Judicial Administration and Technical Amendments Act of 2008

Floor Speech

JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION AND TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - September 27, 2008)

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Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this bill contains what we believe are noncontroversial measures proposed by the Judicial Conference to improve efficiency in the Federal courts. Many have passed the House in a prior Congress in similar forms.

The bill makes some realignments in the place of holding court within specified judicial districts so as to better serve local communities. It permits a chief pretrial services officer to be chosen locally by the district court, just like the chief probation officer. It updates the penalty for failure to appear for jury duty, or lying on a questionnaire to avoid jury duty, by raising the maximum fine from $100 to $1,000, and by allowing the judge to impose community service.

The bill also increases the maximum penalty for employers who retaliate against employees who are called to serve on jury duty.

Other updates include making electronically produced information coverable in court costs, and adding magistrate judges to the list who can be included in circuit Judicial Conferences.

I think this bill, while noncontroversial, is certainly important in increasing the efficiency of our judicial branch, and I hope that we will unanimously support it.

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Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. I would just note this bill, while perhaps boring to many Members, is important to us. And it is a measure that we have adopted with so many of these Members in prior Congresses, and yet because they have to do with down-in-the-weeds issues in the Judiciary, they don't always get the attention that they should.

I'm hopeful, and I'm glad, that we have worked so collaboratively together on these but that we can really work in partnership with our other branch of government for some of these efficiency things. They're not big policy issues, but they're things that will make the judiciary more effective. They need our help in many cases to do that. And I think this may be a marker that we're ready to really hold our hands out in that effort.

And I do thank the gentleman for yielding.

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