Count the Crimes to Cut Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BIGGS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has turned the criminal code into a labyrinth, a maze so bloated and disorganized that not even the DOJ can tell you how many Federal crimes exist.

That is why I rise in strong support of H.R. 2159, the Count the Crimes to Cut Act, led by my friend, Chip Roy from Texas, Representative McBath, who is the ranking member on our Subcommittee of Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, and supported by Members of both parties who understand that freedom collapses when the law becomes unknowable.

This bill is co-led by staunch conservatives like Representative Roy and myself and our colleagues, who occasionally think differently than us, Mrs. McBath and Mr. Cohen. We disagree on a lot in this Chamber, but we should all agree that Americans should know what conduct is criminal before they are punished for it.

The Count the Crimes to Cut Act forces the DOJ to produce a complete list of every Federal criminal statute with the specific legal elements, the authorized penalties, and the number of prosecutions for each offense over the last 15 years.

Right now, we literally cannot tell the American people how many Federal crimes exist. I called the Congressional Research Service several years ago because I was interested in this. They said we have no idea.

Estimates range from 4,000 statutes to hundreds of thousands of criminalized regulations, but no one actually knows because Washington has never bothered to count them. This is the very definition of overcriminalization: vague laws, hidden laws, duplicative laws, and regulatory crimes that nobody could reasonably expect an ordinary citizen to find or understand.

The Federal code has grown so bloated that a person can unknowingly violate a regulation they have never heard of and the government can still throw the book at them.

Even former Harvard University Professor Harvey Silverglate estimates that the average American commits three felonies a day without even knowing it.

Dr. Silverglate clearly wasn't referring to violent felonies like murder or felonies like money laundering or fraud, but instead to those vague, hidden, duplicative and sometimes downright silly laws.

I have other pending legislation; the End Endless Criminal Statutes Act to repeal 10 unnecessary criminal offenses such as selling or possessing colored oleomargarine or colored margarine unless they are packaged and labeled or served in a triangular shape. That is far from the only silly law still on the books.

It is illegal to use a falconry bird in a movie that isn't about falconry, to sell runny ketchup, or to leave the country with too many nickels in your pockets.

Here is the deal: We just have too many laws and too many crimes. When the Federal Criminal Code becomes a weapon instead of a guide, it is always the most vulnerable, the poor, the small business owners, the persons who don't have a legal team on retainer who gets crushed first.

Overcriminalization is one of the most destructive features of the modern Federal leviathan. We cannot restore liberty, shrink government, or protect due process unless we first expose the scope of the problem and that is what this bill attempts to do.

I am so pleased to be a sponsor, but I am proud to associate with my cosponsors, Mr. Roy, Mrs. McBath, Mr. Cohen, and others.

This is very simple, Mr. Speaker: If you believe in liberty, you vote ``yes'' on H.R. 2159. If you believe the government should be accountable to the people, you vote ``yes'' on H.R. 2159. If you believe that Americans deserve to know the laws that can put them behind bars, you vote ``yes'' on H.R. 2159. It is bipartisan, common sense, and long overdue.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support the Count the Crimes to Cut Act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source