John Conyers: “I used to say that my amendment is simple and should be noncontroversial, but I have stopped doing that lately. But this…”

“I used to say that my amendment is simple and should be noncontroversial, but I have stopped doing that lately. But this is not a complicated amendment. It changes title 28 to provide for service of process against actions brought against defendant corporations located outside of the United States. It is an amendment that has succeeded before on a couple of occasions, once in a bipartisan vote, and the other in a motion to instruct conferees. It responds to the problem of service to a foreign corporation by creating a nationwide contacts test whenever a foreign defendant is sued in Federal court if it knew or reasonably should have known that its conduct would cause harm in this country. This is not a new test. It has been repeatedly upheld by our courts and is in the law already and for other activities. It is similar to the standard adopted last Congress when we amended the Foreign Service Immunities Act to permit actions against terrorist States to proceed in this country. Secondly, we provide for worldwide service of process.”