Today, media outlets reported that the White House would propose legislation that would allow the NSA to obtain individual phone records only with the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This morning, the leadership of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence introduced legislation to end bulk collection but allows the government to continue to seize phone records ... Read more »
Statement of Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. Hearing on: "Section 512 of Title 17" Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Thursday, March 13, 2014 at 9:30 A.M. 2141 Rayburn Building Today’s hearing provides an important opportunity for us to examine online service provider liability, and the effectiveness of section 512 of title 17 of the United States Code. Section 512 c... Read more »
Statement of the Honorable John Conyers, Jr. For the Floor Debate on H.R. 3973, the “Faithful Execution of the Law Act of 2014" Wednesday, March 12, 2014 [I yield such time as I may consume] M. Speaker: As with our consideration of H.R. 4138, the ENFORCE Act, I must note the lack of deliberative process pertaining to the consideration of this bill. Like the ENFORCE Act, the Judiciary Committee fai... Read more »
Statement of the Honorable John Conyers, Jr. In Support of Conyers Amendment to H.R. 4138, the “ENFORCE the Law Act of 2014" My amendment would exclude actions to combat discrimination and protect civil rights enforcement from the scope of the bill. The last thing we should want to do as a Congress is to pass legislation that makes it more difficult to protect our citizen's civil rights, by execut... Read more »
Today, the House of Representatives debated H.R. 4138 the, “Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enforcements of the Law (ENFORCE) Act.” This floor debate comes on the heels of the House Judiciary Committee having held a full committee markup on the legislation and a hearing a week prior entitled, “Enforcing the president’s Constitutional Duty to Faithfully Execute the L... Read more »
Statement of the Honorable John Conyers, Jr. For Floor Debate on H.R. 4138, the “Executive Needs to Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enactments of the Law Act” Wednesday, March 12, 2014 [I yield myself such time as I may consume] M. Speaker, the ENFORCE Act, like so many other bills we have considered this Congress, is truly a solution in search of an imaginary problem. As was made cle... Read more »
Statement of Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. Hearing on: Exploring Alternative Solutions on the Internet Sales Tax Issue Full Committee Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 10:00 A.M. 2141 Rayburn Building Since the Supreme Court’s 1992 Quill decision, Congress has considered various legislative responses. These include the Main Street Fairness Act and the Marketplace Fairness Act, which the Senate overw... Read more »
Today, the Over-Criminalization Task Force, a bipartisan working group convened by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to consider reforms to the criminal justice system, held a hearing entitled “Criminal Code Reform.” After delivering his opening remarks, Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued the following statement: "Over the past several decades, the number of federal crimes has grow... Read more »
Today, President Obama announced a new initiative called “My Brother’s Keeper” to address poverty, violence and incarceration rates among young men of color. Specifically, the Obama Administration will create a new presidential task force, the “My Brother’s Keeper Task Force,” that will assess which federal policies are aiding young men of color and which are failing them. Additionally, leading fo... Read more »
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives considered and passed H.R. 2804, the “All Economic Regulations are Transparent (ALERT) Act of 2014.” Following passage of the legislation, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued the following statement: “I am increasingly disheartened as my Republican colleagues brought yet another ideologically driven, anti-regul... Read more »
