[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 10 (Wednesday, January 23, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H428-H431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DEATH IN CUSTODY REPORTING ACT OF 2008
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 3971) to encourage States to report to the Attorney
General certain information regarding the deaths of individuals in the
custody of law enforcement agencies, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 3971
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 ``Death in Custody Reporting
Act of 2008''.
SEC. 2. INFORMATION REGARDING INDIVIDUALS WHO DIE IN THE
CUSTODY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT.
(a) In General.--For each fiscal year after the expiration
of the period specified in subsection (b)(1) in which a State
receives funds for a program referred to in subsection
(b)(2), the State shall report to the Attorney General, on a
quarterly basis and pursuant to guidelines established by the
Attorney General, information regarding the death of any
person who is detained, under arrest, or is in the process of
being arrested, is en route to be incarcerated, or is
incarcerated at a municipal or county jail, State prison,
State-run boot camp prison, boot camp prison that is
contracted out by the State, any State or local contract
facility, or other local or State correctional facility
(including any juvenile facility) that, at a minimum,
includes--
(1) the name, gender, race, ethnicity, and age of the
deceased;
(2) the date, time, and location of death;
(3) the law enforcement agency that detained, arrested, or
was in the process of arresting the deceased; and
(4) a brief description of the circumstances surrounding
the death.
(b) Compliance and Ineligibility.--
(1) Compliance date.--Each State shall have not more than
30 days from the date of enactment of this Act to comply with
subsection (a), except that--
(A) the Attorney General may grant an additional 30 days to
a State that is making good faith efforts to comply with such
subsection; and
(B) the Attorney General shall waive the requirements of
subsection (a) if compliance with such subsection by a State
would be unconstitutional under the constitution of such
State.
(2) Ineligibility for funds.--For any fiscal year after the
expiration of the period specified in paragraph (1), a State
that fails to comply with subsection (a) shall not receive 10
percent of the funds that would otherwise be allocated for
that fiscal year to the State under subpart 1 of part E of
title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of
1968 (42 U.S.C. 3750 et seq.), whether characterized as the
Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement
Assistance Programs, the Local Government Law Enforcement
Block Grants Program, the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice
Assistance Grant Program, or otherwise.
(c) Reallocation.--Amounts not allocated under a program
referred to in subsection (b)(2) to a State for failure to
fully comply with subsection (a) shall be reallocated under
that program to States that have not failed to comply with
such subsection.
(d) Definitions.--In this section the terms ``boot camp
prison'' and ``State'' have the meaning given those terms,
respectively, in section 901(a) of the Omnibus Crime Control
and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3791(a)).
SEC. 3. STUDY OF INFORMATION RELATING TO DEATHS IN CUSTODY.
(a) Study Required.--The Attorney General shall, subject to
the availability of appropriations under subsection (d),
through grant or contract, provide for a study of the
information reported under section 2 (regarding the death of
any person who is detained, under arrest, or is in the
process of being arrested, is en route to be incarcerated, or
is incarcerated at a municipal or county jail, State prison,
State-run boot camp prison, boot camp prison that is
contracted out by the State, any State or local contract
facility, or other local or State correctional facility
(including any juvenile facility)) to--
(1) determine means by which such information can be used
to reduce the number of such deaths; and
(2) examine the relationship, if any, between the number of
such deaths and the actions of management of such jails,
prisons, and other correctional facilities relating to such
deaths.
(b) Report.--Not later than 2 years after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall prepare and
submit to Congress a report that contains the findings of the
study required by subsection (a).
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this section $500,000 for
fiscal year 2009. Funds appropriated under this subsection
shall remain available until expended.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Scott) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.
General Leave
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Madam Speaker, H.R. 3971 is entitled the Death in Custody Reporting
Act of 2008. It will reauthorize the Death in Custody Reporting Act of
2000 which actually expired on December 31, 2006.
{time} 1445
This is a bipartisan effort which I introduced with my colleague from
Virginia, Representative Randy Forbes, and who was, at that time, the
ranking member of the Subcommittee on Crime. Its purpose is to provide
continued and improved oversight over the conduct of law enforcement
officials during arrest and imprisonment of fellow citizens.
Before the enactment of the Death in Custody Act of 2000, States and
localities had no uniform requirements for reporting the circumstances
surrounding the deaths of persons in their custody, and some had no
system for requiring such reports. The lack of uniform reporting
requirements made it impossible to ascertain how many people were dying
in custody and from what causes, although estimates by those concerned
suggested that there were more than 1,000 deaths in custody each year,
some under very suspicious circumstances.
Consequently, an environment of suspicion and concern arose
surrounding
[[Page H429]]
many of those deaths. Some that were ruled suicides or deaths from
natural causes were suspected of being homicides committed by officers,
fellow prisoners or others. Indifference to prisoner rights and the
safety of those in custody made scrutiny of suspected deaths a low
priority, so such questionable causes were rarely investigated.
In the mid-1980s, researchers, reporters, prison and jail
accreditation organizations, prison reformers, activists, and others
began to give more scrutiny to the death rate in our Nation's jails and
prisons and to the fact that such deaths were not being routinely
reported to anybody.
In fact, by 1986, only 25 States and the District of Columbia even
had jail inspection units. Moreover, even the States that did report
deaths did it on the basis of different reporting standards. The
insufficient data and the lack of uniformity of the data collected made
oversight of prisoner safety woefully inadequate.
However, the interest in oversight that emerged shed light on the
conditions in State and local jails, which began a rising tide of
wrongful death litigation. The increasing litigation forced some
measure of accountability, and conditions somewhat improved. Moreover,
activism and news of the litigation spurned by media interests, and
that shed further light on the conditions in our present jails and
prisons.
The watershed moment for bringing the death in custody rate to
national attention occurred in 1995. After a 1-year investigation by
journalist Mike Masterson into prison conditions and the death rate of
persons in custody, the Asbury Park Press of New Jersey ran a series of
award-winning editorials that brought the seriousness of the lack of
reporting to the Nation's attention. The editorials went on to detail
abuses, including racially motivated violence, overzealous police
investigations, cover-ups and general law enforcement incompetence,
which prompted Congress to take action.
Following successive introduction of bills in several Congresses by
my colleagues from Arkansas, first Representative Tim Hutchinson, then
later Representative Asa Hutchinson, the Death in Custody Reporting Act
of 2000 was passed. The law required States receiving certain Federal
grants to comply with reporting requirements established by the
Attorney General.
Since the enactment in 2000, the Bureau of Justice Statistics has
compiled a number of statistics detailing the circumstances of prisoner
deaths, the rate of deaths in prison and jails, and the rate of deaths
based on the size of various facilities and so forth. But the most
astounding statistic reported since the enactment of the bill before is
the latest Bureau of Justice statistics report dated August 2005, which
shows a 64 percent decline in suicides and a 93 percent decline in
homicides in custody since 1980. Those statistics showing a significant
decline in the death rate in our Nation's prisons and jails since
stricter oversight has been in place suggest that the oversight
measures, such as the Death in Custody Reporting Act, play an important
role in ensuring the safety and security of prisoners who are in the
custody of State facilities.
In considering the reauthorization of the bill, the Subcommittee on
Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security examined the statistics and
heard testimony from witnesses whose testimony also supported the
suggestion that oversight has actually improved conditions. Convinced
of the effectiveness of the Death in Custody Act, we resolved to not
only reauthorize it but also improve it.
To ascertain the most effective use of the statistical data, H.R.
3971 differs from the original bill in that it authorizes $500,000 for
a study to determine which policies and procedures have, in fact, led
to or at least assisted the decreasing death rate among prisoners.
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my good friend, Mr. Forbes, for
his support of the bill. I encourage my colleagues to support it.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, I support H.R. 3971, the Death in Custody Reporting
Act of 2007, and commend Chairman Conyers, Crime Subcommittee Chairman
Scott, and Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Gohmert for their
commitment to this bipartisan legislation.
The Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 directed the Justice
Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics to collect data on deaths
that occur in the process of arrest or during transfer after arrest, as
well as deaths that occur in jails and prisons.
H.R. 3971 reauthorizes this data collection program and directs the
Attorney General to commission a study to determine how to reduce
deaths in custody and to examine the relationship between deaths in
custody and the management of jail and prison facilities.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that between 2001 and 2005
there were 15,308 State prisoner deaths. The bureau also reports that
there were 5,935 local prisoner deaths and 43 juvenile deaths between
2000 and 2005.
Half of all State prisoner deaths are the result of heart disease and
cancer. Two-thirds involved inmates age 45 or older, and another two-
thirds are the result of medical problems that were present at the time
of admission.
Although illness-related deaths have slightly increased in recent
years, the homicide and suicide rates in State prisons have
dramatically decreased over the last 25 years. That is positive news,
but we still need to collect data to monitor these trends.
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may
consume to the gentlelady from Texas, a member of the Judiciary
Committee, Ms. Jackson-Lee.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank the distinguished gentleman, the
chairman of the subcommittee that I have the privilege of serving on,
the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism on the House Judiciary
Committee.
I thank the full committee chairman, Mr. Conyers, the ranking member
on the full committee and the ranking member on the subcommittee for
having two important initiatives, and I speak to the underlying bill
which addresses the question of death in custody, H.R. 3971.
I, too, want to applaud the fact that the existence of this
legislation is a strong statement that, in spite of individuals being
incarcerated in the criminal justice system, in the penal system, in
the prison system, that there is a responsibility; one for the safety
and security of those who are incarcerated, particularly, as well, that
younger and younger individuals are going into our criminal justice
system of which we hope to address as we look to these issues in the
coming year, work that has already been done in this committee. We hope
to see some of that legislation come to fruition.
I do want to speak specifically, Madam Speaker, to the concerns that
I see in the State of Texas. And it may be symbolic of many States,
particularly large States that have a very large penal system and a
criminal justice system, if you will, or incarceration rate, and say
that this legislation, in addition to reporting or requiring reporting
of the deaths and suggesting the ineligibility for funds, which I think
is an important statement, some instances of holding the particular
jurisdictional head responsible for some of, in this instance, the
deaths of individuals held in their particular facilities.
For example, about 3 weeks ago, in Houston, an individual was seen
being neck-choked by a custodian in the Harris County jail in Harris
County in Houston, Texas, and subsequently that inmate lost their life.
This has been an increasing occurrence in the Harris County jail. And
certainly there have been occurrences in the whole State system, but we
have a county jail system which people are either held for trial or
either they are actually serving their time there, and in the last
decade we've had 106 deaths, plus, in the Harris County jail. Many of
them have come about through the inability to secure medicine, to
secure medical care. One instance is an individual in his own pool of
blood, and the, if you will, caretaker, the guard, was asked to get
relief and he said, What do you expect for me to do, get a Band-Aid?
So in some instances the deaths are caused because of such horrific
occurrences, such egregious occurrences that
[[Page H430]]
there seems to be a necessity for additional penalties. So I would rise
to support this initiative, H.R. 3971, for the good work that it has
already done, look forward to working with the chairperson of the
subcommittee and the full committee Chair as we move toward the Senate
to ensure that this bill, in and of itself, becomes law, because I
think it's an important statement, but also it's a statement that saves
lives.
It is so tragic to hear from wives and mothers, fathers of those
incarcerated. These individuals have families. And I know that the
existence or the presence that they have in the jail system means that
there have been charges. Some of them in the local jails are being held
for trial, so, therefore, they have not been convicted. We owe, as a
civilized Nation, the kind of incarcerated presence that allows people
to live, to be tried by the judicial system, but to allow them to live
unless rendered another judgment by that system. So I think it is key
that we look at whether or not the actions are egregious as we proceed
to report on or receive reports made by our State Attorney General and
others.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3971, the
Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2007, introduced by my distinguished
colleague from Virginia, Representative Bobby Scott. This important
legislation will require that any State that receives certain criminal
justice assistance grants will be accountable to report the treatment
of inmates to both the Attorney General and to Congress.
How a government treats its detainees is a critical test for a
nation's civility and maturity. How we treat detainees, especially the
most vulnerable among them--detainees with medical conditions, be it
pre-existing or one developed after they have been taken into custody--
is an important measure of how humane our entire justice system is.
In the mid-1980s researcher and activist scrutiny of the death rate
in the Nation's jails and prisons began to emerge. The research focused
on criticism of jail and prison conditions from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Studies such as the ``National Study of Jail Suicides: Seven Years
Later,'' by Lindsay M. Hayes and Joseph R. Rowan in 1988, that examined
the death rate in jails and prisons found very little reporting of the
circumstances surrounding the deaths of prisoners. In fact by 1986,
only 25 States and the District of Columbia even had jail inspection
units. Moreover, even the States that did report deaths differed on
basic reporting standards. For example, jurisdictions differed on the
definition of ``custody,'' which made it difficult to determine whether
a prisoner had died during arrest, in a jail before trial, or post
conviction.
The insufficient data and the lack of uniformity of the data
collected made oversight of prisoner safety woefully inadequate.
However, the study brought to light the potential that oversight had
for improving conditions. The authors found that in the 1970s when
there was little or no focus on deaths in custody, it had been unusual
for a jail to be sued for negligence when a prisoner died in custody.
But by the 1980s it was unusual for a jail not to be sued. The interest
in oversight that emerged in the 1980s had shed light on conditions in
state and local jails and began a rising tide of wrongful death
litigation. The increasing litigation forced some measure of
accountability and conditions somewhat improved. Moreover, activism and
news of the litigation spurred media interest, which shed further light
on conditions.
In 1995, after conducting a 1-year investigation, the Asbury Park
Press of New Jersey ran a series of award-winning editorials that
brought the seriousness of the lack of reporting to the Nation's
attention. Among the examples the Asbury Park Press highlighted was the
story of Elmer Johnson of Charleston, MO. Mr. Johnson died in a jail
cell after he was arrested for ``failing to obey a police officer.''
The coroner ruled Mr. Johnson's death a suicide but evidence to the
contrary raised doubts. The editorials went on to detail abuses
including racism, overzealous police interrogations, coverups and
general police incompetence, which prompted congressional action.
Congress has a responsibility to investigate this issue and call for
reforms in order to ensure that dignity and respect for all human
beings in our immigration detention system is preserved.
Following successive bills being introduced by Representative Scott
of Virginia and Representative Hutchinson of Arkansas in several
Congresses, the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 was passed. The
law required States receiving grants to comply with reporting
requirements established by the Attorney General. Since the enactment
of the act, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, BJS, has compiled a
number of statistics detailing not only the circumstances of prisoner
deaths but the rates of deaths in prisons vs. jails and the rates of
deaths based on the sizes of the various facilities.
With the detailed statistical data, policy makers, both State and
Federal, can make informed policy judgments about the treatment of
prisoners, leading to great success in lowering the prisoner death
rate. In fact, since the focus on deaths in custody emerged in the mid-
1980s, the latest BJS report, dated August 2005, shows a 64 percent
decline in suicides and a 93 percent decline in the homicide rate,
which suggests that oversight measures such as the Deaths in Custody
Reporting Act play an important role in ensuring the safety and
security of prisoners who are in the custody of State facilities.
However, no actual study has been conducted to ascertain whether
there is indeed a cause and effect between the oversight and decreasing
death rate, and H.R. 2908 contained no provision to fund such a study.
Therefore, to ascertain whether the cause and effect exists and how to
make the most effective use of the statistical data, my good friend and
colleague, Chairman Scott and Ranking Member Forbes have introduced
H.R. 3971, the Death in Custody Act of 2007, of which I am a proud
cosponsor.
This revised legislation is imperative to ensuring that there is
justice within our justice system. H.R. 3971 includes all aspects of
H.R. 2908 but also authorizes $500,000 for a study to determine whether
the strengthened oversight has in fact led to or at least assisted the
decreasing death rate among prisoners. H.R. 3971 is thus an improvement
over H.R. 2908 in that with analysis accompanying the statistical data,
we can make yet further informed decisions about policy and oversight.
Congress has a responsibility to investigate this issue and call for
reforms in order to ensure that dignity and respect for all human
beings in our immigration detention system is preserved. This
legislation will hold States responsible to report to the Attorney
General on a quarterly basis regarding the death of any person who is
under arrest or is in the process of being arrested, en route to
incarceration, or incarcerated in State or local facilities. It
furthermore imposes penalties on States that fail to comply with such
reporting requirements and consequently will ensure that both the
Attorney General and the Congress stay informed on the deaths of any
and all persons in custody.
I hope that all of my colleagues will join me in supporting the Death
in Custody Act of 2007. Passage of H.R. 3971 would be the start of a
long overdue process to eliminate unnecessary mistreatment of
prisoners.
Might I just quickly acknowledge H.R. 3992, with the indulgence of
the Speaker, to applaud the, hoping, passage of this legislation that
deals with mental health. And let me just say one small point about the
mental health circumstance, and that is that the crisis of mental
health is seen across America. There are so many circumstances where
individuals suffering from severe schizophrenia and others are caught
in the criminal justice system, or unfortunately are called to the home
and confront the law enforcement system as opposed to the mental health
system, and that is before, of course, these individuals are
incarcerated. This has to do with offenders who are suffering from
mental illness, but I wanted to at least speak to the point that those
who don't get to the system because they are confronted through the
police system and unfortunately will lose their lives. What do elderly
persons do when a son or daughter is suffering from mental illness and,
unfortunately, has a breakdown in the house and reacts violently? It is
to call the police.
And so in addition to this very fine bill that deals with improving
mental health services for offenders so that when they come out they
are ready to adjust to the society in which they return, we also want
to look forward to the idea of providing resources for training of law
enforcement that we've discussed extensively in our subcommittee on
crime to help these people be advisedly trained to deal with this.
I cite as an example the desire by our local jurisdiction to, or the
request being made by our local jurisdiction, to pay an extra incentive
fee for those police officers that would take mental health training so
that they could be on a team, a task force to be called out when that
would occur. Unfortunately, the overall response by the city government
was not enough money. I think we should have enough money to save lives
and, hopefully, innovative legislation like H.R. 3992 sets the pace for
those new and innovative ideas on addressing the question of mental
illness among offenders who are incarcerated, but also that we address
many of
[[Page H431]]
the other questions that hopefully we'll have the opportunity to
address.
So it is my distinct pleasure to be able to rise to support the
underlying bill, H.R. 3971, and as well the previous bill, H.R. 3992.
And I thank the chairman for his leadership. And I think the criminal
justice system will be better for the passage of these two initiatives.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3992, the
Mentally III Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and
Improvement Act of 2007, introduced by my distinguished colleague from
Virginia, Representative Robert Scott. This bipartisan legislation is
designed to increase public safety by enabling coordination between the
criminal justice and mental health care systems to increase treatment
among this segment of the population.
The enormous growth in the national prison population has intensified
the problems presented by the needs of mentally ill inmates.
Frequently, mentally ill defendants are inappropriately placed into
criminal or juvenile corrections facilities, and the harmful impact
that this has on the individual and society is reflected in increased
recidivism rates, wasted administrative costs, and superfluous
overcrowding of corrections facilities, among other things. Among the
utmost dilemmas involved in managing the mentally ill prisoners is that
correctional staffing is seldom at an adequate level to supervise and
care for these prisoners, and correctional officers in many state
prisons have never received training in working with the mentally ill.
The Bureau of Justice reported that in 1998 over 280,000 individuals
in jail or prison and approximately 550,000 of those on probation had a
mental impairment. The mentally ill are disproportionately represented
in jails and prisons. Five percent of all Americans have a serious
mental illness, but 16 to 20 percent of incarcerated individuals have a
mental impairment. Any individual who is enrolled in a juris doctorate
program is familiar with two key terms in criminal law, Actus Reas and
Mens Rea. Actus Reas is associated with the guilty act, while Mens Rea
is associated with the guilty mind. Both elements are required to
achieve a successful conviction in our criminal law system. Mental
health offenders may have committed the physical, guilty act, but they
are incapable of having the mind capacity to commit the crime. The act
does not make a person guilty unless the mind is also guilty.
The prevalence of the mentally ill in the criminal justice system has
been the subject of many recent studies. The U.S. Department of
Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics reported last July that at least
16 percent of the U.S. prison population is seriously mentally ill. The
highest rate of reported serious mental illness is among white female
inmates, at 29 percent. For white females age 24 or younger, this level
rises to almost 40 percent. The American Jail Association estimates
that 600,000 to 700,000 people suffering from serious mental illness
are being booked into jail each year.
The National Alliance for the Mentally III reports that on any given
day, at least 284,000 schizophrenic and manic depressive individuals
and manic depressive individuals are incarcerated, while only 187,000
seriously mentally ill individuals are in mental health facilities.
Additionally, there are approximately 547,800 seriously mentally ill
people who are currently on probation. These statistics seem to
indicate that the mentally ill are unjustifiably burdening the criminal
justice system.
There is a dire need for resources that will provide vital
resolutions to the crisis, expand diversion programs, community-based
treatment, re-entry services, and improved treatment during
incarceration. The reauthorization of the Mentally Ill Offender
Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 recognizes that true
partnerships between the mental health and criminal and juvenile
corrections systems and between the Federal and State Governments are
needed to meet these challenges. Indeed, this bill requires that
Federal funds authorized under this program be supplemented with
contributions from the States, local governments, and tribal
organizations.
Madam Speaker, Congress has an obligation to legislate to protect the
community from those who become aggressive or violent because of mental
illness. We also have a responsibility to see that the offender
receives the proper treatment for his or her illness. Far too often,
mental illness goes undiagnosed, and many in our prison system would do
better in alternative settings designed to handle their particular
needs.
In Texas, past treatment of mentally ill offenders illustrates the
need for legislation such as H.R. 3992. Senior U.S. District Judge
William Wayne Justice, who is experienced in dealing with mentally ill
prisoners in Texas, ruled in 1980 that the Texas prison system is
unconstitutional and placed it under Federal control for 30 years. In
Judge Justice's estimation, the Texas laws that apply to the mentally
ill ``lack compassion and emphasize vengeance.'' KPFT news reported him
as having said,
We have allowed the spirit of vengeance such unrivaled sway
in our dealings with those who commit crime that we have
ceased to consider properly whether we have taken adequate
account of the role that mental impairment may play in the
determination of moral responsibility. As a result, we punish
those who we cannot justly blame. Such result is not, I
believe worthy of a civil society.
This legislation in an important first step towards restructuring a
system that has operated in a disjointed and unsympathetic manner for
far too long. We must continue to make this legislation adequately
effective to preserve the lives of defendants who are actually victims.
I am proud to support this legislation and I strongly urge my
colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation and calling for
the appropriate treatment and recognition of mentally ill offenders.
{time} 1500
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Madam Speaker, I have no other speakers on this
side, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I have no other speakers, and I
urge my colleagues to support the legislation. I yield back the balance
of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 3971, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
The title was amended so as to read: ``A bill to encourage States to
report to the Attorney General certain information regarding the deaths
of individuals in the custody of law enforcement agencies, and for
other purposes.''.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________