Restraining Excessive Seizure of Property Through the Exploitation of Civil Asset Forfeiture Tools Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5523, the Clyde-Hirsch-Sowers RESPECT Act. I am a proud cosponsor of this critically important bill because it addresses a major problem in current law--a problem that has directly affected at least one of my constituents in Northeast Georgia.

In fact, this bill is named after that constituent: Andrew Clyde.

Andrew is a good, hardworking man, who is unfortunately all too familiar with the issue we're talking about today. Andrew owns Clyde Armory in Athens, Georgia. This is a legal, successful, firearms business, but it was targeted by the IRS under civil asset forfeiture laws.

Andrew is a combat veteran who grew this business in his community.

He followed the law, paid his taxes on time, filed all the right paperwork--but that didn't stop several hundred thousand dollars from being seized from his business.

I think Andrew summed it up best when he testified before the Ways and Means Committee about this same issue: ``I did not serve three combat tours in Iraq only to come home and be extorted.'' What he doesn't say there--he was being extorted by his own government.

In April of 2013, two IRS agents simply showed up at Clyde Armory, and served Andrew with a seizure warrant letting him know that his business bank account had been nearly drained. He was not aware of any laws he may have broken, unintentionally or not, and had practices in place to ensure his business was fully compliant with all laws.

Over the course of a few months, the case wound up in federal court.

After legal fees and the eventual surrender of $50,000 to the IRS to end the matter, nearly $150,000 had been carved out of the $950,000 seizure.

Despite the fact that Andrew is a law-abiding citizen, the government was able to swoop in in the middle of the night and take private property absent evidence of wrongdoing and due process. That is why I have worked so hard on this issue--to prevent this kind of federal intrusion of the worst form.

H.R. 5523 would help to address this problem. It would prohibit the IRS from using civil asset forfeiture authority in structuring cases-- the type of case under which Andrew was targeted--unless it can demonstrate probable cause that the funds were connected to criminal activity. Under H.R. 5523, the IRS must also establish notice and post- seizure review procedures for seizures based on structuring violations.

This bill is a step in the right direction, and a step towards preventing future wrongful seizures like the one that happened to Andrew Clyde. I thank Congressman Roskam for introducing this important legislation on behalf of Andrew Clyde and other victims of wrongful civil asset forfeiture, and I encourage all of my colleagues to support its passage.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source