[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 1 (Thursday, January 4, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S117-S118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEAHY (for himself and Mr. Pryor):
  S. 118. A bill to give investigators and prosecutors the tools they 
need to combat public corruption; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with Senator Pryor to 
introduce the ``Effective Corruption Prosecutions Act of 2007,'' a bill 
to strengthen the tools available to Federal prosecutors in combating 
public corruption. This bill gives investigators and prosecutors the 
statutory tools and the resources they need to ensure that serious and 
insidious public corruption is detected and punished.
  In November, voters sent a strong message that they were tired of the 
culture of corruption. From war profiteers and corrupt officials in 
Iraq to convicted Administration officials to influence-peddling 
lobbyists and, regrettably, even Members of Congress, too many supposed 
public servants were serving their own interests, rather than the 
public interest. The American people staged an intervention and made it 
clear that they would not stand for it any longer. They expect the 
Congress to take action. We need to restore the people's trust by 
acting to clean up the people's government.
  The Senate's new leadership is introducing important lobbying reform 
and ethics legislation. Similar legislation passed the Senate last 
year, but stalled in the House. This is a vital first step.
  But the most serious corruption cannot be prevented only by changing 
our own rules. Bribery and extortion are committed by people bent on 
getting around the rules and banking that they won't 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

[[Page S118]]

be found out and punished. Congress must send a signal that it will not 
tolerate this corruption by providing better tools for federal 
prosecutors to combat it. This bill will do exactly that.
  First, the bill extends the statute of limitations for the most 
serious public corruption offenses. Specifically, it extends the 
statute of limitations from five years to eight years for bribery, 
deprivation of honest services, and extortion by a public official. 
This is an important step because public corruption cases are among the 
most difficult and time-consuming cases to investigate and prosecute. 
They often require use of informants and electronic monitoring, as well 
as review of extensive financial and electronic records, techniques 
which take time to develop and implement.
  Bank fraud, arson, and passport fraud, among other offenses, all have 
10-year statutes of limitations. Since public corruption offenses are 
so important to our democracy and these cases are so difficult to 
investigate and prove, a more modest extended statute of limitations 
for these offenses is a reasonable step to help our corruption 
investigators and prosecutors do their jobs. Corrupt officials should 
not be able to get away with their ill gotten gains just by waiting out 
the investigators.
  This bill also facilitates the investigation and prosecution of an 
important offense known as Federal program bribery, Title 18, United 
States Code, section 666. Federal program bribery is the key Federal 
statute for prosecuting bribery involving state and local officials, as 
well as officials of the many organizations that receive substantial 
Federal money. This bill would allow agents and prosecutors 
investigating this important offense to request authority to conduct 
wiretaps and to use Federal program bribery as a basis for a 
racketeering charge.
  Wiretaps, when appropriately requested and authorized, are an 
important method for agents and prosecutors to gain evidence of corrupt 
activities, which can otherwise be next to impossible to prove without 
an informant. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) 
statute is also an important tool which helps prosecutors target 
organized crime and corruption.
  Agents and prosecutors may currently request authority to conduct 
wiretaps to investigate many serious offenses, including bribery of 
federal officials and even sports bribery, and may predicate RICO 
charges on these offenses, as well. It is only reasonable that these 
important tools also be available for investigating the similar and 
equally important offense of federal program bribery.
  Lastly, my bill authorizes $25 million in additional Federal funds 
over each of the next four years to give federal investigators and 
prosecutors needed resources to go after public corruption. Last month, 
FBI Director Mueller in written testimony to the Judiciary Committee 
called public corruption the FBI's top criminal investigative priority. 
However, a September 2005 Report by Department of Justice Inspector 
General Fine found that, from 2000 to 2004, there was an overall 
reduction in public corruption matters handled by the FBI. The report 
also found declines in resources dedicated to investigating public 
corruption, in corruption cases initiated, and in cases forwarded to US 
Attorney's Offices.
  I am heartened by Director Mueller's assertion that there has 
recently been an increase in the number of agents investigating public 
corruption cases and the number of cases investigated, but I remain 
concerned by the Inspector General's findings. I am concerned because 
the FBI in recent years has diverted resources away from criminal law 
priorities, including corruption, into counterterrorism. The FBI may 
need to divert further resources to cover the growing costs of 
Sentinel, their data management system. The Department of Justice has 
similarly diverted resources, particularly from United States 
Attorney's Offices.
  Additional funding is important to compensate for this diversion of 
resources and to ensure that corruption offenses are aggressively 
pursued. My bill will give the FBI, the United States Attorney's 
Offices, and the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice 
new resources to hire additional public corruption investigators and 
prosecutors. They can finally have the manpower they need to track down 
and make these difficult cases, and to root out the corruption.
  If we are serious about addressing the egregious misconduct that we 
have recently witnessed, Congress must enact meaningful legislation to 
give investigators and prosecutors the resources they need to enforce 
our public corruption laws. I strongly urge Congress to do more to 
restore the public's trust in their government.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                 S. 118

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Effective Corruption 
     Prosecutions Act of 2007''.

     SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR SERIOUS 
                   PUBLIC CORRUPTION OFFENSES.

       (a) In General.--Chapter 213 of title 18, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

     ``Sec. 3299. Corruption offenses

       ``Unless an indictment is returned or the information is 
     filed against a person within 8 years after the commission of 
     the offense, a person may not be prosecuted, tried, or 
     punished for a violation of, or a conspiracy or an attempt to 
     violate the offense in--
       ``(1) section 201 or 666;
       ``(2) section 1341, 1343, or 1346, if the offense involves 
     a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible 
     right of honest services of a public official;
       ``(3) section 1951, if the offense involves extortion under 
     color of official right;
       ``(4) section 1952, to the extent that the unlawful 
     activity involves bribery; or
       ``(5) section 1963, to the extent that the racketeering 
     activity involves bribery chargeable under State law, or 
     involves a violation of section 201 or 666.''.
       (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the 
     beginning of chapter 213 of title 18, United States Code, is 
     amended by adding at the end the following:

``3299. Corruption offenses.''.

       (c) Application of Amendment.--The amendments made by this 
     section shall not apply to any offense committed more than 5 
     years before the date of enactment of this Act.

     SEC. 3. INCLUSION OF FEDERAL PROGRAM BRIBERY AS A PREDICATE 
                   FOR INTERCEPTION OF WIRE, ORAL OR ELECTRONIC 
                   COMMUNICATIONS AND AS A PREDICATE FOR A 
                   RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS 
                   OFFENSE.

       (a) In General.--Section 2516(c) of title 18, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding after ``section 224 (bribery in 
     sporting contests),'' the following: ``section 666 (theft or 
     bribery concerning programs receiving Federal funds),''.
       (b) In General.--Section 1961 of title 18, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding after ``section 664 (relating to 
     embezzlement from pension and welfare funds),'' the 
     following: ``section 666 (relating to theft or bribery 
     concerning programs receiving Federal funds),''.

     SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION FOR ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL TO INVESTIGATE 
                   AND PROSECUTE PUBLIC CORRUPTION OFFENSES.

       There are authorized to be appropriated to the Department 
     of Justice, including the United States Attorneys' Offices, 
     the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Public Integrity 
     Section of the Criminal Division, $25,000,000 for each of the 
     fiscal years 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, to increase the 
     number of personnel to investigate and prosecute public 
     corruption offenses including sections 201, 203 through 209, 
     641, 654, 666, 1001, 1341, 1343, 1346, and 1951 of title 18, 
     United States Code.
                                 ______