WASHINGTON-Attorney General Janet Reno said Friday she will postpone seeking Federal Communications Commission intervention in the digital wiretap controversy if the telecom industry can show progress in the coming months toward resolving implementation disputes with the FBI that have continued three-and-a-half years after the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act was implemented.
The telecom industry is expected to report to Reno early this week with a plan of action.
Whether by legislative fiat or by some other means, it appears increasingly likely the Oct. 25 CALEA compliance date will go by the wayside given the uncertain status of a digital wiretap technical standard.
Reno met for an hour-and-a-half Friday morning with wireless and wireline carrier executives and with manufacturing representatives.
The meeting followed Reno’s rocky appearance before Rep. Harold Roger’s (R-Ky.) House appropriations subcommittee a little more than a week ago. Rogers blasted federal law enforcement and the telecom industry for the CALEA impasse and vowed to withhold funding until the deadlock is broken.
One glaring finding that came out of last Friday’s meeting, according to two participants, was that the FBI lacks sufficient information from manufacturers on law enforcement’s wiretap capability requirements.
Manufacturers replied the problem has more to do with FBI demands, which they believe overstep CALEA mandates. The FBI will detail additional personnel to work with manufacturers during the next three months to iron out differences, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association.
“It was a constructive meeting,” said Myron Marlin, a Justice Department spokesman.
Also in attendance were FBI Director Louis Freeh and the heads of the Personal Communications Industry Association, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, TIA and the United States Telephone Association.
“It was clear to all participants that it is not possible to meet current deadlines regarding the implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement,” said the four trade groups in a joint statement. “Likewise,” the associations added, “we agreed that a productive relationship does not accommodate threats of penalties and fines.”
Under CALEA, telecom carriers not in compliance with yet-to-be-defined digital wiretap technical requirements face $10,000 daily fines beginning Oct. 25.
The 1994 digital wiretap law also precludes all personal communications service licensees and cellular carriers that converted to digital technology after Jan. 1, 1995, from being reimbursed for network modifications required by CALEA.
The wireless industry wants those dates pushed back. The FBI is reluctant to let that happen.
Another obstacle for the FBI and industry is CALEA funding. Only $100 million of the $500 million that Congress authorized for digital wiretap implementation for fiscal years 1995 to 1998 has been allocated to date.
Last week, the industry got help from an unlikely source.
Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), a big FBI critic, introduced legislation that would grandfather PCS, digital cellular and other emerging telecom technologies and also would postpone CALEA compliance until Oct. 1, 2000.
“It is disturbing to see the FBI ignoring the clear intent of Congress and trying to force the telecommunications industry to unjustly comply with the original legislation,” said Barr.
Wireless industry leaders lauded the Barr bill.
PCIA President Jay Kitchen said lawmakers now “understand CALEA needs to be fixed.”
Tom Wheeler, president of CTIA, said the bill will “allow law enforcement and the industry to move forward and avoid further delays.”
Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) is expected to drop another CALEA bill before Congress recesses for two weeks in early April.
“We have to have protected intercepts but we also want to protect privacy,” said McCollum at a conference last week.
Ironically, it is Barr who has blocked CALEA funding almost single-handedly in recent years because of fears law enforcement would use the new law to expand constitutionally permissible electronic surveillance. Congress deferred to Barr and eventually passed a CALEA implementation schedule that he crafted.
Now, having dealt with the FBI during the past three-and-a-half years, the wireless industry shares Barr’s concerns.
The FBI, for its part, believes the telecom industry wants to dilute FBI digital wiretap requirements to keep costs down. Doing so, according to the FBI, would undercut a key law enforcement tool.
Despite indications the FBI and industry are ready to cooperate, emotions on both sides still run high.
“We are in an impasse … as to what features are mandated by statute,” said Freeh at a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing last week. “The industry has come in at the 11th hour and said, `Why don’t you just reimburse us for all the systems that are in place by October 1998,’ ” said Freeh. That’s not what the statue calls for, Freeh told lawmakers, and extending the date for compliance reimbursement would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more.
The telecom industry accuses the FBI of running up the bill by asking carriers to revamp entire networks to further CALEA.
RCR Reporter Debra Wayne contributed to this report.
