Ted Poe: “I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank Chairman Goodlatte for bringing forth this legislation. Mr. Chair, I am…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank Chairman Goodlatte for bringing forth this legislation. Mr. Chair, I am a lawyer, like many of our members on the Judiciary Committee. I served as a prosecutor and as a judge, and we have a lot of those legal beagles on our Judiciary Committee. Although I worked primarily in State court as a judge and a prosecutor, I have always had great respect for those people in the Justice Department who work on behalf of the people of the United States in Federal court. However, over the last few years, my opinion of the Justice Department has changed, and it has changed not for the better. It has changed because I see that the Justice Department is acting as a political entity. I didn't say partisan entity. I said as a political entity, making decisions that appear to be based on politics rather than the law and policy. This legislation does one thing: it tries to elevate the Justice Department back to a nonpolitical entity, which it has, unfortunately, in my opinion, become a political entity. It is unfortunate that it has become that. Some of the things that the Justice Department has done, and this legislation I think would prevent, would be to make sure that the Justice Department does not become a political entity in determining settlements of lawsuits that the Justice Department files on behalf of the American public.…”