, travelling faster than the speed of light and sending
his post the the cypherpunks list hours *after* my reply to it,
wrote:

> On Wed, 24 Sep 1997, Lee Tien wrote:
> >
> > I'd love to see a simple map/diagram of all the inflection points where the
> > FBI/NSA forces can further twist SAFE.  Call it morbid curiosity.  Last
> > year's model was bad, and it's only gotten worse.

  "Can you say Plan B, Plan CC and Plan DC? Sure you can..."

  Plan B  - Bomb
  Plan CC - Beyond the Return to the Valley of the Planet of ClipperChip
            "Coming soon to a computer chip manufacturer near you!"
                    (Can you say Intel? Sure you can...)
  Plan DC - Nuke DC [<--  Cult of OnePunk counter-plan]
   
> Such a diagram would be interesing to have. Not everybody watched "How a
> bill becomes law". :-) And there is sigificant interest in this issue from
> our international readers that are not as familiar with the political
> process in the US as perhaps some of us US citizens are.

  "Do you feel punk, Lucky? Well...do you?"
      Clit Westwood, in 'Megaton Force'

I presume that those toasting the 'great victory' are doing so with 
leftover champagne that went stale when they didn't have time to
drink the whole bottle before the stay of the Bernstein ruling cut
short *that* grand little celebration.

I hate to 'poop the party' boys and girls, but the Big Boys are playing
for *all* the marbles, in case no one has noticed.
Anyone who is still under the impression that the self-proclaimed 'good
guys' are going to be 'fighting fair' had better quit sucking on their
thumb and stick it up their ass, where it might provide a bit more
protection during future events.

  "You don't have to be a cypherpunk to know which way Gilmore is
blowing."
       Dr. Dimitri Dylan, KOTM

APlayerToBeNamedLater
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I'll trade you 5,000,000 DC residents, for one Tim C. May."