Press Releases
June 30, 2016
Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 1:00 p.m., the Task Force on Executive Overreach will hold a hearing titled, “The Federal Government on Autopilot: Mandatory Spending and the Entitlement Crisis.”
Since the 1930s, the federal government has grown exponentially through the creation of entitlement programs to deliver retirement and health benefits to the American people, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, unemployment insurance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, disability insurance, and others.
June 27, 2016
Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today pressed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson for answers about why federal immigration authorities released an illegally present alien and took no steps to remove him, consequently allowing him to remain unlawfully and later murder five people.
On June 13, 2016, Johnny Josue Sanchez, an alien from Honduras illegally present in the United States, allegedly murdered five people in Los Angeles by intentionally setting fire to the building in which they were sleeping. According to media reports, Sanchez was apprehended b
June 27, 2016
Washington, D.C.— House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) released a statement following the Supreme Court’s 5-3 decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt:
Chairman Goodlatte: “Every human life is sacred and precious, and should be protected from the horrors of abortion.
June 27, 2016
Washington, D.C. – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today raised concerns about Obama Administration efforts to relinquish stewardship of key internet functions in light of unanswered legal, constitutional and human rights questions. Other concerns include whether such a transition would jeopardize free expression on the Internet or weaken certain intellectual property protections.
In a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the chairmen caution that the transition may violate the Constitution if it transfers government property to a private entity without cong
June 24, 2016
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Mimi Walters (CA-45) recently introduced the Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act of 2016, H.R. 5578, along with Representative Zoe Lofgren (CA-19) and 20 original cosponsors.
June 23, 2016
Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) issued the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of United States v. Texas:
“Today’s Supreme Court decision effectively ends President Obama’s unilateral rewrite of our nation’s immigration laws for the remainder of the Obama Administration. This is a win for the American people, the Constitution, and the rule of law. Today’s decision also underscores the importance of who will replace Justice Scalia at the Supreme Court.
June 22, 2016
Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today provided an update on the progress made by the bipartisan encryption working group:
“We continue to meet with a variety of federal, state and local government entities, former government officials, private industry and trade associations, civil society organizations, consultants and legal experts, academia, and cryptographers.
June 22, 2016
Chairman Goodlatte: It’s clear that our founders believed that the free expression of ideas was integral to the wellbeing of our nation. John Adams, in his writing on the importance of the press for example, states:
"Care has been taken that the art of printing should be encouraged, and that it should be easy and cheap and safe for any person to communicate his thoughts to the public. And you, Messieurs [Mr.] printers, whatever the tyrants of the earth may say of your paper, have done important service to your country by your readiness and freedom in publishing the speculations of the curious.
June 22, 2016
Chairman Goodlatte: The Constitution sets forth a system of checks and balances which grants each branch of government tools to ensure that no one branch of government attains too much power. The legislative branch’s tools include the power to write the laws, the power of the purse, the impeachment power, and the power to censure, among others. These tools empower Congress to exert oversight over the executive and judicial branches, including rooting out corruption, fraud and abuse by government officials and taking further disciplinary action on behalf of the American people when warranted.
The duty to serve as a check on the other branches, including against corruption and a
June 21, 2016
Washington, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee has learned that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) significantly underreported the criminal convictions of aliens who the agency released in Fiscal Year 2014.