CURBING CONGRESS’S CRIME ADDICTION:

The 114th Congress convenes next week and Republicans are discussing major reform from taxes to immigration. A smaller but still refreshing change would give more careful review when creating new federal crimes.

On Monday the House Republican conference will debate the rules of the chamber, including a measure to refer proposed new criminal offenses to the House Judiciary Committee. This is supposed to be the routine practice, but Members can sidestep Judiciary by adding to an existing statute.

This loophole can contribute to over-criminalization or duplicating state law. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports that 403 crimes were added to the federal code between 2008 and 2013, 39 of which weren’t referred to the Judiciary Committee. Two examples that might have benefitted from referral are the crimes for harvesting plants under the Lacey Act (the 110th Congress) and attending animal fighting events (the 113th Congress).

There are already about 4,500 criminal statutes on the federal books. Wisconsin Republican and former Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner notes that nearly half of the federal criminal provisions enacted since the Civil War have been added since 1970. The CRS researchers didn’t even count regulatory crimes added to the Code of Federal Regulations.

The Judiciary Committee convened a bipartisan task force in May 2013 to address the proliferation of criminal laws, and its work has been useful. The proposed rule change has bipartisan and cross-ideological support, from the Heritage Foundation to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

This is exactly the sort of thing that I talk about in my Ham Sandwich Nation piece. I’m happy to see some small progress on the horizon.