THE WHITE HOUSE
  
                    Office of the Press Secretary
  
  _______________________________________________________________
  
  For Immediate Release                         November 15, 1996
  
  
  
                        TEXT OF A LETTER FROM
                   THE PRESIDENT TO THE SPEAKER OF
                   THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND
                     THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
  
  
                          November 15, 1996
  
  
  
  Dear Mr. Speaker:     (Dear Mr. President:)
  
  In order to take additional steps with respect to the 
  national emergency described and declared in Executive 
  Order 12924 of August 19, 1994, and continued on August 15, 
  1995, and August 14, 1996, necessitated by the expiration of 
  the Export Administration Act (EAA) on August 20, 1994, I hereby 
  report to the Congress that pursuant to section 204(b) of the 
  International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. 1703(b) 
  (the "Act"), I have today exercised the authority granted by the 
  Act to issue an Executive order (a copy of which is attached) to 
  revise the provisions that apply to the administration of the 
  export control system maintained by Department of Commerce in 
  the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR Part 730 et seq.
  
  The new Executive order relates to my decision to transfer 
  certain encryption products from the United States Munitions 
  List administered by the Department of State to the Commerce 
  Control List administered by the Department of Commerce.  
  When I made that decision I also decided to amend Executive 
  Order 12981 of December 5, 1995, which sets forth procedures 
  for the interagency review and disposition of dual-use export 
  license applications, to include the Department of Justice 
  among the agencies that have the opportunity to review such 
  applications with respect to encryption products transferred 
  to Department of Commerce control.
  
  Also, in issuing the new order, I provided for appropriate 
  controls on the export and foreign dissemination of encryption 
  products transferred to the Department of Commerce.  Among 
  other provisions, I determined that the export of encryption 
  products transferred to Department of Commerce control could 
  harm national security and foreign policy interests of the 
  United States even where comparable products are or appear to 
  be available from foreign sources.  Accordingly, the new order 
  makes clear that any EAA provision dealing with issuance of 
  licenses or removal of controls based on foreign availability 
  considerations shall not apply with respect to export controls 
  on such encryption products.  Notwithstanding this, the 
  Secretary of Commerce retains the discretion to consider the 
  foreign availability of comparable encryption products in any 
  particular case.
  
       	    	      	   	Sincerely,
  
  
       	    	      	   	WILLIAM J. CLINTON