On the recordJanuary 22, 2019
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 498, the Clean Up the Code Act of 2019. I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson) for his support and his leadership in making this legislation possible. Back in 2008, the Heritage Foundation published a report estimating that there were nearly 4,500 different Federal crimes in the U.S. Code. Five years later, the Judiciary Committee asked the Congressional Research Service to review the foundation's findings only to be told that it did not have the resources to fulfill our request. This is a clear indication that there are too many criminal laws on the books and the code needs to be cleaned up. H.R. 498 eliminates nine provisions in Title 18, a good start, that in some instances have never been prosecuted since their enactment. For example, as has already been mentioned, the unauthorized use of the Smokey Bear or Woodsy Owl will no longer be subject to criminal penalty if this bill is enacted. This bipartisan legislation is aimed at doing exactly what the bill title says--clean up the code. If there were too many criminal laws for the CRS to count back in 2013, let's help them get rid of the easy ones by enacting this legislation. As I say, it is a good start. It isn't going to solve the whole problem, but it is a good start, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
