[Infowarrior] - Leaked! Details Of The New Congressional Commission To Take On The Encryption Issue

[Richard Forno]

Leaked! Details Of The New Congressional Commission To Take On The Encryption Issue

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160226/16551633728/leaked-details-new-congressional-commission-to-take-encryption-issue.shtml

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So, should this bill pass, the Commission would have 16 members, with the Republicans and Democrats each appointing eight, and that eight that each party appoints would be one person from each of the following fields:
	• Cryptography
	• Global commerce and economics
	• Federal law enforcement
	• State and local law enforcement
	• Consumer-facing technology sector
	• Enterprise technology sector
	• Intelligence community
	• Privacy and civil liberties community
That's actually... not a bad mix overall, though obviously who is appointed will make a huge difference in terms of whether or not we have a useful commission or one that will declare the impossible (and dangerous) possible. The commission will actually have subpoena authority, which is an interesting choice, and will, of course, hold a bunch of hearings. And it's expected to move pretty quickly:
	• Commissioners must be appointed within 30 days of enactment (except for the ex officio).
	• The Commission shall hold its first meeting within 60 days of enactment.
	• The interim report is due within 6 months of the initial meeting.
	• The final report is due within 12 months of the initial meeting.
	• The Commission terminates within 60 days after the final report.
Meanwhile, given that it's almost certain that the commission will not unanimously agree on anything, the final report needs to only be agreed upon by 11 of the 16 commissioners. And dissents will be published with the report as well. Even getting to 11 may be tricky without some serious compromises. If you assume (which is already unlikely) that the non-law enforcement/intelligence guys would all agree on something, you're still left with the 6 law enforcement and intelligence commissioners. One of them would have to be convinced to go along with the report. I mean, it is possible. Michael Hayden and Michael Chertoff have both been going around saying that strong encryption is good and backdoors are bad. So maybe you get someone like them to be one of the "intelligence community" folks on the commission -- but it's still an uphill battle.


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