Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I also want to thank my colleagues, Mr. Sensenbrenner, Mr. Conyers, and Mr. Mooney, for cosponsoring and supporting this amendment. It is a bipartisan amendment and, I think, a natural complement to the excellent amendments just added from Mr. Walberg and also from Mr. Amash. It would prohibit funding made available by this act from being used to implement the recent DOJ policy change, which dramatically expands the Federal Government's civil Asset Forfeiture Program. The new policy revives a controversial and, I think, unconstitutional practice that has been decried by Americans and Members of Congress across the political spectrum who hold dear the idea of due process and the presumption of innocence as it applies not just to us as people but also to our private property as well. The new policy allows State and local law enforcement to circumvent State laws limiting civil asset forfeiture by having Federal agencies adopt State and local cases. Under this dubious practice, law enforcement may seize a citizen's cash and property simply because someone suspects it of being connected to criminal activity without convicting, indicting, arresting, or even charging the property owner with having committed a crime and without proving or even alleging in court that the property is somehow connected to criminal activity. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property have been seized in this way by law enforcement on an officer's mere suspicion.…”