Bob Goodlatte

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. I now yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall).

Mr. GOODLATTE. I now yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Faso).

Mr. GOODLATTE. I now yield to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith).

Mr. GOODLATTE. I now yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Joyce).

Mr. GOODLATTE. I now yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Williams).

Mr. GOODLATTE. I now yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the Democratic whip.

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, Federal bureaucrats are continuously creating new and more complicated and costly burdens on hardworking Americans in the form of unnecessarily burdensome regulations. Clearly, some regulation is necessary to protect public safety, set general rules of the road, and accomplish other important goals. However, despite the fact that these goals can often be accomplished with relatively simple guidance, Washington bureaucrats seem more determined than ever to create the most complicated puzzles they can imagine, regardless of the compliance costs for small businesses or the new and innovative products entrepreneurs are forced to shelve in order to comply with these overly complicated regulations. Bureaucrats also don't seem to care that American families face higher prices for goods and have fewer job opportunities when employers are unnecessarily forced to factor wasteful costs of complying with overly burdensome regulations into their bottom lines. That is why, at the very beginning of the 115th Congress, we are prioritizing legislation to remove unnecessary regulatory burdens. Doing so is one of the fundamental steps we can take to make America more competitive again and put more Americans back to work again. Today, our specific focus is on reforming regulations that are hastily cobbled together in the waning weeks and months of an outgoing administration. These regulations are particularly susceptible to abuse and, thus, have an even greater potential to undermine job opportunities, wages, and American competitiveness. As the Obama administration rushes to a close, Americans' freedom and prosperity are increasingly threatened by one of the most abusive features of modern bureaucracy--midnight regulation. Midnight regulation is one of the most vexing problems in Washington's overreaching regulatory system. Administration after administration, there is a spike in rulemaking activity during the last year of a President's term--particularly between election day and Inauguration Day, but even in the months before then. These successive waves of midnight regulation present deeply troubling issues. First and foremost, because outgoing administrations are no longer accountable to the voters, they are much more prone to issue midnight regulations that fly in the face of the electoral mandate the voters just gave the new, incoming administration. Waves of midnight rules can also be very hard for Congress or a new administration to check adequately. As a new Congress and President begin their terms, both understandably must be focused on implementing the new priorities within the mandates the voters have given them. That doesn't always leave time to focus on cleaning up all of the last acts of the departing administration. In addition, the Congressional Review Act currently allows Congress to disapprove of regulations--including midnight regulations--only one at a time. A wave of midnight regulations can easily overwhelm Congress' ability to use one-rule-at-a-time resolutions as an effective check. Finally, it is well-documented that the rush by outgoing administrations to impose midnight rules before the clock strikes 12 leads to more poorly analyzed rules with lower quality and lower benefits. The Obama administration has imposed more runaway regulation than any other in memory, and its midnight rulemaking period is no exception. When the House considered this legislation in the wake of last November's election, the administration had issued or planned to issue at least 180 midnight rules within the scope of this bill, including multiple billion-dollar rules and more than 20 major rules imposing $100 million or more in costs per year. In the intervening weeks, these figures have rapidly ballooned to the 226 midnight rules issued or planned. During just the week of December 12, the administration issued 18 midnight regulations, imposing over $2 billion in new costs. But this is not a partisan issue. Administrations of both parties have issued midnight rules in the past. The Judiciary Committee has been searching for an effective solution to this problem for some time, and I applaud our colleague, Mr. Issa, for offering the Midnight Rules Relief Act to respond to the need. This bill offers a simple and powerful means to stop the problem of abusive midnight rules--allowing Congress to disapprove of any and all midnight regulations in one fell swoop by one en bloc disapproval resolution under the Congressional Review Act. Any outgoing administration understanding that it has this Sword of Damocles hanging over its head will surely hesitate much more before abusing midnight rules. Further, once enabled to dispatch of all improper midnight rules with one simple resolution, Congress and succeeding administrations would be free to focus more of their energies on the voters' new priorities, rather than the mess left by midnight rules. The relief offered by the bill, moreover, is highly flexible. No set number of regulations would have to be covered by a resolution. No category of regulation would have to be included in or excluded from a resolution. On the contrary, any midnight rule disapproval resolution could be sweeping or narrow, depending on how many rules merited inclusion. Finally, the Midnight Rules Relief Act offers a solution that is not intrusive upon legitimate executive branch authority. An outgoing administration remains free to conduct necessary rulemaking activity up to the stroke of midnight on Inauguration Day. It then falls to Congress to respond swiftly and surgically to the results, to accept the good and excise the bad. This is truly a better way to govern. That is why the reform embodied in this bill is featured in Speaker Ryan's Better Way agenda. I thank Mr. Issa for his work on this important legislation. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to section 5(b) of House Resolution 5, I call up the bill (H.R. 21) to amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide for en bloc consideration in resolutions of disapproval for ``midnight rules'', and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 21.

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 6477) to amend chapter 97 of title 28, United States Code, to clarify the exception to foreign sovereign immunity set forth in section 1605(a)(3) of such title, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (S. 2974) to ensure funding for the National Human Trafficking Hotline, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 6431, currently under consideration.

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 4919, currently under consideration.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, it is estimated that 60 percent of the 5.3 million individuals with Alzheimer's disease and 49 percent of children with autism are susceptible to wandering or leaving safe areas and the protection of a responsible caregiver. The results of wandering can be devastating to individuals with Alzheimer's disease and children with developmental disabilities. The legislation we are considering today is named in honor of two boys with autism who wandered away from their caregivers and tragically drowned. The special circumstances surrounding cases of wandering individuals are circumstances that people in local communities such as first responders and school personnel are often not specifically trained to handle. The cost to local communities for a search for a missing person is extremely expensive, even in instances where the local law enforcement agency is trained. That is why we are considering Kevin and Avonte's Law of 2016. It reauthorizes the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program and broadens the program to protect children with autism. This legislation authorizes DOJ to make grants to law enforcement agencies, public safety agencies, and nonprofit organizations to provide educational wandering prevention programming to families and caretakers of individuals who wander, as well as training to first responders and school personnel to facilitate rescue and recovery. The bill also enables parents and caregivers to apply for voluntary, noninvasive tracking technology that can be used to help locate a person who has wandered away from the care and safety of his or her home. While these devices are already in widespread use, there are many families that simply can't afford them. The result is oftentimes an expensive search borne by State and local enforcement agencies that all too frequently results in tragic consequences. We have worked hard to address the privacy concerns that some have raised about this bill. The updated language makes it explicitly clear that this is a completely voluntary program, that all tracking devices must be noninvasive, and that the Federal Government may not store location data related to the devices. Finally, we make it clear that such devices are only to be recommended where they are the least restrictive alternative. American communities are safer when they are equipped with the training to prevent tragedies from happening. This legislation will assist communities in receiving valuable education on how to prevent individuals with Alzheimer's disease and children with autism from wandering and to respond quickly and appropriately in cases in which they do. I urge all Members to support this important legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time remains on each side.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman from Texas an additional 1 minute.

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers and I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on H.R. 6130, currently under consideration.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. From 1933, when Hitler took power in Germany, until 1945, when the Allied Forces liberated Europe, the Nazis and their collaborators stole countless works of art and cultural objects from museums and private collections throughout Europe. Indeed, according to the American Alliance of Museums, the Nazi regime orchestrated a system of theft, confiscation, coercive transfer, looting, pillage, and the destruction of objects of art and other cultural property in Europe on a massive and an unprecedented scale. Millions of such objects were unlawfully and often forcibly taken from their rightful owners. This systematic looting and confiscation of the cultural property of the Jews and of other persecuted groups has been described as the greatest displacement of art in human history. In order to provide the victims of the Holocaust and their heirs a fair opportunity in our courts to recover artwork that had been confiscated or misappropriated by the Nazis, Representative Nadler and I, along with several other bipartisan cosponsors, introduced the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act, or HEAR Act. Companion legislation has been introduced by Senators Cornyn and Schumer in the Senate. Since World War II ended, the United States has pursued policies to help Holocaust victims reclaim artwork and other cultural property that was unlawfully taken. In recent years, the United States has joined with other nations to declare the importance of restoring Nazi-looted and confiscated art to its rightful owners. For instance, in the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the United States and 43 other nations declared that Holocaust victims and their heirs should be encouraged to come forward and make known their claims to art that was confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted and that steps should be taken expeditiously to achieve a just and fair solution to such claims. In 2009, we joined with 48 other countries in declaring that governments should ensure that their legal systems facilitate just and fair solutions with regard to Nazi-confiscated and looted art and make certain that the claims to recover such art are resolved expeditiously and based on the facts and merits of the claims. The enactment of the HEAR Act is an important step in following through on these principles. The vast majority of victims whose property was misappropriated during the Holocaust simply lacked the information, resources, and sometimes wherewithal to pursue litigation to recover their property. Even for those with the resources, locating and proving ownership of Nazi-looted art proved to be extremely difficult. Moreover, the psychological trauma of the Holocaust often prevented victims from pursuing lost property. Those who have seen the recent movie ``Woman in Gold,'' which tells the story of Maria Altmann's arduous legal battle to recover her family's possessions that were seized by the Nazis, including the famous portrait of her aunt by Gustav Klimt, can understand just how difficult litigation to reclaim Nazi-confiscated art can be. Ms. Altmann was in litigation for many years before her family's artwork was recovered from the Austrian Government in 2006. At least in Ms. Altmann's case, litigation was successful. However, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has observed: ``Many obstacles face those who attempt to recover Holocaust-era art through lawsuits,'' including ``procedural hurdles, such as statutes of limitations'' that prevent the merits of claims from ever being adjudicated. Given the unique and horrific circumstances of World War II and the Holocaust, State statutes of limitations can be an unfair impediment to the victims and their heirs and contrary to the stated policy of the United States. Accordingly, the HEAR Act's uniform, 6-year Federal limitations period is needed to ensure that the United States fulfills its promises to ``facilitate just and fair solution with regard to Nazi-confiscated and looted art'' and to ``make certain that claims to recover such art are resolved expeditiously and based on the facts and merits of the claims.'' I urge my colleagues to support this legislation so that cases involving Nazi-confiscated artwork are resolved in our courts in a just and fair manner on the merits of those claims. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6130) to provide the victims of Holocaust-era persecution and their heirs a fair opportunity to recover works of art confiscated or misappropriated by the Nazis.

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on S. 2854, currently under consideration.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, this bill is an important step in continuing to investigate the crimes and terror inflicted on so many involved in the civil rights movement. This bill will help to right those past wrongs and help to find justice for the families who lost loved ones in the civil rights effort. Specifically, this bill reauthorizes and updates the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act that was passed 10 years ago. It responds to concerns that victims' families and those working in this area have had about the implementation of the original legislation. In doing so, it strengthens the collaboration between the FBI, the Department of Justice, and local law enforcement to make sure that the goals of this legislation are met. By providing clearer direction and improved coordination between all the relevant stakeholders, this bill will help to ensure that these crimes will be solved and families who lost loved ones will be able to find justice. This legislation also addresses some of the concerns with the Senate- passed language by making sure that the bill is fully offset, that a sunset provision is included, and by providing greater clarity regarding the collaboration between various stakeholders. Finally, I thank both Ranking Members Conyers and Lewis--civil rights leaders and icons on these issues--for working with Senator Burr and other stakeholders to reach agreement on this bill, as well as for their tireless work on the underlying legislation. It is important that the Federal Government investigates and prosecutes these crimes to the greatest extent possible, and this important legislation will give the Department of Justice the ability and the direction to do just that. I reserve the balance of my time.