{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://delbene.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/encryption-working-group-releases-year-end-report", "Encryption Working Group Releases Year-End Report", "2016-12-20", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "WA", "Suzan DelBene", "D000617", "delbene.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013Members of the bipartisan encryption working group \u2013\u00a0established\u00a0in March 2016 by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) \u2013 today released a year-end report laying out key observations and next steps.\nFor nearly a year, the Encryption Working Group has held numerous meetings with a variety of federal, state, and local government entities, former government officials, private industry and trade associations, civil society organizations, consultants and legal experts, academia, and cryptographers. These meetings have produced critical information, culminating in a year-end report that lays out four key observations and identifies several areas for future discussion next Congress.\nThe report concludes:\n\u201cEncryption is inexorably tied to our national interests. It is a safeguard for our personal secrets and economic prosperity. It helps to prevent crime and protect national security. The widespread use of encryption technologies also complicates the missions of the law enforcement and intelligence communities. As described in this report, those complications cannot be ignored. This is the reality of modern society. We must strive to find common ground in our collective responsibility: to prevent crime, protect national security, and provide the best possible conditions for peace and prosperity.\n\u201cThat is why this can no longer be an isolated or binary debate. There is no \u2018us versus them,\u2019 or \u2018pro-encryption versus law enforcement.\u2019 This conversation implicates everyone and everything that depends on connected technologies\u2014including our law enforcement and intelligence communities. This is a complex challenge that will take time, patience, and cooperation to resolve.\u00a0 The potential consequences of inaction\u2014or overreaction\u2014are too important to allow historical or ideological perspectives to stand in the way of progress.\u201d\nBelow are key observations of the report.\n Any measure that weakens encryption works against the national interest.\n\tEncryption technology is a global technology that is widely and increasingly available around the world.\n\tThe variety of stakeholders, technologies, and other factors create different and divergent challenges with respect to encryption and the \u201cgoing dark\u201d phenomenon, and therefore there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the encryption challenge.\n\tCongress should foster cooperation between the law enforcement community and technology companies.\n Based on these observations, the report has identified several areas for future discussion by the committees next Congress, such as exploring opportunities to help law enforcement agencies navigate the process of accessing information from private companies; examining options to improve law enforcement\u2019s ability to leverage metadata; reviewing the circumstances, resources and legal framework necessary to help law enforcement agencies exploit existing flaws in digital products; considering the implications of alternative legal strategies such as compelling individual consumers to decrypt their devices, and the role of encryption in fostering greater data security and privacy.\nThe full report can be viewed here.\nThe members of the working group issuing the report are House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), and Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Bill Johnson (R-OH), and Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY).\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://delbene.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/encryption-working-group-releases-year-end-report"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5519349835813046, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}