News

Washington, D.C.— House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law Subcommittee Chairman Tom Marino (R-Pa.), and Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman, and sponsor of the bill Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) praised the House Judiciary Committee’s passage of the Midnight Rules Relief Act (H.R.

Washington, D.C.— House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law Subcommittee Chairman Tom Marino (R-Pa.), and Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman, and sponsor of the bill Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) praised the House Judiciary Committee’s passage of the Midnight Rules Relief Act (H.R.

Chairman Goodlatte: “Midnight regulation” is one of the most vexing problems in Washington’s overreaching regulatory system.  Administration after administration, there is a spike in rulemaking activity during the last year of a president’s term—particularly between Election Day and Inauguration Day. These successive waves of midnight regulation present deeply troubling issues. First and foremost, because outgoing administrations are no longer accountable to the voters, they are much more prone to issue midnight regulations that fly in the face of the electoral mandate the voters just gave the new, incoming administration. Our colleague Rep.

Chairman Goodlatte: “Midnight regulation” is one of the most vexing problems in Washington’s overreaching regulatory system.  Administration after administration, there is a spike in rulemaking activity during the last year of a president’s term—particularly between Election Day and Inauguration Day. These successive waves of midnight regulation present deeply troubling issues. First and foremost, because outgoing administrations are no longer accountable to the voters, they are much more prone to issue midnight regulations that fly in the face of the electoral mandate the voters just gave the new, incoming administration. Our colleague Rep.

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) issued the following statement after meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry and learning that the Obama Administration plans to set the refugee ceiling for Fiscal Year 2017 at 110,000 and bring in more Syrian refugees this coming year: “Every year it becomes increasingly clear that our nation’s refugee resettlement program is in need of reform. For generations, the United States has been a safe haven for people fleeing persecution. We must remain compassionate toward refugees but we also need to make sure that we use commonsense.

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) issued the following statement after meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry and learning that the Obama Administration plans to set the refugee ceiling for Fiscal Year 2017 at 110,000 and bring in more Syrian refugees this coming year: “Every year it becomes increasingly clear that our nation’s refugee resettlement program is in need of reform. For generations, the United States has been a safe haven for people fleeing persecution. We must remain compassionate toward refugees but we also need to make sure that we use commonsense.

As part of the Administration’s unprecedented clemency initiative, serious violent felons are being releasedWashington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today called on President Obama to cease commuting the sentences of serious violent felons and other drug traffickers who pose a threat to America’s public safety. Although the President has the constitutional authority to issue pardons and commutations, President Obama has initiated an unprecedented clemency program for federal drug offenders and has granted more commutations than the previous 10 presidents combined.

Chairman Goodlatte: When we look at the array of agencies and departments within the federal government, only a certain number carry out a mission that is explicitly called for in the Constitution. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), at the Department of Commerce, is one such agency. As the PTO carries out its Constitutional mission, we need to conduct appropriate oversight to ensure that our IP laws are being implemented fairly and in line with Congressional intent. Over the past several years the PTO has been tasked with implementing the America Invents Act (AIA), which was signed into law nearly five years ago on September 16, 2011.