I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1572

To require the adoption and utilization of digital signatures by Federal

agencies and to encourage the use of digital signatures in private sector

electronic transactions.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 27, 1999

Mr. GORDON (for himself, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, and Mr. BROWN of California) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee

on Science

A BILL

To require the adoption and utilization of digital signatures

by Federal agencies and to encourage the use of digital

signatures in private sector electronic transactions.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Digital Signature Act

5 of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. RECOGNITION OF DIGITAL SIGNATURES.

7 (a) REQUIREMENT.—To the extent that a Federal

8 agency recognizes a written signature as authenticating a

9 document, the agency shall recognize a digital signature
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1 as authenticating an equivalent electronically formatted

2 document.

3 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall take ef4 fect 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

5 SEC. 3. DIGITAL SIGNATURE INFRASTRUCTURE.

6 (a) GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS.—Not later than

7 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the

8 Director, in consultation with industry, shall develop dig9 ital signature infrastructure guidelines and standards for

10 use by Federal agencies to enable those agencies to effec11 tively utilize digital signatures in a manner that is—

12 (1) sufficiently secure to meet the needs of

13 those agencies and the general public; and

14 (2) interoperable, to the maximum extent pos15 sible.

16 (b) ELEMENTS.—The guidelines and standards devel17 oped under subsection (a) shall include—

18 (1) technical security requirements for digital

19 signature infrastructure products and services;

20 (2) validation criteria to enable Federal agen21 cies to select digital signature infrastructure prod22 ucts and services appropriate to their needs; and

23 (3) minimum interoperability specifications for

24 the Federal acquisition of digital signature infra25 structure products and services.
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1 (c) COORDINATION WITH NATIONAL POLICY

2 PANEL.—The Director shall ensure that the development

3 of guidelines and standards under this section is carried

4 out in coordination with the efforts of the National Policy

5 Panel for Digital Signatures under section 7.

6 (d) REVISIONS.—The Director shall periodically re7 view the guidelines and standards developed under sub8 section (a) and revise them as appropriate.

9 SEC. 4. VALIDATION OF PRODUCTS.

10 Not later than 6 months after the date of the enact11 ment of this Act, and periodically thereafter as appro12 priate, the Director shall make available to Federal agen13 cies and to the public an evaluation of the conformance

14 with the guidelines and standards developed under section

15 3 of commercially available digital signature infrastructure

16 products, and other such products used by Federal agen17 cies.

18 SEC. 5. ELECTRONIC CERTIFICATION AND MANAGEMENT

19 SYSTEMS.

20 (a) CRITERIA.—Not later than 6 months after the

21 date of the enactment of this Act, the Director shall estab22 lish minimum technical criteria for the use by Federal

23 agencies of electronic certification and management

24 systems.
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1 (b) EVALUATION.—The Director shall establish a

2 program for evaluating the conformance with the criteria

3 established under subsection (a) of electronic certification

4 and management systems, developed for use by Federal

5 agencies or available for such use.

6 (c) MAINTENANCE OF LIST.—The Director shall

7 maintain and make available to Federal agencies a list of

8 electronic certification and management systems the Di9 rector has evaluated as conforming to the criteria estab10 lished under subsection (a).

11 SEC. 6. REPORTS.

12 Not later than 6 months after the date of the enact13 ment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Director

14 shall transmit to the Congress a report that includes—

15 (1) a description and analysis of the utilization

16 by Federal agencies of digital signatures;

17 (2) an evaluation of the extent to which Federal

18 agencies’ digital signature infrastructures conform

19 to the guidelines and standards developed under sec20 tion 3(a);

21 (3) an evaluation of the extent to which Federal

22 agencies’ electronic certification and management

23 systems conform to the criteria established under

24 section 5(a);

25 (4) the list described in section 5(c); and
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1 (5) evaluations made under section 4.

2 SEC. 7. NATIONAL POLICY PANEL FOR DIGITAL SIGNA3 TURES.

4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days after

5 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary

6 shall establish a National Policy Panel for Digital Signa7 tures. The Panel shall be composed of government, aca8 demic, and industry technical and legal experts on the im9 plementation of digital signature technologies, State offi10 cials, including officials from States which have enacted

11 laws establishing digital signature infrastructures, and

12 representative individuals from the interested public.

13 (b) RESPONSIBILITIES.—The Panel shall serve as a

14 forum for exploring all relevant factors associated with the

15 development of a national digital signature infrastructure

16 based on uniform standards to enable the widespread

17 availability and use of digital signature systems. The

18 Panel shall develop—

19 (1) model practices and procedures for certifi20 cation authorities to ensure the accuracy, reliability,

21 and security of operations associated with issuing

22 and managing digital certificates;

23 (2) standards to ensure consistency among ju24 risdictions that license certification authorities; and

25 (3) audit standards for certification authorities.
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1 (c) COORDINATION.—The Panel shall coordinate its

2 efforts with those of the Director under section 3.

3 (d) ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT.—The Under Sec4 retary shall provide administrative support to enable the

5 Panel to carry out its responsibilities.

6 (e) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date

7 of the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary shall

8 transmit to the Congress a report containing the rec9 ommendations of the Panel.

10 SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.

11 For purposes of this Act—

12 (1) the term ‘‘certification authorities’’ means

13 issuers of digital certificates;

14 (2) the term ‘‘digital certificate’’ means an elec15 tronic document that binds an individual’s identity

16 to the individual’s digital signature;

17 (3) the term ‘‘digital signature’’ means a math18 ematically generated mark utilizing asymmetric key

19 cryptography techniques that is unique to both the

20 signatory and the information signed;

21 (4) the term ‘‘digital signature infrastructure’’

22 means the software, hardware, and personnel re23 sources, and the procedures, required to effectively

24 utilize digital certificates and digital signatures;
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1 (5) the term ‘‘Director’’ means the Director of

2 the National Institute of Standards and Technology;

3 (6) the term ‘‘electronic certification and man4 agement systems’’ means computer systems, includ5 ing associated personnel and procedures, that enable

6 individuals to apply unique digital signatures to elec7 tronic information; and

8 (7) the term ‘‘Under Secretary’’ means the

9 Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology.

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