House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), House Committee on Rules Ranking Member Louise Slaughter (D-NY), House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution Ranking Member Steve Cohen (D-TN), and Subcommittee on Intellectual Property Ranking Member, and former chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today released a joint statement on the proposed Republican Rules package, which, among other things, would delegate to the Sergeant-at-Arms the authority to impose fines of up to $2,500 per offense against any Member who uses an electronic device to photograph or record House floor proceedings.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) sent a letter today to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) calling for safeguards to be put in place to ensure the investigation into Russian hacking is made a top priority and is completed in a thorough and bipartisan manner throughout the Presidential transition.
Members of the bipartisan encryption working group – established in March 2016 by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) – today released a year-end report laying out key observations and next steps.
Today, a bipartisan group of ten members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee-including Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), and former Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), wrote to the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to memorialize the Director's commitment to provide a detailed look at how the government's phone and email surveillance affects United States citizens. The intelligence community has promised to provide a public estimate of that impact "early enough to inform the debate" on surveillance reform in the next Congress, with a target date of January 2017.
Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) joined Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD), House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY), House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie G.
During its final session of the 114th Congress, the Senate passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016 (S.2854/H.R.5067). In the Senate, the bill was led by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO). In the House, original sponsors were Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI). The bill now heads to the President to be signed into law.
BACKGROUND
Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the first policy proposal to come out of the Committee's review of U.S. Copyright law. This first proposal identifies important reforms to help ensure the Copyright Office keeps pace in the digital age. With the release of this document, the Committee requests written comments from interested stakeholders by January 31, 2017.
Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released the first policy proposal to come out of the Committee's review of U.S. Copyright law. This first proposal identifies important reforms to help ensure the Copyright Office keeps pace in the digital age. With the release of this document, the Committee requests written comments from interested stakeholders by January 31, 2017.
Mr. Speaker, in June of 2007, this body passed and the President subsequently signed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act. Since that time, the Department of Justice and cold case advocates have reviewed hundreds of cases in a search for justice and a sense of closure for the families of those who fell victim to racial violence in one of the most tumultuous periods of this nation's history.
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed S. 2854/ H.R. 5067, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act. The Till bill's primary purpose is to provide federal resources to local jurisdictions in the resolution of civil rights era cold cases. This reauthorization represents a recommitment to the original goals of the bill as well as the strengthening and clarification of the law, as called for by interested civil rights groups and families.
The lead House sponsors of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act released the following statements after House passage of the legislation:
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. joined Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel, Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, and Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff sent a letter today to President Obama asking for Administration officials to brief all Members of Congress on Russian efforts to influence or interfere in the recent federal election.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. joined Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel, Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, and Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff sent a letter today to President Obama asking for Administration officials to brief all Members of Congress on Russian efforts to influence or interfere in the recent federal election.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. joined Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel, Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, and Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam Schiff sent a letter today to President Obama asking for Administration officials to brief all Members of Congress on Russian efforts to influence or interfere in the recent federal election.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, issued the following statement today regarding President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Marine Gen. John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security:
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, issued the following statement today regarding President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Marine Gen. John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security:
I want to thank the Members and panelists for participating in today's forum on the Electoral College. We are holding this panel because recent elections and public sentiment have made it clear that there are serious problems with the present system for electing our President and Vice President.
We begin with the fact that Hillary Clinton received more than 2.5 million more popular votes than Donald Trump -- the largest divergence between the popular and electoral votes in our Nation's history. This constitutes the very definition of anti-democratic.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.) joined C-SPAN Newsmakers to discuss the bipartisan Policing Strategies Working Group and the Committee's efforts to reform our nation's criminal justice system. C-SPAN's co-CEO Susan Swain moderated the interview and Kimbriell Kelly of the Washington Post and Jesse Holland of the Associated Press interviewed Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Subcommittee on the Constitution Ranking Member Steve Cohen (D-TN), Subcommittee on Intellectual Property Ranking Member, and former chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) wrote to President Barack Obama today to urge that he swiftly declassify and release the full version of the Senate Intelligence Committee's Study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program-commonly known as the "Torture Report."
In the wake of reports about the Trump Administration's plans to create a special registration program for Muslims, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Representatives Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL), Judy Chu (D-CA) and Keith Ellison (D-MN), today led more than 50 House Democrats in calling for President Barack Obama to completely dismantle the regulatory framework behind the discriminatory National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) before his administration ends. The Obama Administration effectively ended the program in 2011; however, the apparatus remains.
After President-elect Donald Trump's vague announcement this morning to leave his "…great business in total...," all sixteen Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote today to Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) to request that the Committee hold hearings to examine the federal conflicts-of-interest and ethics provisions that may apply to the President of the United States.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) released the following statements after the White House announced the commutation of the sentences of 79 individuals: