114th Congress

Chairman Goodlatte: H.R. 4023, the “Clean Up the Code Act of 2015,” introduced by Congressman Steve Chabot of Ohio, strikes several sections of the U.S.

Chairman Goodlatte: H.R.

Chairman Goodlatte: The Office of the Law Revision Counsel has an ongoing responsibility under section 285b of title 2 of the United States Code to maintain the United States Code and assist the House Judiciary Committee in the revision and codification of Federal statutes. In order to maintain and improve the United States Code, the Office of the Law Revision Counsel must occasionally undertake editorial reclassification projects to reorganize areas of law that have outgrown their original boundaries, or to eliminate organizational units that are no longer efficient.

Chairman Goodlatte: H.R.

Chairman Goodlatte: The legislation the Committee will consider today is the culmination of three years of work on over-criminalization and criminal justice reform. In the 113th Congress, I along with Ranking Member Conyers, established an Over-Criminalization Task Force, which held nine hearings on a variety of topics including over-criminalization, over federalization, sentencing reform, prison reform, and regulatory crime. Building upon the work of the Task Force, the Ranking Member and I launched a Criminal Justice Reform Initiative in June of this year.

Washington, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee today approved four bills to rein in the explosion of federal criminal law, commonly referred to as over-criminalization. First, the Committee approved the Criminal Code Improvement Act of 2015 (H.R. 4002) by voice vote, authored by Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). This legislation creates a default mens rea standard that applies when federal law does not provide a state of mind requirement.

Washington, D.C. – As part of the House Judiciary Committee’s criminal justice reform initiative, members of the House Judiciary Committee unveiled four bills to rein in the explosion of federal criminal law, commonly referred to as over-criminalization. These bills, along with the Sentencing Reform Act (H.R.