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“ELIMINATION OF A REPORTING REQUIREMENT FOR UNFUNDED DNA IDENTIFICATION GRANT PROGRAM” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6650 on Dec. 5, 2012.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ELIMINATION OF A REPORTING REQUIREMENT FOR UNFUNDED DNA IDENTIFICATION
GRANT PROGRAM
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6605) to eliminate an unnecessary reporting requirement for an unfunded DNA Identification grant program.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 6605
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. ELIMINATION OF REPORT REQUIREMENT.
Section 2406 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796kk-5) is repealed.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
General Leave
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 6605, currently under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I join the ranking member, Mr. Conyers, in cosponsoring this commonsense, bipartisan bill which eliminates an unnecessary reporting requirement on the States from an unfunded Federal grant program.
Earlier this year, I cosponsored, with Mr. Conyers, H.R. 6189, the Reporting Efficiency Improvement Act. In response to a specific request from the administration, H.R. 6189 eliminated two reports that the Department of Justice was required to prepare for grant programs that have not been funded by Congress for many years. One of these grant programs is the DNA Identification Act of 1994. On October 5, the President signed into law H.R. 6189.
H.R. 6605, the bill before the House today, does for the States what H.R. 6189 did for the Federal Government: It eliminates the statutory requirement for States to report to the Attorney General about grants from the DNA Identification Act of 1994. Because Congress has not funded this grant program in nearly a decade, this statutory reporting requirement is unnecessary.
I again thank Mr. Conyers, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, for his initiative on this issue, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
To our colleagues, this measure before us now, H.R. 6605, is a noncontroversial bill that makes a single technical correction to the U.S. Code. Under the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010, the Department of Justice conducts an annual review of statutory reporting requirements that are outdated, duplicative, or otherwise no longer useful to Congress. After conducting that review, the Department recommended we eliminate two reports, both related to programs that have not received funding from Congress for the better part of a decade. Last September, with the support of Chairman Lamar Smith, Congress passed H.R. 6189, the Reporting Efficiency Improvement Act, to remove these two reporting requirements from the Federal code. President Obama signed H.R. 6189 into law on October 5 of this year.
The bill before us today makes a single technical correction to the Federal code in order to reflect the changes we made earlier this year. Specifically, the legislation eliminates a cross-reference to a report that, after the enactment of H.R. 6189, no longer exists. This bill is a housekeeping measure and nothing more.
I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers on this side, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 6605.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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