Louie Gohmert: “I do appreciate my friend for yielding. This is a good overall idea. It's a good bill in general. There needs to be more…”

“I do appreciate my friend for yielding. This is a good overall idea. It's a good bill in general. There needs to be more clarity. Many of us have wondered who is building these Presidential libraries, and this will help inform the public just who it is that's doing that. The concern I have is that there is a provision in the bill for filing errors or omissions that could send somebody to prison for 5 years. Now as a former judge, I've presided over thousands and thousands of felony cases. I have sent I don't know how many people to prison. That's not a concern. My reputation was, as one criminal was overheard telling another, 'He will give a fair trial, but if you're guilty, you don't want his court.' I don't have a problem sending people to prison, but one thing, probably the best conservative organization as far as getting out the message, the Heritage Foundation, and the ACLU have actually been in agreement on, this body, almost on whims, throws in a prison sentence as an added provision, and we are having people go to prison who shouldn't. If it is a dollar issue, then fine them 1 million, 10 million, whatever would be appropriate. But we should not, in this body, continually subject people to being taken down in their home, handcuffed when they made an error that should not be criminalized. So that is the concern I have. This never went through Judiciary. It has been through prior Congresses.”