Alan Grayson: “This is an amendment that is substantially similar to an amendment that passed by unanimous voice vote among Democrats…”

“This is an amendment that is substantially similar to an amendment that passed by unanimous voice vote among Democrats and Republicans on the House Science and Technology Committee a couple of weeks ago. My amendment, the Grayson-Holt-Lofgren amendment, seeks to address a serious problem. Recently, it was revealed that the National Security Agency has been recklessly subverting American cryptographic standards--and deliberately so. Cryptographic standards for the national security community and the commercial software industry are developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST. That is an agency within the House Science and Technology jurisdiction. These standards are intended to protect Americans from foreign intelligence agencies, from cyber criminals, from industrial espionage, and from privacy violations by those who wish us harm. They are embedded in software products which are used and sold widely--in fact, almost universally in this country and elsewhere. Unfortunately, recent media reports indicate that the National Security Agency successfully and deliberately weakened encryption standards promulgated by NIST to further NSA surveillance goals at the cost of the privacy of ordinary U.S. citizens--in fact, universally throughout the United States. This is extremely dangerous. It leaves users of these standards vulnerable to anybody who is familiar with these weaknesses.…”