On the recordSeptember 7, 2016
I thank the distinguished ranking member of the subcommittee. I acknowledge the chairman of the full committee and, as well, the ranking member of the full committee. I am going to announce some breaking news. The Judiciary Committee gets along. We do a lot of good work together. I am looking forward to moving legislation dealing with a number of good policy suggestions and legislative initiatives involving the criminal justice system. I hope we can continue to work together. But I would raise concern as to this legislation, and I raise it in the context of all that this Congress has to do. I would also raise it in the context that the administration has indicated on this bill, H.R. 5063, the misnamed Stop Settlement Slush Funds--totally misnamed--a veto threat. We don't know whether anyone in the United States Senate, the other body, has any interest in this legislation at all. So in the meantime, there are any number of issues that should be addressed. My State of Texas is suffering under the threat of the Zika virus. The State of Florida is already in the eye of the storm, Puerto Rico, all of the Gulf States, maybe as far reaching as New York. That work needs to be done. The children of Flint are still asking us to respond to their concerns. The people of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are still asking us to respond to the devastation that they are facing. Yet we deal with legislation that has totally misconstrued what has been done by the Department of Justice.…
