Jerrold Nadler

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, the Criminal Judicial Administration Act of 2021 would make several critical changes to improve the operation of our Federal criminal justice system. I commend Representatives Hakeem Jeffries and Chip Roy for introducing the legislation, as well as their bipartisan cosponsors for their leadership in bringing these important issues to our attention. I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan bill today. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this very worthy bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2922) to amend the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act to authorize the Elder Justice Initiative, to require that online resources of such initiative are made available in Spanish, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia).

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 961) to exempt juveniles from the requirements for suits by prisoners, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 961.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 961, the Justice for Juveniles Act. This bipartisan bill would eliminate the administrative exhaustion requirement for incarcerated youth before they may file a lawsuit challenging the conditions of their incarceration. By passing this bill today, the House would correct the manifest wrong currently present in Federal law and would continue bipartisan efforts to support incarcerated youth. This bill recognizes the same conclusion that has been embraced by the Supreme Court and experts for decades, that incarcerated young people have different cognitive abilities than adults, are less mature, and have a higher chance of being assaulted while incarcerated. In recent years, our Nation has finally come to the realization that youth and adults have fundamentally different decisionmaking abilities. The Supreme Court has repeatedly cited adolescents' lack of maturity as a reason why they are not as culpable as adults for their actions or able to recognize certain dangers. Yet, in current law, there are no allowances for these differences in cognitive abilities when it comes to addressing deficiencies in conditions of confinement. Complying with current law, which requires an understanding of detailed grievance procedures and timelines, is nearly impossible for most incarcerated youth. Compliance with grievance procedures not only requires an understanding of the grievance process but, on a more basic level, it requires that an incarcerated person be able to read, which, sadly, many incarcerated people cannot do. According to one study, among incarcerated youth, 85 percent are functionally illiterate, and the baseline reading levels vary from grade one to grade six. In addition, approximately 70 percent of incarcerated juveniles have at least one learning disability. Youth are, furthermore, less likely than adults to recognize as risks the circumstances they face in a correctional facility. Youth may not recognize the impending or imminent danger of some of the risks they face. Compounding these challenges, incarcerated youth, as a group, experience extraordinarily high rates of mental illness. Nearly 50 percent of incarcerated 16- to 18-year-olds suffer from a mental illness. Juveniles housed with adults are 10 times more likely to have psychotic episodes, and they have a suicide rate that is 7.7 times higher than those housed in juvenile facilities. In recent years, the public has become more aware of the many dangers that lurk in correctional facilities. Hurricanes have flooded facilities; cold snaps have left prisoners freezing to death; and heat waves have killed prisoners when they lacked proper ventilation or air conditions. These conditions pose a special danger to youth, who do not have the ability or experience to recognize that they are in immediate danger. While natural disasters can pose an extraordinary risk to youth, prison life itself may also pose life-threatening dangers. Adolescents incarcerated with adults are also more prone to both physical and mental abuse. Youth are 50 percent more likely to be physically assaulted when they are housed in adult facilities than in juvenile facilities. Taken together, most incarcerated youth are simply not able to recognize or to effectively communicate when their prison conditions become dangerous or unconstitutionally deficient. There remains little doubt that the current process needs to be changed. This bill proposes a modest reform to the Prison Litigation Reform Act. It simply exempts youth in correctional facilities from having to comply with technical grievance procedures before they can go to court to challenge the unconstitutional conditions of their confinement. While I would like to see us do much more to protect incarcerated youth, this bill is a necessary first step. I thank Ms. Scanlon and Mr. Armstrong for introducing this bipartisan legislation, and I urge all Members to support it. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon).

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I join the gentleman in urging Members to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3239) to make improvements in the enactment of title 41, United States Code, into a positive law title and to improve the Code.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, keeping track of the new laws Congress passes every session is a formidable challenge, but it is an essential part of maintaining the rule of law in our country and it is a duty we take seriously in the House. The body of Federal law is so large and complex at this point that it would be almost completely unmanageable without the United States Code. Currently consisting of 54 titles, the Code compiles the general and permanent laws of the United States into coherent subject areas. The Code makes our Federal laws accessible, both to the government officials who work to fairly administer them and to the private citizens who seek the benefits or relief the laws provide them. The Code did not appear magically out of thin air. Congress created it in 1926. And since that time, it has been painstakingly constructed and updated by expert lawyers working under the supervision of the House. We all owe a great debt to the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, whose attorneys ably carry out this statutory mandate ``to develop and keep current an official and positive codification of the laws of the United States,'' while maintaining strict impartiality as to legislative policy. Pursuant to the law governing their work, the Office of the Law Revision Counsel has submitted this legislation containing amendments related to title 41, which Congress recently enacted into positive law. It contains purely technical changes that update the U.S. Code to reflect the new status of these titles. Mr. Speaker, I want to make it very clear that this bill does not change the meaning or effect of existing laws in any way. It is part of an ongoing effort to maintain the Code as an authoritative, accurate source of Federal law. I thank Mr. Fitzgerald for introducing this important legislation, and I urge all Members to support the bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3241.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, just like H.R. 3239, this bill has been prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, and it makes a number of technical changes to update title 54 of the United States Code while making no substantive changes in law. I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri (Ms. Bush) for introducing this legislation, and I urge all Members to support it. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 704, a bill that would help introduce promising young students who have won either the Congressional Art Competition or the Congressional App Challenge to the intellectual property system by waiving the fee for those students to apply for a copyright registration for their winning work. I applaud Mr. Jeffries for introducing this bipartisan, bicameral legislation with Ms. Mace, along with their bipartisan cosponsors. Many of us in this Chamber know just how important intellectual property rights are to our country and to our economy, yet studies show that awareness of intellectual property is lacking among the country's students, even if they pursue fields that are IP-intensive. The ARTS Act helps close this awareness gap early on and allows these students to participate in the intellectual property system without a financial burden. It builds on Congress' work to encourage the creativity of our Nation's youth with the establishment of the Congressional Art Competition nearly 40 years ago and the Congressional App Challenge more recently in 2013. In the art competition, Members host a districtwide contest in which high school students compete to have their artwork hang in the Halls of Congress. In the app challenge, middle and high school students show off their computer coding skills and compete against others in their district. Year after year, in both of these competitions, the talent our students display is remarkable. Through both, we continue to see our youth encouraged to develop their artistic and technology talents, as Congress intended. The ARTS Act makes these competitions even more impactful. Under the bill, students may apply to register a copyright for their winning artwork and winning app for free. This introduces these students to the intellectual property system and the benefits of copyright protection. Under current law, the Register of Copyrights cannot waive these fees on her own. The ARTS Act amends the Copyright Act to allow such a fee waiver for these specific circumstances. Mr. Speaker, I again applaud Mr. Jeffries and Ms. Mace for bringing forward this important bipartisan legislation, which will aid the next generation of creators and innovators, and I urge my colleagues to support its passage. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries), the sponsor of this bill.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2571) to include Portugal in the list of foreign states whose nationals are eligible for admission into the United States as E- 1 and E-2 nonimmigrants if United States nationals are treated similarly by the Government of Portugal and to otherwise modify the eligibility criteria for E visas, as amended.