Conyers & Goodlatte Announce Next Locations on Copyright Review Listening Tour House Judiciary Committee to Make Two Stops in California

U.S. House Judiciary Copyright Tour Dates

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.) today announced that the House Judiciary Committee will continue the Committee’s listening tour as part of the comprehensive copyright review.  The House Judiciary Committee will travel to Silicon Valley on November 9^th and Los Angeles on November 10^th.  These discussions are expected to include a wide range of creators, innovators, technology professionals, and users of copyrighted works.  The Committee held a roundtable discussion as part of the copyright review listening tour in Nashville, Tennessee on September 22^nd.   

Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers issued the following statement on the next stops of the copyright review listening tour.

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“Two years ago, the House Judiciary Committee launched a comprehensive review of our nation’s copyright laws, which have not been updated since 1976.  As technology continues to rapidly advance, we have a responsibility to ensure that our laws are keeping pace with these developments. 

“The Committee is traveling to locations across America to hear directly from creators and innovators about the challenges they face in their creative fields and what changes are needed to ensure U.S. copyright law reflects the digital age in which we live.  We look forward to continuing the productive dialog that we had in Nashville, the first stop of the Committee’s listening tour.”

Background: Chairman Goodlatte first announced the Judiciary Committee’s intention to undertake a comprehensive review of U.S. copyright law on April 24, 2013, in a speech before the World Intellectual Property Day celebration at the Library of Congress.  As part of the copyright review, the House Judiciary Committee has held 20 hearings which included testimony from 100 witnesses.  In July, Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers invited all prior witnesses of the Committee’s copyright review hearings and other interested stakeholders to meet with Committee staff and provide additional input on copyright policy issues.  To date nearly 50 meetings have been scheduled and those meetings, which are ongoing, will take several more weeks. In addition, Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers announced that the House Judiciary Committee would conduct a listening tour as part of the copyright review.  More information on the House Judiciary Committee’s comprehensive copyright review can be found here.  

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Dems catch GOP off guard with Planned Parenthood vote

Dems catch GOP off guard with Planned Parenthood vote

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee temporarily overpowered their GOP colleagues to block testimony from an anti-Planned Parenthood witness during a hearing Thursday.

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), protested a graphic video about abortion procedures that was shown to the committee by Dr. Anthony Levatino, who has performed abortions.

“This witness has played a tape that he has now admitted under oath was not prepared in connection with Planned Parenthood at all and I ask that it be stricken from the record of this hearing,” he said, sparring with Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who controlled the hearing at the time.

The video, which was about five minutes long, included a recording of a graphic phone conversation between a clinician and a young woman who sought an abortion at 27 weeks of pregnancy. The clinician said the abortion, at that term in pregnancy, would cost about $8,000 and increase by $1,000 each week.

But when questioned, Levatino acknowledged that the clinic in question was not Planned Parenthood.

In a rare move, Cicilline called a vote to strike the video from the hearing’s record. And with more Democrats in the hearing room than Republicans at the time, it passed.

Nine Democrats voted to strike the video from the record, compared to seven Republicans who voted against it.

Their victory, however, was short-lived. About five minutes later, several of the committee’s Republican members, including Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), returned to the hearing and called another vote.

The testimony was put back into the record.

“It was just a little bit of parliamentary maneuvering by Democrats there,” a Republican committee aide said.

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Statement of the Honorable John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member Full Committee Hearing on “Planned Parenthood Exposed"

 " Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider”

§  “In the weeks or months prior to their public release, Mr. Franks and others in the Majority—including, we have learned, his subcommittee staff—received and previewed these surreptitiously recorded videos.

§  “On July 15, 2015, the first video was released to the public.  Others were posted online over the August break.

§  “Three different House committees then launched simultaneous congressional investigations.

§  “On September 9, this Committee held its first hearing on the topic—at which the Majority’s witnesses refused to discuss the videos at the heart of the matter. 

§  “There have since been two other hearings on this topic, making this hearing the fourth in the House in less than a month.

§  “And, finally, the Majority has announced that it will create a new, taxpayer-funded select committee to extend this so-called ‘investigation’ indefinitely.

“As I reflect on these events, I think we are able to draw a few conclusions.

“First, there is no evidence in the record whatsoever of illegal activity at Planned Parenthood. 

“On behalf of its 59 affiliates, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has provided this committee with hundreds of pages of documents.  The organization is cooperating fully with all three investigations in the House. 

“The documents we have reviewed so far allow us to go point-by-point to correct the false impressions created by the highly edited, highly misleading videos that nominally inspired these investigations. 

“Chairman Chaffetz, who sits on this Committee and is running his own investigation into these matters in the Oversight Committee next door, has agreed with this conclusion.

“Last week, Wolf Blitzer asked the gentleman from Utah: ‘Is there any evidence . . . that Planned Parenthood has broken any law?’  Mr. Chaffetz answered with the truth: ‘No, I’m not suggesting that they broke the law.’

“Second, I am led to conclude that this hearing—much like the Majority’s broader attack on Planned Parenthood—is largely political theater, designed to rally the conservative base and roll back the constitutional right to choose wherever possible. 

“In practice, these investigations have had little to do with the videos—which the Majority went to great lengths not to discuss at our last hearing.  They have everything to do with appeasing the most extreme elements of the Republican Party during an intraparty leadership crisis and a fractious presidential primary.

“We may have a legitimate difference of opinion on Roe v. Wade, but it remains the law of the land—and the Majority’s attempt to re-litigate a forty-year-old decision places thousands of lives at risk.

“Many women enter the health care system through a family-planning provider.  In fact, 6 in 10 women who receive services at a publicly funded family-planning center consider it their primary source of medical care.

“Planned Parenthood alone serves 2.7 million Americans every year.  Abortion procedures make up an incredibly small amount of the services it provides—only 3 percent. 

“For example, in 2013, Planned Parenthood provided 900,000 cancer screenings to women across the country.  88,000 of those tests detected cancer early or identified abnormalities that might signal a greater risk of cancer.  In short, in this way and so many others, Planned Parenthood saves lives. 

“The attempt to defund Planned Parenthood places each of those lives at risk.  We should be grateful that the effort has been almost entirely unsuccessful, at least at the federal level.

“Finally, it is important to observe all of the good work this Committee might be doing instead of meeting for the second time on this subject in thirty days.

“As we head into our second election season since Shelby County v. Holder, this Committee has done very little to restore the enforcement mechanisms of the Voting Rights Act. 

“We have done nothing to advance comprehensive immigration reform, even though the proposal remains overwhelmingly popular and would easily pass the House. 

“11 million men and women are waiting to come out of the shadows and contribute to our economy and communities.  At this pace, I fear they will wait much longer.

“Although the scourge of gun violence has touched every one of our districts—including yours, Mr. Chairman—we have all but ignored calls to strengthen background checks and close the gun show loophole.  All of these solutions would save lives; and all of them are consistent with our constitutional rights.

“The list of missed opportunities is long, Mr. Chairman, and our time is short.  We should not spend one more minute—or one more taxpayer dollar—vilifying Planned Parenthood without a speck of evidence to back these claims. 

“This Committee simply has too much important work to do.  I urge my colleagues to put this moment of political theater behind us.  We can do better. I thank the Chairman, and yield the balance of my time.”

# # #

Click HERE to read the testimony of Democratic witness, Caroline Fredrickson, President, American Constitution Society for Law and Poverty.

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House Judiciary Committee Unveils Bipartisan Sentencing Reform Legislation

 

This legislation is the first of many bills to be introduced that improve the criminal justice system

Washington, D.C.  – As part of the House Judiciary Committee’s criminal justice reform initiative, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.), Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Congressman Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Congressman Mike Bishop (R-Mich.), and Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-Calif.) today unveiled bipartisan legislation to reform federal sentencing.

The Sentencing Reform Act of 2015 reduces certain mandatory minimums for drug offenses, reduces the three-strike mandatory life sentence to 25 years, broadens the existing safety valve for low-level drug offenders, and provides judges with greater discretion in determining appropriate sentences while ensuring that serious violent felons do not get out early.  The bill also contains sentencing enhancements for Fentanyl trafficking, a highly addictive and deadly drug that is becoming a growing epidemic in the United States.  

The Sentencing Reform Act of 2015 is the first bill that is a result of the House Judiciary Committee’s criminal justice reform initiative.  The Committee continues to work on additional bills that address other aspects of our criminal justice system, including over-criminalization, prison and reentry reform – including youth and juvenile justice issues – improved criminal procedures and policing strategies, and civil asset forfeiture reform.  The Committee will roll out more bills addressing these topics over the coming weeks.

Below are statements from the authors of this bipartisan legislation.

Chairman Goodlatte: “The House Judiciary Committee has been hard at work on a number of bills to improve our nation’s criminal justice system and I am pleased that we have reached a bipartisan solution to reform federal sentencing requirements. The Sentencing Reform Act makes commonsense changes to the front-end of the criminal justice system to ensure our federal laws effectively and appropriately punish wrongdoers, work as efficiently and fairly as possible, and do not waste taxpayer dollars. It also ensures that serious violent criminals serve the full time for their crimes in prison. The House Judiciary Committee plans to move this legislation soon and will roll out additional criminal justice reform bills over the coming weeks.”

Ranking Member Conyers: “Sentencing reform is a critical issue impacting the lives of thousands of our citizens, and its urgency requires bipartisan cooperation.  That is why I am pleased to join Chairman Goodlatte, my colleague Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee and others in introducing a bill that will provide significant reforms, allowing many offenders expanded opportunities under safety valves to be sentenced below mandatory minimums, providing retroactivity for the decreased crack cocaine penalties under the Fair Sentencing Act, and reducing the mandatory minimum sentences for many recidivist provisions in the federal code.

“The Sentencing Reform Act represents meaningful improvements that will make a real difference in the lives of many people as well as their families and communities.  The bill is substantially similar to the sentencing provisions included in the recently-introduced Senate bill, which is the product of similar bipartisan efforts by Senators Chuck Grassley, Patrick Leahy, Dick Durbin, Cory Booker, Mike Lee and others.  I am confident that we can all work together to move legislation through Congress and get it to the President’s desk for signature.”

Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Jackson Lee: “The injustices of our criminal justice system are very well known and the solutions are rather common sense and straight forward. This bill lowers many mandatory minimum recidivist penalties, expands the existing safety valve and adds a second safety valve to provide greater relief to the individuals most deserving. In doing this, we recognize that locking people up for decades and decades does not work.

“This bill also applies the Fair Sentencing Act retroactively and, in doing so, makes very clear that those who only received a partial benefit under the Sentencing Guidelines can now come back to get the full benefit. On its own, this reform will help over 6,000 inmates - about 85% are African American - and brings us one step closer to rectifying this fundamental injustice. Importantly, this legislation does not contain new mandatory minimums as that would be the antithesis of reform.

“Finally, with this bill, we clearly state that we must work together, all sides, in order to get something to the President. By working with Chairman Goodlatte, Mr. Conyers and I feel that we are putting forth an effort that has the best possible chance of getting the President’s signature and providing long overdue and much needed relief.

“I look forward to continuing this collaboration as we move this and other bipartisan legislation, including my youth incarceration reform bills, towards enactment into law."

Congressman Labrador: “I continue to be encouraged by the momentum building for criminal justice reform, particularly on sentencing.  I have long advocated for reducing sentences and expanding on previous measures such as the Fair Sentencing Act. 

“This bipartisan compromise will improve our justice system by providing tough punishment for the most serious offenders, while reducing sentences for those worthy of a second chance. This bill promises a more just society and I am proud to join the effort.”

Congressman Bishop: “As a former prosecutor and a member of this committee, one of my first actions in Congress was to meet with members of the criminal justice community to learn about issues impacting Michigan’s Eighth District. I’m proud to be a co-sponsor of this fiscally and socially responsible legislation that not only protects our communities from violent criminal offenders, but also provides flexible sentencing for those who deserve it. I am also optimistic about the reforms made to address America’s growing heroin epidemic, which is destroying families and young lives across this nation.”

Congresswoman Chu: “I am honored to be part of this historic bipartisan effort to restore fairness to our criminal justice system and give entire communities relief. The United States has 5% of the world population, but 25% of its prisoners. This is particularly disconcerting when you learn that a majority of federal inmates are non-violent drug offenders. I know from my time as a drug counselor that many of these individuals are better off with rehabilitation, not longer prison sentences under the mandatory minimums we currently have. This bill attempts to fix this by cutting back mandatory minimums so they apply more fairly and ensuring offenders with minor criminal histories or who were minor actors aren’t disproportionately sentenced for their crimes. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House Judiciary Committee on this historic bill, and look forward to seeing it become a new model for America.”

Other Judiciary Committee cosponsors of the Sentencing Reform Act include Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla), Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Calif.), Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Rep. Dave Trott (R-Mich.), and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.).

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House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers’ Remarks at Press Conference Announcing the Sentencing Reform Act of 2015

Washington, D.C.  – As part of the House Judiciary Committee’s criminal justice reform initiative, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.), Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Congressman Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), Congressman Mike Bishop (R-Mich.), and Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-Calif.) today announced bipartisan legislation to reform federal sentencing guidelines. The bill will be formally introduced later today.

 

Below Ranking Member Conyers’ remarks as prepared for delivery:

“Sentencing reform is a critical issue impacting the lives of thousands of our citizens, and its urgency requires bipartisan cooperation. 

“That is why I am pleased to join Chairman Goodlatte, my colleague Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee and others in introducing a bill that will provide significant reforms that will allow many offenders expanded opportunities under safety valves to be sentenced below mandatory minimums, providing retroactivity for the decreased crack cocaine penalties under the Fair Sentencing Act, and reducing the mandatory minimum sentences for many recidivist provisions in the federal code.

“The bill is substantially similar to the sentencing provisions included in the recently-introduced Senate bill, which is the product of similar bipartisan efforts by Senators Chuck Grassley, Patrick Leahy, Dick Durbin, Cory Booker, Mike Lee and others. 

“Specifically,

·         “It reduces mandatory minimum sentences for prior drug felons, including reducing the three-strikes drug penalty from life imprisonment to 25 years and reducing the 20-year mandatory minimum to 15 years.

·         “It broadens the existing safety valve to allow more offenders to be sentenced below the mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years for certain drug offenses. 

·         “It creates an additional safety valve to allow relief for some offenders who would otherwise be subject to the 10-year mandatory minimum for certain drug offenses.

·         “It reforms the way prior firearms offenses are considered with respect to application of the mandatory minimum sentence for repeat firearm offenders. 

·         “It retroactively applies the reduced mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine under the Fair Sentencing Act.

“I have been working on the issue of sentencing reform for many years.  After the tragedies in Ferguson, Baltimore and around the country, the issue of criminal justice reform took on renewed urgency.

“Our legislation represents meaningful reform that will make a real difference in the lives of many, many people as well as their families and communities.

“I think we can all agree that the bill is not perfect – it does not include every provision that either I or Chairman Goodlatte or any of us wanted, but it is a good faith compromise.

“And we are not done.  This is merely the first installment of a series of criminal justice reform bills we are working on with Chairman Goodlatte. 

“These include initiatives to address police misconduct, prison reform, reentry, youth and juvenile justice, over-criminalization, and civil asset forfeiture. 

“I want to thank Chairman Goodlatte for his leadership on these issues, as well as Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. Chu, Mr. Labrador and Mr. Bishop.  I also want to thank my colleagues, Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner and Bobby Scott, for all of the work they have done over the years in pursuing criminal justice reforms, including their work on the Committee’s Over-Criminalization Task force last Congress. 

“I am confident that we can all work together to move legislation through Congress and get it to the President’s desk for signature.”

Sentencing Reform Act Section-By-Section 10.8.15

Key Provisions of the Sentencing Reform Act of 2015 10.8.15

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Goodlatte & Conyers to Unveil Criminal Justice Reform Legislation This Week; Press Conference October 8, 2015

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Criminal Justice Reform

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.) issued the following joint statement on the House Judiciary Committee’s bipartisan criminal justice reform initiative and announced a press conference for October 8, 2015.

“For the past several months, the House Judiciary Committee has been working on a bipartisan basis on several bills to ensure our federal criminal laws and regulations appropriately punish wrongdoers, are effectively and appropriately enforced, operate with fairness and compassion, protect individual freedom, safeguard civil liberties, work as efficiently as possible, do not impede state efforts, and do not waste taxpayer dollars.

“As a result of this work, we are pleased to announce that we, along with Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee and a bipartisan group of leaders on this issue, will introduce companion legislation to the sentencing reform portion of the Senate bill unveiled last week by Senators Grassley, Durbin, Cornyn, Leahy, and others.

“We are also continuing our work on additional bills that address other aspects of our criminal justice system, including over-criminalization, prison and reentry reform, including youth and juvenile justice issues, improved criminal procedures and policing strategies, and civil asset forfeiture reform and we expect to roll out more bills addressing these topics over the coming weeks.”

Press Conference Details: On Thursday, October 8 at 9:15 a.m., Chairman Goodlatte, Ranking Member Conyers, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and other Committee members will hold a press conference to unveil bipartisan sentencing reform legislation.  It will be held in HVC Studio A (HVC 114). Members of the media planning to cover should RSVP to Jessica Collins at jessica.collins@mail.house.gov.

Additional Background: In June 2015, building upon the work of the Committee’s Over-Criminalization Task Force, Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers announced a criminal justice legislative reform initiative to address problems within our nation's criminal justice system.  The House Judiciary Committee then held a criminal justice reform listening session and heard from over a dozen Members of Congress on this issue.  More information on the House Judiciary Committee’s work on criminal justice reform can be found here.

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CONYERS: CHAFFETZ CONFIRMS PLANNED PARENTHOOD DID NOT BREAK ANY LAWS

Washington, D.C. – Last night, during an appearance on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, admitted that he has not identified any evidence that Planned Parenthood has violated any laws:

Blitzer:      “Is there any evidence in your opinion that Planned Parenthood has broken any law?”

Chaffetz:   “No, I’m not suggesting that they broke the law.” 

Despite this stunning admission, the House Judiciary Committee has announced its intent to hold its second hearing in thirty days to examine the medical services provided by Planned Parenthood and its affiliates.

Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr., released the following statement in response:

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“I am somewhat relieved that Mr. Chaffetz has admitted what Democrats have been arguing all along: there is no legal basis whatsoever for the allegations against Planned Parenthood.  Ultimately, these ideologically-charged attacks are part of a broader campaign to change existing laws that protect a woman’s right to access safe and affordable healthcare. 

“Now that we agree these hearings have been pure political theater, perhaps we can move on to the important work facing this Congress—finding a long-term solution for funding the government, enacting comprehensive immigration reform, tackling the scourge of gun violence, and restoring the Voting Rights Act.”

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