House Judiciary, Commerce Panels Form Working Group to Address Encryption

Two House committees formed a joint bipartisan working group to analyze the complex legal and policy issues of encryption and identify potential solutions, the panels' Republican and Democratic leaders said in a news release Monday. The announcement was by House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and ranking member Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich. "Members will work toward finding solutions that allow law enforcement agencies to fulfill their responsibility without harming the competitiveness of the U.S. technology sector or the privacy and security protections that encryption provides for U.S. citizens," they said in a joint statement. Working group members are: Reps. Yvette Clark, D-N.Y., Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. Bipartisan, bicameral legislation was also introduced in late February to create a congressional blue ribbon panel on encryption (see 1602290074).