On the recordDecember 5, 2013
This amendment includes language that we believe is already implicit in the Innovation Act's fee-shifting provision section 3. The gentleman's amendment adds language that allows a judge to reduce an award in certain circumstances. This amendment is redundant with the provisions in the bill and does not appear to add anything new but, rather, adds extraneous language that simply adds clutter to the section. The Judiciary Committee considered and rejected this amendment during its markup of the bill. The fee-shifting language in the bill is a carefully crafted compromise that we negotiated on a bipartisan basis in the committee. Mr. Jeffries offered an amendment at the committee that was adopted and included in the bill that modified the fee- shifting language. With that amendment, all but five committee Democrats joined with all voting Republicans of the committee and reported the bill by a vote of 33-5. This amendment upsets that balance and should be rejected.
