Reporting Efficiency Improvement Act

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 6189, the Reporting Efficiency Improvement Act, eliminates two reporting requirements that the Department of Justice deems no longer needy or useful to the Congress.

Under the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act, the Department of Justice conducts an annual review of statutory reporting requirements that are outdated, duplicative, or otherwise no longer useful. In this review, the Department identified two reports that are the subject of the bill before us now. The first of the two stems from the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act, under which the Attorney General is required to report to Congress on various grants made to States to perform DNA analysis. Because Congress has not appropriated any funding for these specific grants since fiscal year 2003, this statutory reporting requirement has been obsolete for almost a decade.

The second report is based on the Police Corps Act, originally a part of the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994. The Director of the Office of the Police Corps is required to make an annual report to Congress on the program's status. However, Congress hasn't appropriated any funds for the office since fiscal year 2005.

So, H.R. 6189 is a simple cleanup of the Federal code. There is no need to have these reporting requirements on the books if there's no activity for the Department of Justice or the Office of Justice Programs to report, and none planned at any time in the near future.

It's important to note that this legislation doesn't make changes to the relevant programs; it merely eliminates discrete reporting requirements that are no longer useful.

I want to thank Lamar Smith, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, for his support and eagerness in moving this legislation through the committee.

I urge my colleagues to support the measure. And having no other requests for additional speakers on this side, I yield back the balance of my time.

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.

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.

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. Speaker, I have no further speakers on this side, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6189) to eliminate unnecessary reporting requirements for unfunded programs under the Office of Justice Programs, as amended.

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. 6189, as amended, currently under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I join the ranking member, Congressman Conyers, in cosponsoring this commonsense, bipartisan bill, the Reporting Efficiency Improvement Act, and I thank him for introducing this legislation.

The Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 requires Federal agencies to identify reports that may be outdated or duplicative. Then the executive branch must consult with Congress to determine if these reports can be eliminated. Here, the administration suggests that Congress repeal the two reports eliminated by this bill. Both of these reports are prepared by the Office of Justice Programs and the Department of Justice, but the underlying grant programs have not been funded by Congress for many years. Adopting this commonsense bill is a simple step that Congress can take to help Federal agencies work more efficiently. I hope this bill sets a precedent for many similar bills in the future.

I again thank Mr. Conyers for his initiative on this issue. I would urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I first want to thank the ranking member, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), for his nice comments, and I'll yield back the balance of my time as well.

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. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 6189 and the Senate proceed to its consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.