In the Summer of 1995, Betty Caballero was beaten by a bounty hunter seeking to arrest Ruth Garcia in the State of Texas. Because of the beating, Betty miscarried her pregnancy the next day. Although she brought suit against the bail company for the violation of her civil rights, the judge found that federal civil rights laws did not apply to the case and exonerated the bond company from any liability for the bounty hunter’s behavior. This case, and many more like it, demonstrate so vividly why Congress must pass the Bounty Hunter Responsibility Act.

In fact, Mr. Chairman, I have a compilation of recent bounty hunter abuses here and ask unanimous consent to insert them into the record. These abuses have occurred in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Mr. Chairman, this is truly a problem national in scope.

Under current law, bounty hunters do not operate under the same standards required of law enforcement officers -- standards which prohibit excessive force and hold abusive individuals liable for their misdeeds. Bounty hunters are free to break into the homes of people thought to be criminals, without any accountability to innocent individuals who may be injured because of wrongful and abusive conduct.

The bipartisan bill before us today holds bounty hunters, and the bail bondsmen who employ them, liable for civil rights violations. The bill also requires bounty hunters and bail bondsmen who travel in interstate commerce to recover a defendant, to report their intentions to local law enforcement authorities and provide whatever information is required under that state’s laws. A number of states have adopted similar notification requirements, and I believe it is appropriate to enforce these at the federal level when interstate travel is involved.

The Bounty Hunter Responsibility Act fulfills an important public safety goal -- namely keeping innocent citizens safe from the abusive actions of rogue bounty hunters. And it does so without creating a new federal bureaucracy or imposing any mandates on the states.

Many professional bounty hunters and bail bondsmen support regulation of their industry in order to drive out rogue actors who undermine the industry's reputation and credibility. Law enforcement agents have also been supportive of the notification requirement, arguing that they want to be aware of bounty hunter activities in their jurisdictions.

As the Chairman knows, a similar bill was introduced in the 105^th Congress and passed out of this subcommittee. After listening carefully to the concerns expressed in the last Congress, I have made some changes to the bill.

First, I have added an exemption to the vicarious liability provision to exempt a surety on a bail bond from liability for the actions of a bounty hunter if the surety has taken all reasonable steps to assure that the bounty hunter is licensed by a state. This protects responsible bail agents and yet encourages the states to take appropriate regulatory steps to license bounty hunters and was added at the request of a bail agent in my state.

Second, I have added a provision to discourage frivolous lawsuits against bail agents. The language provides that in such cases, the individual bringing the frivolous action will bear all of the court associated with the case. This provision discourages and penalizes frivolous lawsuits.

Third and finally, I have added a provision — specifically at the request of the bail industry — asking the Attorney General to design model guidelines for states to use if they choose to regulate bounty hunters within their borders.

With these changes, Mr. Chairman, I am confident that the legislation strikes an appropriate balance between the need to protect innocent parties and the dire need to reign in abusive bounty hunters.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding this hearing today, and for your strong leadership on this issue. I also want to thank our witnesses for appearing here today -- many of whom traveled long distances to tell their story. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman.