Before that, they first had to deliberately ignore that that the government already "looked into" trying to require key escrow. At least that time they had an actual proposal (Skipjack/Clipper Chip) instead of dissembling about "golden keys".
A lot of people in government have been acting as if the this is a new argument, when the backlash already happened. The idea that someone needed to "look into" this to find out if there would be a backlash only makes sense if they were somehow ignorant of the 90s crypto wars.
Before that, they first had to deliberately ignore that that the government already "looked into" trying to require key escrow. At least that time they had an actual proposal (Skipjack/Clipper Chip) instead of dissembling about "golden keys".
A lot of people in government have been acting as if the this is a new argument, when the backlash already happened. The idea that someone needed to "look into" this to find out if there would be a backlash only makes sense if they were somehow ignorant of the 90s crypto wars.