[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 155 (Saturday, September 27, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9994-S9995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PUBLIC CORRUPTION PROSECUTION IMPROVEMENTS ACT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, more than a year ago, I introduced a bill 
aimed at restoring Americans' faith in their elected officials. The 
bipartisan Public Corruption Prosecutions Improvements Act would 
complement the accomplishments this Congress has made in passing 
important ethics and lobbying reforms by giving law enforcement 
additional tools and resources to root out corrupt conduct. Although 
the Judiciary Committee reported the bill last November, it has been 
stalled on the Senate floor for nearly a year. In the waning days of 
this Congress, we should take the opportunity to take up and promptly 
pass this critical legislation.
  Since the bill's introduction, we have seen repeated instances of 
rampant and corrosive corruption at all levels of government, including 
at key Federal agencies. Just this month, the Office of Inspector 
General for the Department of the Interior documented numerous 
instances where the ``royalty-in-kind'' program--a program that 
collects billions of dollars from private companies that tap key energy 
resources--was corrupted by Federal employees who accepted benefits 
from energy companies ``with prodigious frequency.'' Investigators and 
prosecutors must have the resources and tools they need to go after 
this kind of corrupt conduct that compromises America's security. Too 
often, though, strained budgets and loopholes in existing corruption 
laws mean that corrupt conduct goes unchecked or simply cannot be 
prosecuted.
  Make no mistake: the stain of corruption has spread to all levels of 
Government and has affected both major political parties. This is not a 
Democratic or Republican problem--it is an American problem that 
victimizes every single one of us by chipping away at the foundations 
of our democracy. Congress must send a strong signal that it will not 
tolerate public corruption by providing better tools for Federal 
investigators and prosecutors to combat it. This bill will do exactly 
that.
  We are also just now learning the role of fraud and perhaps 
corruption in the catastrophic unraveling of the financial markets and 
the economy. Prosecutors must have every tool at their disposal to 
restore accountability. This bill will strengthen the tools prosecutors 
have to crack down on these insidious crimes.
  The bill gives investigators and prosecutors more time and resources 
to effectively enforce existing anti-corruption laws. Specifically, it 
extends the statute of limitations from 5 to 6 years for the most 
serious public corruption offenses. Public corruption cases are among 
the most difficult and time-consuming cases to investigate and 
prosecute. Bank fraud, arson and passport fraud, among other offenses, 
all have 10-year statutes of limitations. Public corruption offenses 
cut to the heart of our democracy, and a more modest increase to the 
statute of limitations is a reasonable step to help our corruption 
investigators and prosecutors do their jobs.

[[Page S9995]]

  The bill would also provide significant and much-needed additional 
funding for public corruption enforcement. Since September 11, 2001, 
Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, resources have been shifted away 
from the pursuit of white collar crime to counterterrorism. FBI 
Director Mueller has said recently that public corruption is now among 
the FBI's top investigative priorities, but a September 2005 report by 
the Department of Justice inspector general found that, from 2000 to 
2004, there was an overall reduction in public corruption matters 
handled by the FBI. More recently, a study by the research group 
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found that the prosecution 
of all kinds of white collar crimes is down 27 percent since 2000, and 
official corruption cases have dropped in the same period by 14 
percent. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that the 
investigation of a Federal elected official stalled for 6 months 
because the investigating U.S. Attorney's Office could not afford to 
replace the prosecutor who had previously handled the case.
  We must reverse this trend and make sure that law enforcement has the 
tools and the funding it needs to address serious and corrosive crimes 
occurring right here at home. Efforts to combat terrorism and official 
corruption are not mutually exclusive. A bribed customs official who 
allows a terrorist to smuggle a dirty bomb into our country, or a 
corrupt consular officer who illegally supplies U.S. entry visas to 
would-be terrorists, can cause grave harm to our national security.
  This bill goes further by amending several key statutes to broaden 
their application in corruption and fraud contexts. This series of 
fixes will prevent corrupt public officials and their accomplices from 
evading or defeating prosecution based on existing legal ambiguities. 
For example, the bill includes a fix to the gratuities statute that 
makes clear that public officials may not accept anything of value, 
other than what is permitted by existing regulations, given to them 
because of their official position.
  The bill also appropriately expands the definition of what it means 
for a public official to perform an ``official act'' for the purposes 
of the bribery statute and closes several other gaps in current law.
  Finally, the bill raises the statutory maximum penalties for several 
laws dealing with official misconduct, including theft of government 
property and bribery. These increases reflect the serious and corrosive 
nature of these crimes, and would harmonize the punishment for these 
crimes with other similar statutes.
  This bipartisan bill is supported by the Department of Justice and by 
a wide array of public interest groups that have long advocated for 
vigorous enforcement of our fraud and public corruption laws, including 
the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of 
Women Voters, Public Citizen, and U.S. PIRG.
  If we are serious about addressing the kinds of egregious misconduct 
that we have recently witnessed in high-profile public corruption 
cases, Congress must enact meaningful legislation to give investigators 
and prosecutors the tools and resources they need to enforce our laws. 
Passing last year's ethics and lobbying reform bill was a step in the 
right direction. But we must finish the job by strengthening the 
criminal law to enable Federal investigators and prosecutors to bring 
those who undermine the public trust to justice. I am disappointed that 
Republican objections have prevented the full Senate from passing this 
critical bill. I ask those Republicans Senators who are objecting to 
proceeding to this anticorruption legislation and to passing it to 
please reconsider before it is too late. Let us join together in taking 
bipartisan action.

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