June 15, 2000

House Signs on to Digital Signatures
Advisers Give Clinton OK to Launch First Step of Missile Defense
Aloha to Medical Marijuana
National Research Council Faults Quality of EPA Research

House Signs on to Digital Signatures

The House yesterday approved digital signature legislation giving a contract signed online the same legal status as a paper contract signed with a pen, according to The Washington Post. Under the law, consumers and businesses will be able to sign checks, complete loan applications, and contract services all online.

"This is going to take e-commerce to the next level," said Michael Hogan, general counsel for online brokerage DLJ Direct.

The bill passed by a vote of 426 to 4, and key senators have agreed to identical language in a Senate bill. The President has also said he would sign the bill.

In "Encryption Policy for the 21st Century: A Future without Government-Prescribed Key Recovery," Director of Information Studies Solveig Singleton writes that digital signatures will be important to the successful growth of Internet commerce, but warns of government involvement.

"If government action is required either to establish certificate authorities or the validity of digital signatures, government standards for either could foist [encryption] key recovery on an unwilling market," she writes. "Because the private section will and should lead the way in recognizing digital signatures and establishing certificate authorities, however, any attempt to leverage government involvement with certification or authentication into mandatory key recovery will fail."

Advisers Give Clinton OK to Launch First Step of Missile Defense

The News York Times reports today that lawyers for the administration have advised President Clinton that, in their view, he could begin building the first piece of a national missile defense system without violating the 1972 ABM treaty with the Soviet Union.

The interpretation is likely to be rejected by Russia, and the president has not made a decision yet. Observers believe that unilaterally withdrawing from the treaty will undermine relations with Russia, as well as with European allies who view the pact as a foundation of nuclear arms control.

In "National Missile Defense: Examining the Options," Charles V. Peña and Barbara Conry discuss a realistic view of the challenges of deploying missile defense. In "George W. Bush's Vision for Nuclear Security: Vestiges of the Cold War," Director of Defense Policy Studies Ivan Eland explores the presidential candidate's plans for missile defense.

The Cato Institute will host a "Symposium on National Missile Defense" on Tuesday, June 27, 2000 at 8:00 a.m. Senator Jon Kyl (R - AZ), William Schneider of International Planning Services Inc., and others will speak. Find out more information on attending the event or watch it live on the Cato website. ()

Aloha to Medical Marijuana

Hawaii became the first state to legalize medical marijuana through the legislature and not through referendum, according to Reuters. The law will make it legal for seriously ill people to grow, possess and use the drug.

"To have the legislature and governor do this sends a very strong message,'' Chuck Thomas, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project said after the Governor signed the bill passed by the state Senate in April. He said opponents of medical marijuana had long said that voters in the other seven states where medical marijuana laws were passed by referenda were "tricked'' into approving the measures, an argument that could not be made in Hawaii's case.

In "Punishing the Sick," Senior Fellow Doug Bandow points out the contradiction that "morphine is illegal, but is routinely prescribed as a painkiller. Not marijuana, however, which remains illegal under federal law for all uses.

National Research Council Faults Quality of EPA Research

A new report issued by the National Research Council assessing the quality of science conducted at the Environmental Protection Agency recommends that the agency create a new deputy administrator position for science and technology and take several other steps to strengthen its scientific research, according to The Washington Post.

The report said there is a "continuing basis" for concerns about the quality of research behind the agency's regulatory decisions and criticizes the agency's peer-review process, noting that current policy allows the same individual who manages a project to serve as the peer-review leader for that project. Earlier reports from the Council have also been highly critical of the agency's capabilities.

Norine Noonan, EPA's assistant administrator for research and development, said the agency "will carefully explore the feasibility of the report's new recommendations."

Throughout the years, Cato Adjunct Scholar Steven J. Milloy has worked to uncover junk science at the EPA and other agencies. In the book "Science without Sense," Milloy shows how unscientific public health research costs U.S. consumers billions of dollars each year but does nothing to improve the well-being of Americans. In "EPA's Way of Pulling the Pesticide Plug," he writes that "the EPA refuses to use scientific data that would obviate the need for action against [the pesticide] Dursban because the data allegedly are 'unethical.'" In "The EPA's Clean Air-ogance," Steven J. Milloy and Michael Gough, commenting on air standards, show how "a close inspection of the EPA proposal shows that it lacks a sound basis in science."

Sign-up and get the Cato Institute's Daily Dispatch in your email every weekday morning.