"Every day that the House fails to act on this critical legislation is another day that U.S. software companies are losing market share to foreign companies," Smith said. "The House leadership's inaction on this legislation is a major threat to our economy, our competitiveness, and our national security."

In the letter sent yesterday, Smith and forty-two colleagues urged Gingrich to schedule action on H.R. 695, the Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act, which cleared five House committees as of last September.

H.R. 695, which has 250 bipartisan cosponsors, would relax export controls on encryption technology so that U.S. software firms are competitive with foreign firms.

Under current law, the United States allows only forty-bit encryption codes to be exported, although most software companies produce and sell encryption codes of up to 128 bits within the United States. While forty-bit encryption technology is recognized as elementary, 128-bit encryption codes are virtually unbreakable.

"Since companies naturally want to purchase secure software, the demand for forty-bit encryption is quickly disappearing since higher level encryption technology is available," Smith explained. "As a result, U.S. encryption programs are being shut out of the international market because of U.S. government restrictions."