February 18, 1994 The Honorable Lee Hamilton Chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee Washington, DC 20515 Dear Chairman Hamilton: We write to express our strong support for overall export control legislative reform and in particular H.R. 3627, introduced by Representative Maria Cantwell. This bill would amend the Export Administration Act of 1979 to ease barriers for American companies that seek to export software and hardware that provide information security. A decade ago, cryptography was highly specialized technology, used largely for military applications. Today, however, international business and even individuals are sending more and more proprietary and personal information across national and international networks. Users who depend on these networks know that encryption technology is vital to protect the security and privacy of sensitive information on these international data highways. Suppliers of software and hardware, which can provide such information security, must be able to offer products with strong encryption built in, otherwise foreign competitors will dominate the market. These changes in the global computer and communications market, as well as increased need for privacy and security, demand that export control laws be revised to enable American business to compete in the world market, and to ensure that American citizens and businesses are able to protect the privacy and security of their communications on the new National Information Infrastructure. There is already significant foreign availability of software and hardware products containing cryptography. American citizens and corporations need to have secure communications with non-US citizens and corporations in today's global economy. The main impact of export controls on cryptography today is to limit the use of high quality privacy protection in international commerce and to deny American business the ability to make globally competitive products. We have had extensive dialogue with various branches of the Administration and we have been offered no compelling reasons for maintaining controls in this area. We urge you to support H.R. 3627 as well as a broad overhaul of the Export Administration Act. Sincerely, American Bankers Association IBM Apple Computer, Inc. Industry Coalition on Technology Transfer AT&T IEEE-USA Business Software Alliance Information Industry Association Cellular Telephone Industry Association Information Technology Association of America Compuserve Iris Associates, Inc. Computer and Communications Lotus Development Corporation Industry Association MCI Telecommunications Computer Business Equipment and Manufacturers Assoc. Microsoft Corporation Computing Technology Industry Association RSA Data Security, Inc. Crest Industries, Inc. Software Publishers Association EDUCOM Sun Microsystems, Inc. Electronic Frontier Foundation Telecommunications Industry Association Electronic Messaging Association Trusted Information Systems GTE US Telephone Association Hewlett-Packard Company cc: Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee John Podesta, Office of the President George Tenet, National Security Council Mike Nelson, Office of Science and Technology Policy Ray Kammer, National Institute of Standards and Technology Steve Aoki, National Security Council Geoff Greiveldinger, Department of Justice