Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - June 18, 2009)

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By Mr. WHITEHOUSE (for himself, Mr. Sessions, and Mr. Leahy):

S. 1289. A bill to improve title 18 of the United States Code; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I rise to urge my colleagues to support the Foreign Evidence Request Efficiency Act, which I have introduced on behalf of myself and the Chairman and Ranking Members of the Judiciary Committee, Senators Leahy and Sessions. It has been a pleasure to work with them on this truly bipartisan effort, and I am grateful for their support.

Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Sessions, and I have all served as prosecutors. I can say with no exaggeration that few responsibilities are more important to the rule of law, to the security of our communities, and to the rights and freedoms that we enjoy as Americans. I served as the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island--Senator Sessions served in that capacity in Alabama--and I know we both will always remember the feeling of standing up in court to say: ``Your Honor, may it please the Court, I represent the United States of America.'' It was the honor of a lifetime.

As my colleagues know, the United States routinely helps foreign law enforcement agencies as they pursue criminal conduct involving activity outside their borders, including inside the United States, and they do the same for us. This is exactly as it should be. As the world grows more interconnected and crime becomes increasingly global, it becomes all the more important for law enforcement agencies in the United States and around the world to work together to bring criminals to justice. Otherwise, it would be very hard to build cases against international organized crime organizations, drug cartels, purveyors of child pornography on the internet, and other criminal threats from outside our borders.

One way that a law enforcement agency provides assistance to another is by gathering evidence from within its borders that a foreign law enforcement agency needs to prosecute a case. The United States routinely completes requests submitted to it by foreign law enforcement agencies just as it receives comparable assistance when it makes evidence requests in foreign countries. For example, let's assume that Spanish authorities are investigating a complicated financial fraud that is being conducted over the internet, apparently from a base in the United States. After conducting their investigation in Spain, the Spanish authorities submit a request to the United States for financial records, internet records, and various other kinds of evidence. U.S. Attorneys review the requests and then seek warrants for the evidence as appropriate. When the evidence is collected, the United States transmits it to Spanish authorities, leading to prosecution in Spanish courts.

This process sounds quite simple, but unfortunately in practice it is extremely cumbersome. This is because under the existing rules, any foreign evidence request must be split up and sent to each district where the evidence exists. So take the Spanish example I just gave, and imagine that the financial records sought are in banks in six different federal judicial districts, that the internet records are in another five federal judicial districts, and that other documentary evidence is spread over another five districts. Under existing law, sixteen different U.S. Attorneys' Offices would have to work on the evidence request. This is incredibly inefficient and burdensome for U.S. Attorneys across the country.

The Foreign Evidence Request Efficiency Act would end this problem by allowing such foreign evidence requests to be handled centrally, by a single or more limited number of U.S. Attorneys offices as appropriate. Why, as in my example, should sixteen U.S. Attorneys' Offices have to deal with an evidence request that one office can coordinate? Simply put, this reform would make life easier for our U.S. Attorneys. We owe them no less.

Of course, respect for civil liberties demands that we not suddenly change the types of evidence that foreign governments may receive from the United States or reduce the role of courts as gatekeepers for searches. The Foreign Evidence Request Efficiency Act would leave those important protections in place, while simultaneously reducing the paperwork that the cumbersome existing process imposes on our U.S. Attorneys.

Two points merit emphasis. First, by making it easier for U.S. Attorneys to collect evidence, the United States can respond more quickly to foreign requests for evidence. Setting a high standard of responsiveness will allow the United States to urge that foreign authorities respond to our requests for evidence with comparable speed. The United States will benefit if foreign governments cannot use our own delay to justify responding slowly to our requests. Second, the Foreign Evidence Request Efficiency Act would not change the United States' obligations to foreign nations. It would only make it easier for the United States to respond to these requests by allowing them to be centralized and by putting the process for handling them within a clear statutory system.

I urge my colleagues to act promptly on this bipartisan legislation. I would like to thank the excellent attorneys in the Department of Justice who have worked with me on this legislation, and would like to request unanimous consent to insert their letter of support into the Congressional Record. I again thank Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Sessions for their support.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a letter of support be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

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