Press Releases
Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today issued the following statement regarding the President’s bipartisan health care summit:
Ranking Member Smith: “Inviting Republicans to the table to discuss health care reform is a good first step. But if the President is serious about bipartisan reform, he must include real tort reforms that produce savings for the American people.
Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued the following statement in response to the thwarted terror plot in Texas. Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, a 20-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia in the U.S. on a student visa, is charged with the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and is alleged to have listed the home of former President George W. Bush as a possible target.
Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today criticized the Administration’s decision not to defend a federal marriage law enacted by Congress in 1996. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) affirms the definition of marriage as the union between one man and one woman. It was passed with bipartisan support in Congress and signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton.
Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today introduced a bill to bar Guantanamo Bay detainees from entry into the U.S. The Keep Terrorists at Bay Act of 2010 (H.R. 4648) closes the legal means by which the Administration can bring terrorists into the U.S.
Washington, D.C. - The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report finding the U.S.-Mexico border is vulnerable to cross-border illegal activity. Of the nearly 2,000 miles separating the U.S.
[Statement on the House Floor]
Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today urged the House to pass a 90-day extension of expiring national security provisions. Below is Chairman Smith’s statement from the House floor.
Chairman Smith: The Senate amendment to H.R. 514 extends the three expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act for only 90 days. I am disappointed that the Senate refused to agree to the 10 month extension approved by the House earlier this week.
Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued the following statement regarding the proposed New York Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse merger.
House Extends PATRIOT Provisions
Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today called on the Senate to take up the House’s extension of the PATRIOT Act to prevent national security provisions from expiring at the end of February. The bill passed by a vote of 275-144.
Statement on the House Floor
Chairman Smith: Since its enactment in 2001, the PATRIOT Act has been the object of so many false allegations and exaggerations that the myths have overshadowed the truth. It is time to dispel the myths once and for all.
Let’s begin with the myth that national security officials do not need these provisions to protect us from terrorist attacks. This is demonstrably untrue.
Washington, D.C.-House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.) today praised the President’s decision to establish two new advisory committees tasked with increasing protections for intellectual property. The Committees, authorized in an Executive Order signed today by President Obama, are led by the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), a position created by Smith and Conyers’ 2007 PRO-IP Act.