Mike Collins: “I am pleased to bring forward this rule on behalf of the Rules Committee. It is a structured rule that provides 1 hour…”

“I am pleased to bring forward this rule on behalf of the Rules Committee. It is a structured rule that provides 1 hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee for H.R. 3624, the Fraudulent Joinder Prevention Act of 2016. In addition to consideration of H.R. 3624, the House will also debate and vote on two amendments on the House floor. Yesterday the Rules Committee received testimony from the sponsor of the bill and a minority representative of the Judiciary Committee. Subcommittee hearings were held on this legislation, and it was marked up and reported by the Judiciary Committee. This bill went through regular order and enjoyed meaningful discussion at the subcommittee and full committee level. H.R. 3624 is strongly supported by the National Federation of Independent Business and the Chamber of Commerce because of the significance of this issue to small businesses in northeast Georgia and across the Nation. This legislation will protect innocent local parties, often small businessowners, from being dragged into expensive lawsuits. It achieves this goal in two specific ways. First, the bill empowers judges to exercise greater discretion to free an innocent local party from a case where the judge finds there is no plausible case against that party.…”