As you know, I have worked for many years on the encryption issue in the House. The SAFE Act has passed the House Judiciary Committee by voice vote, and is now pending before the committees on International Relations, Commerce, Armed Services, and Intelligence. Each of these additional committees is expected to act soon on the legislation, and it is my hope that the SAFE Act will be considered by the House in the summer or early fall.
Encryption has many benefits.
First, it aids law enforcement by preventing piracy and white-collar crime on the Internet. Several studies over the past few years have demonstrated that the theft of proprietary business information costs American industry hundreds of billions of dollars each year. The use of strong encryption to protect financial transactions and information would prevent this theft from occurring. With the speed of transactions and communications on the Internet, law enforcement cannot stop thieves and criminal hackers by waiting to react until after the fact. Only by allowing the use of strong encryption, not only domestically but internationally as well, can we hope to make the Internet a safe and secure environment.