[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 135 (Friday, September 18, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1317]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                  LAWSUIT ABUSE REDUCTION ACT OF 2015

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 17, 2015

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 758 the so-
called ``Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2015'' or LARA.
  Congress has only seven legislative days left before the government 
shuts down and vital programs and departments are left unfunded. We 
should be debating and voting on budgetary measures to make sure that 
the government can still function and remains open. We are here 
instead, discussing a bill that has been introduced every Congress 
since 2011. Instead of voting on ways the government will stay open so 
we can continue to fund vital national priorities, we are here talking 
about legislation that does not solve any demonstrated need.
  This bill seeks to fix the problem of frivolous lawsuits by enacting 
a law that used to exist and which judges themselves later rejected. A 
mandatory sanction of Rule 11 violations was an experiment that was 
tried in 1983 and was dismissed and abandoned just ten years later in 
1993. Almost 100 percent of federal judges surveyed by the Federal 
Judicial Committee state that Rule 11 should not be altered in the way 
this Act envisions and 86 percent of judges think the existing rule is 
fine as is.
  This bill will increase the cost and volume of cases and make it 
exponentially harder to advance civil rights suits. Landmark civil 
rights cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, Griswold v. 
Connecticut, and Lawrence v. Texas would not have survived if Rule 11 
existed as this bill envisions. We should not put up barriers to 
continuing civil rights progress through the courts.
  This bill is opposed by The American Bar Association, The Federal 
Judicial Center and countless other legal organizations. Their voices 
are clear: leave Rule 11 and judicial autonomy alone. Congress does not 
need to ``fix'' a problem that simply does not exist.
  The Judiciary Committee report says that this law would ``dispel the 
culture of fear that has come to permeate American society.'' American 
society does not fear the existing process for Rule 11 sanctions. The 
American public is concerned about roads not being built, about the 
government shutting down, and about losing their health care coverage.
  The American public does not want the government to shutdown. They 
have been there and done that. The last government shut down costs the 
American people $24 billion dollars in lost economic output. That is 
why I introduced the Prevent a Government Shutdown Act of 2015. That is 
what we should be debating and voting on right now, Mr. Speaker. Not a 
law that was tried and rejected 22 years ago.

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