Jerrold Nadler

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5677) to make technical amendments to update statutory references to certain provisions classified to title 2, United States Code, title 50, United States Code, and title 52, United States Code.

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. 5677.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, one of the important responsibilities the House gives the Judiciary Committee is to oversee the revision and codification of the statutes of the United States. 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 on the committee. 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 law provides 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, or OLRC, whose attorneys ably carry out their 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. Today, I am pleased to bring to the floor six bills developed by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel to further this mission. The first four bills are considered editorial reclassification bills because they make conforming changes to statutes that have been impacted by OLRC's reorganization efforts. For example, in 2014, OLRC reorganized the voting and elections statutes into a single title, title 52 of the Code. The first bill we are considering, H.R. 5677, updates references to these laws in other titles of the Code to reflect their new location in title 52. I thank Congresswoman Madeleine Dean for introducing this legislation. I want to make it very clear that the statutory changes made by this bill and the others we are considering today are purely technical in nature. They do not change the meaning or effect of any existing laws. They are part of an ongoing effort to maintain the Code as an authoritative, accurate, and accessible source of Federal law. I would like to thank our colleagues who have introduced these bills, and I am glad we can fulfill our responsibility to keep the Code updated in a bipartisan manner. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Dean), the sponsor of this bill.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Congresswoman Dean for her leadership in introducing this legislation. I urge everyone to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 5695.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5695) to make technical amendments to update statutory references to certain provisions which were formerly classified to chapters 14 and 19 of title 25, United States Code.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as I explained during consideration of H.R. 5677, this bill has been prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and makes a number of conforming changes to statutes that have been impacted by OLRC's editorial reclassification of title 25 of the United States Code. As I described previously, the statutory changes made by this bill are purely technical in nature, and they do not change the meaning or effect of any existing laws. I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) for introducing this legislation, I urge all Members to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Congressman Issa for his leadership in introducing this legislation, I urge everyone to support it, 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. 5679) to make technical amendments to update statutory references to certain provisions classified to title 7, title 20, and title 43, United States Code.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, as important as this legislation is, my brief remarks were enough to explain the bill for the record. Therefore, with the time remaining, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Perry Apelbaum for more than 30 years of tireless service to the House Judiciary Committee. As you know, Mr. Speaker, the Judiciary Committee is entrusted with a wide and diverse set of issues, ranging from constitutional law and the Federal criminal code to immigration and intellectual property. In his three decades with the committee, as a trusted counsel and staff director, Perry has left his mark on nearly every area of law within that broad jurisdiction: protecting the right to vote, securing our basic civil liberties, and holding the powerful to account where necessary. All of official Washington knows Perry as a brilliant attorney, a selfless friend, and a voice of calm in a crisis. He earned that reputation leading the country through some of the toughest moments in our recent history. He has worked as senior staff on three impeachments. He coauthored three books with his longtime boss, Chairman John Conyers, Jr.: ``What Went Wrong in Ohio,'' ``The Constitution in Crisis,'' and ``Reining in the Imperial Presidency.'' After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Perry worked across the aisle to keep us safe in a manner that would be consistent with our civil liberties. After the attacks of January 6, 2021, he spent many sleepless nights ensuring that our democratic institutions would endure. What strikes me, Mr. Speaker, is that Perry's most important and lasting contributions to the committee have gone to secure a better life for the Americans who need our help most. These accomplishments include the Innocence Protection Act, the Matthew Shepherd-James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, the Second Chance Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, and the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. All told, these accomplishments have benefited countless citizens. They have made our social contract more just and our justice system more fair. Mr. Speaker, the Talmud teaches us that whosoever saves one life has saved an entire world. By this measure, worlds upon worlds owe a debt of gratitude to Perry Apelbaum. Perry is, of course, far from finished in his work for the American people. He has told us repeatedly that he intends ``to run all the way through the tape'' on his last days on Capitol Hill. He leaves us with a clear sense of mission. He has laid the groundwork for our most important prerogatives, including but not limited to comprehensive police reform, commonsense checks on the scourge of gun violence, and the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Perry will continue his public service in the Department of Justice as a senior counsel in the Antitrust Division. He has already proven himself a committed advocate for American consumers. His sense of fairness in matters of antitrust law is unwavering, and our loss will be the Department's gain. Of course, we owe our thanks to Perry's beloved wife, Laura Apelbaum, and his two children, Benjamin and Sarah. There is no question that they have sustained Perry, in good times and bad, through these many years. But most of all, Mr. Speaker, we owe our thanks to Perry Apelbaum. His departure marks the end of an era on Capitol Hill. Our parting is bittersweet, but we are so grateful for his leadership, and we wish Perry nothing but the best as he takes on this new challenge on behalf of the American people. Please join me in thanking Perry for his service. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as I explained during consideration of H.R. 5677, this bill has been prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and makes a number of conforming changes to statutes that have been impacted by OLRC's editorial reclassification of titles 7, 20, and 43 of the United States Code. As I described previously, the statutory changes made by this bill are purely technical in nature and they do not change the meaning or effect of any existing laws. I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jones) for introducing this legislation, I urge all Members to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 5679.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson), chairman of the subcommittee.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5720 would make a meaningful difference in the accessibility and transparency of an entire branch of our Federal Government. It would strengthen trust in our courts and, in doing so, would strengthen our courts. H.R. 5720 would establish a level playing field for access to critical government documents, allowing litigants, the public, and the press to enforce and ensure accountability. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5720) to amend the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to provide for a periodic transaction reporting requirement for Federal judicial officers and the online publication of financial disclosure reports of Federal judicial officers, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. NADLER. Madam 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. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, H.R. 5720, the Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act of 2021, embodies an important bipartisan effort to address an alarming lack of transparency in the personal financial holdings of Federal judges and the conflicts--or appearance of conflicts--those holdings can create in the cases those judges are asked to decide. This legislation makes incremental but necessary progress toward accountability by building on Federal statutes that already prohibit judges from deciding cases in which they have a personal financial stake in the outcome. It has been the law in this country since the 1970s that judges must recuse themselves from any case in which they hold a legal or equitable interest of any size in any property or party under consideration. To help ensure that recusals occur as required, Federal law also requires judges to file annual reports disclosing their personal financial interests so that litigants, the press, and the general public can check their work. Unfortunately, recent reporting by prominent media outlets and a hearing by the Courts Subcommitee, have shown that the law is not working as intended. The infrequency of judges' financial disclosures and the inaccessibilty of the reports themselves have made actual transparency practically impossible. The result is recent investigative reporting revealing that over 130 Federal judges have decided cases in which they are part owners of the parties before them; over 60 judges have actively traded shares in the parties in their courtrooms while cases are still going on, in some cases profiting on those trades. The consequences of these actions are both acute and widespread. Failures to recuse can cause real harm to the parties whose cases are impacted and can leave a cloud of doubt over any law created from these cases once the conflicts are uncovered. Perhaps even more concerning, when the public sees members of their judiciary behaving in such a manner, their faith in their system of justice can be withered by cynicism and suspicion. H.R. 5720 addresses these problems by requiring Federal judges to abide by the same periodic transaction reporting laws already applicable to Members of Congress and senior executive branch officials. Further, the bill requires the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to create an online database of judicial financial disclosure reports and to timely update that database in searchable, sortable, and downloadable copies of disclosure reports as they become available so that litigants, the press, and the public can access and analyze that information in close to real time. These simple solutions are long overdue and are the product of bipartisan, bicameral collaboration. I want to thank Congresswoman Ross and Congressman Issa for their leadership on this issue and for introducing this legislation. I also appreciate Ranking Member Jordan for working with us on this bill, and I want to thank Hank Johnson, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet for holding a hearing exposing the issues this bill addresses. Madam Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman North Carolina (Ms. Ross).

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, we have additional speakers. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline), a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5705) to make technical amendments to update statutory references to provisions reclassified to title 34, United States Code.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as I explained during consideration of H.R. 5677, this bill has been prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and makes a number of conforming changes to statutes that have been impacted by OLRC's editorial reclassification of title 34 of the United States Code. As I described previously, the statutory changes made by this bill are purely technical in nature, and they do not change the meaning or effect of any existing laws. I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Bentz) for introducing this legislation. I urge all Members to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Bentz) for his leadership in introducing this legislation, 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. 5961) to make revisions in title 5, United States Code, as necessary to keep the title current, and to make technical amendments to improve the United States Code.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5961.