Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) introduced the “Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2012,” which would level the playing field between health care professionals and insurance companies in the health care industry and improve the quality of patient care. The Act would eliminate the antitrust immunity provided under the McCarran-Ferguson... Read more »
Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) joined Representative John Lewis (D-Ga.), House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), Democratic Assistant Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and House Committee on Administration Ranking Member Robert Brady (D-Pa.), in introducing the Voter Empowerment Act. Over the past year, states across the country have enacted restrict... Read more »
Today, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Implementation of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, a patent reform bill that President Obama signed into law in September 2011. The Honorable David Kappos, Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) testified before the Committee. Ranking Member John Conyer... Read more »
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released this statement following the vote on H.R. 4970, a Republican-authored Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization bill that weakens current laws protecting immigrant crime victims and excludes protections for vulnerable Native American women and LGBT persons contained in a bipartisan bill passed by the Senate. “Tod... Read more »
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the following statement in response to a Republican manager’s amendment to H.R. 4970, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA), adopted by the House Committee on Rules yesterday evening. “The managers’ amendment is a fig leaf meant to cover the simple truth that this bill rolls back existing law and fails to... Read more »
Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) applauded President Obama’s support for marriage equality for same-sex couples. Ranking Member Conyers is an original cosponsor of H.R. 1116, the “Respect for Marriage Act” which would repeal the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA). As Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee during the 104th Congress, Repres... Read more »
Today at markup, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Committee Democrats opposed H.R. 4970, a Violence Against Women Act (“VAWA”) Reauthorization bill that omits protections for vulnerable communities and removes existing protections for immigrant women. The bill omits language designed to protect Native American women by allowing tribal authorities to prosecut... Read more »
(DETROIT) – Last Thursday, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers ruled not to validate the petitions placing a referendum on Michigan’s emergency manager law on the ballot. In a split 2-2 decision, The Board did not validate the petitions after a group opposed to the referendum argued that text of the petition was not printed in the required 14 point font size, despite an affidavit submitted by t... Read more »
Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing on “The Department of Justice’s Guidance on Access to Pools and Spas Under the ADA.” The purpose of the hearing was to examine the scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (“ADA”) more than 20 year old mandate for businesses to take “readily achievable” steps to increase access for people with disabili... Read more »
Today, at a Congressional Summit on Overturning Citizens United, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) pledged to work towards passing a constitutional amendment to expressly permit Congress the power to regulate corporate spending in federal elections. The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizen’s United v. FEC equated corporate campaign donations with free speech, over... Read more »
