Judiciary Committee Passes Leahy Bill To Combat Public Corruption

 

WASHINGTON (Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007) – The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday passed bipartisan legislation introduced by Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) and co-sponsored by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that strengthens and clarifies key aspects of federal criminal law, and provides new tools to help law enforcement combat public corruption nationwide.

 

The Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act gives prosecutors more time, resources, and legal tools to detect and prosecute public corruption.  Congress earlier this year passed important ethics and lobbying reform legislation.  The Public Corruption Prosecution Improvement Act goes one step further by providing additional tools to help law enforcement root out corrupt criminal conduct by public officials that threatens to undermine our democracy. 

 

The bill authorizes funding for more personnel to investigate and prosecute corruption cases involving public officials, and extends the statute of limitations on select public corruption offenses by one year.  It also enhances the effectiveness of existing statutes by resolving ambiguities in the law.  For example, the legislation closes a loophole in existing law by broadening the definition of what it means for a public official to perform an ‘official act’ under the bribery statute.  The bill also amends the federal gratuities statute to restore Congressional intent in clarifying that public officials may not accept anything of value, other than as permitted by existing rules or regulations, given to them because of their official position.

 

This bipartisan legislation has the support of the Department of Justice, as well as public interest groups that have long advocated the vigorous enforcement of fraud and public corruption laws, including the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen, and U.S. PIRG.

 

Leahy’s statement on the Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act follows.

 

Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy

On Committee Consideration of the Public Corruption Prosecution

Improvements Act of 2007

November 1, 2007

 

Today, the Committee will consider the bi-partisan “Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act of 2007,” a bill that Senator Cornyn and I introduced to strengthen and clarify key aspects of federal criminal law and provide new tools to help law enforcement attack public corruption nationwide.  I thank Senator Sessions for working with us and joining as a co-sponsor.

 

Congress took an important step in restoring Americans’ faith in their elected officials earlier this year by passing long-awaited ethics and lobbying reforms that will tighten restrictions on those of us who hold public office, as well as those who seek to lobby us on behalf of private industry.  But rooting out the kinds of rampant public corruption we have seen in recent years requires us to go further and to give law enforcement the resources it needs to effectively investigate and prosecute public corruption crimes. 

 

The most serious corruption cannot be prevented only by changing our own rules.  Bribery and extortion, in all branches and at all levels of government, are committed by people bent on getting around the rules and banking that they will not get caught.  These offenses are very difficult to detect and even harder to prove.  Because they attack the core of our democracy, these offenses must be found out and punished.  Congress must send a strong signal that it will not tolerate this corruption by providing better tools for federal investigators and prosecutors to combat it.  This bill will do exactly that.  

 

The bill gives investigators and prosecutors more time and resources to effectively enforce existing anti-corruption laws.  The bill extends the statute of limitations from five to six years for the most serious public corruption offenses.  Public corruption cases are among the most difficult and time-consuming cases to investigate and prosecute.  Bank fraud, arson and passport fraud, among other offenses, all have ten-year statutes of limitations.  Public corruption offenses cut to the heart of our democracy, and a more modest increase to the statute of limitations is a reasonable step to help our corruption investigators and prosecutors do their jobs.

 

The bill would also provide significant and much-needed additional funding for public corruption enforcement.  Since 9/11, FBI resources have been shifted away from the pursuit of white collar crime to counterterrorism.  FBI Director Mueller has said recently that public corruption is now among the FBI’s top investigative priorities, but a September 2005 report by Department of Justice Inspector General found that, from 2000 to 2004, there was an overall reduction in public corruption matters handled by the FBI.  More recently, a study by the research group Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found that the prosecution of all kinds of white collar crimes is down 27 percent since 2000, and official corruption cases have dropped in the same period by 14 percent.  The Wall Street Journal reported recently that the investigation of a federal elected official stalled for six months because the investigating U.S. Attorney’s Office could not afford to replace the prosecutor who had previously handled the case. 

 

We must reverse this trend and make sure that law enforcement has the tools and the funding it needs to address serious and corrosive crimes occurring right here at home.  Efforts to combat terrorism and official corruption are not mutually-exclusive.  A bribed customs official who allows a terrorist to smuggle a dirty bomb into our country, or a corrupt consular officer who illegally supplies U.S. entry visas to would-be terrorists, can cause grave harm to our national security. 

 

This bill goes further by amending several key statutes to broaden their application in corruption and fraud contexts.  This series of fixes will prevent corrupt public officials and their accomplices from evading or defeating prosecution based on existing legal ambiguities.  For example, the bill includes a fix to the gratuities statute that makes clear that public officials may not accept anything of value, other than what is permitted by existing regulations, given to them because of their official position.  Senator Cornyn and I have introduced a substitute amendment today which makes explicitly clear that anything permitted by House and Senate rules, including a small gift like a baseball cap, or a bona fide campaign contribution, is not covered by this statute.

 

The bill also appropriately expands the definition of what it means for a public official to perform an “official act” for the purposes of the bribery statute and closes several other gaps in current law. 

 

Finally, the bill raises the statutory maximum penalties for several statutes dealing with official misconduct, including theft of government property and bribery.  These increases reflect the serious and corrosive nature of these crimes, and would harmonize the punishment for these crimes with other similar statutes.

 

This bi-partisan bill is supported by the Department of Justice and by a wide array of public interest groups that have long advocated for vigorous enforcement of our fraud and public corruption laws, including the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen, and U.S. PIRG. 

 

If we are serious about addressing the kinds of egregious misconduct that we have recently witnessed in high-profile public corruption cases, Congress must enact meaningful legislation to give investigators and prosecutors the tools and resources they need to enforce our laws.  Passing the ethics and lobbying reform bill was a step in the right direction.  But we must finish the job by strengthening the criminal law to enable federal investigators and prosecutors to bring those who undermine the public trust to justice.  I hope the Committee will join Senator Cornyn and me in promptly reporting this bill to the full Senate.

 

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