Goodlatte outlines House Judiciary Committee’s priorities at Ripon Society event

U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) cited criminal justice and immigration reform as top priorities of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday at a Ripon Society event.

Goodlatte, the chairman of the committee, said that bipartisan, bicameral progress has been made on legislation that aims to reform the criminal justice system.

“This is an extraordinarily bipartisan, bicameral effort,” Goodlatte said. “It has involved a number of meetings at the White House with House members, senators, the president and the vice president. Every line of the eight bills that we’ve passed out of the committee thus far has been negotiated line-by-line with the Democratic minority. We anticipate having at least one more criminal justice reform bill come before the committee for consideration very soon. And then we’re going to bring bills to the floor dealing with prison reform, sentencing reform and criminal intent reform. All of these are very important, and I believe all will have very strong bipartisan support.”

Immigration reform that would help strengthen national security is also a priority, Goodlatte added.

The committee has advanced seven immigration reform bills, including the Asylum Control and Border Protection Act, H.R. 1153, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).

Additionally, as the co-chair of both the Congressional Internet Caucus and the International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus, Goodlatte cited cybersecurity issues, and encryption reform in particular, as a top committee priority.

“It’s important to stress that encryption is a good thing,” Goodlatte said. “It prevents crime, it prevents terrorist attacks, and it keeps our most valuable information safe. Yet, it is not used as effectively today as is necessary to protect against the ever-increasing sophistication of foreign governments, criminal enterprises and just plain hackers. So, as we work our way through this, we need to be encouraging technology companies to develop stronger and stronger encryption as we find ways to help law enforcement deal with that. Obviously, that is a major challenge.”

Goodlatte also discussed patent litigation reform, noting that the committee advanced the bipartisan Innovation Act, H.R. 9, last year.

“Everyone from independent inventors, to start-ups, to mid and large sized businesses face this constant threat,” Goodlatte said. “Tens of billions of dollars squandered on settlements and litigation expenses associated with abusive patent suits represent truly wasted capital — capital that could have been used to create new jobs, fund research and development, and create new innovation and technology start-up businesses. The Innovation Act takes the necessary steps to address abusive patent litigation while protecting legitimate property rights.”