[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12205]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               LACEY ACT

  (Mr. FLEMING asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. FLEMING. Mr. Speaker, an American can be tried in a U.S. court 
and sent to an American prison for violating an obscure foreign law. 
Yes, you heard that right. That has already happened under a little-
known provision in the Lacey Act.
  The Lacey Act became the law in 1900 as a good protection against 
poachers, but it's been expanded since. Now, if you unknowingly import 
a product that violates a regulation from an exporting country, you can 
end up in a U.S. Federal courtroom and sent to a Federal prison.
  One seafood importer spent 6 years in jail for importing lobsters 
that violated a regulation in Honduras. A few lobster tails were too 
small, and they were shipped in plastic instead of cardboard. Even the 
Honduran Government said these rules were obsolete.
  Then Gibson Guitar had to pay $350,000 to settle Federal charges that 
the company bought wood from Madagascar that was a sixth of an inch too 
thick.
  It's time to end unreasonable and unconstitutional prosecutions of 
Americans on American soil for obscure foreign laws. The Lacey Act 
violates the rule of law and it needs to be changed.

                          ____________________