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FC: Congress weighs crypto-in-a-crime, wiretapping legislation
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 20:50:51 -0500
******* Also see: http://cryptome.org/hr46.htm#Senate ******* http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel121500.shtml 12/15/00 11:10 a.m. End-of-Session Robbery Congress limits civil liberties before going home for the holidays. By Dave Kopel of the Independence Institute EDITOR'S NOTE: Late on December 15, the sponsors of H.R. 46 agreed to remove all objectionable material from the bill, except for the encryption provision. Congress may adjourn today -- but not before inflicting a series of blows on civil liberties and federalism. As is usual for end-of-the-session assaults on civil liberties, the plan is to speed the new laws through as attachments to some innocuous law, before most people in Congress have time to notice. The only real chance for stopping this plan lies in House and Senate leadership (especially the House) being flooded with phone calls objecting to yet another sneak attack on the Bill of Rights. At issue is H.R. 46, a seemingly harmless bill titled "Public Safety Medal of Valor." The bill sets up a federal board to award federal Medals of Valor to policemen, federal agents, and the like. But Congress, unlike many state legislatures, does not operate under a constitutional requirement that a bill's subject matter and title be the same. And it turns out that there's much more in this bill than just medals for firefighters. What the bill does is: * Expand federal asset forfeiture. * Expand wiretapping * Provide special additional punishments for people who use encryption. * Federalize juvenile crimes, which are properly matters for state governments to address. The House committee report on the bill, of course, only discusses medals for police officers -- and not any of the unrelated material which is being added in the closing hours of Congress. The unrelated, dangerous, material comes mostly from the never-passed H.R. 2448. These new provisions were added to H.R. 46 on October 24, 2000, by the Senate. (See Congressional Record page 10913). [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- FC: Congress weighs crypto-in-a-crime, wiretapping legislation Declan McCullagh (Dec 27)