SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act

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

Mr. Speaker, one of the most important responsibilities the House gives the House Committee on the Judiciary is to oversee the revision and codification of the statutes of the United States.

Keeping track of the new laws Congress passes every session is a formidable challenge, but it is an essential part of maintaining the rule of law in our country. It is a role we take seriously on the House Committee on the Judiciary.

I thank the chairman of the committee for bringing this legislation to the floor on a bipartisan basis today to further this important duty.

The body of Federal law is so large and complex at this point that it would be almost completely unmanageable without the United States Code. Currently consisting of 54 titles, the code compiles the general and permanent laws of the United States into coherent subject areas. This makes our Federal laws accessible both to the government officials who work to fairly administer them and to the private citizens who seek the benefits or relief the laws provide them.

To date, 27 of these 54 titles have been enacted into ``positive law,'' which means the text of these titles is itself the law while the remaining titles are ``non-positive,'' meaning they organize Federal statutes for users' convenience but do not themselves have the force of law.

The painstaking and vital work of maintaining and updating the code falls to the expert lawyers working under the supervision of the House in the Office of the Law Revision Counsel. We owe a great debt to these attorneys who ably carry out their statutory mandate ``to develop and keep current an official and positive codification of the laws of the United States,'' while maintaining strict impartiality as to legislative policy.

H.R. 7324 is the first of five bills that we are taking up today that make conforming changes to statutes that have been impacted by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel's positive law codification efforts while making no change in the meaning or effect of any existing laws.

This legislation will help ensure that the code is an authoritative, accurate, and accessible source of Federal law, and I thank the gentlewoman from Vermont (Ms. Balint) for introducing the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Vermont (Ms. Balint).

Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation, and I encourage my colleagues to do the same. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the House Committee on the Judiciary is tasked with the underappreciated yet critical responsibility to oversee the revision and codification of the statutes of the United States.

I appreciate that today we are continuing the strong bipartisan tradition of ensuring that the U.S. Code is current and accurate.

Currently consisting of 54 titles, the U.S. Code compiles the general and permanent laws of the United States into subject areas. This categorization makes our Federal laws much more accessible both to government officials but also to private citizens who seek the benefit or relief the laws provide to them.

The painstaking work in maintaining and updating the U.S. Code falls to the expert lawyers working under the supervision of the House and the Office of the Law Revision Counsel. I am grateful to them for their hard work and dedication to the rule of law.

H.R. 7324 makes technical corrections to the U.S. Code. It is part of an effort to codify positive law in the U.S. Code. Specifically, the bill makes conforming amendments related to public contracts under title 41 of the code.

The statutory changes made by these bills are purely technical. They do not change the meaning or the effect of any existing laws. They simply ensure that the code is an authoritative, accurate, and accessible source of Federal law.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Nadler and Chairman Jordan for the bipartisan way in which they have moved these bills. I encourage my House colleagues to support the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 7324) to make improvements in the enactment of title 41, United States Code, into a positive law title and to improve the Code.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 7324.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7324. This bill was prepared for the House Committee on the Judiciary by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

Congress enacted a restatement of title 41 into a positive law title more than 13 years ago in January 2011. Since that time, Congress has continued to legislate on matters within title 41, which necessitates the bill to update that title before us today.

This bill does not change the substance of any law on the books. It simply updates title 41 to account for laws passed by Congress since 2011. The bill also updates and corrects technical matters, such as cross-references to other parts of the U.S. Code that have changed since 2011.

I thank my colleagues on the House Committee on the Judiciary for the bipartisan way that we handle these bills. I urge support of H.R. 7324, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve and am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the bill also, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered to be the first sponsor of H.R. 5408, the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act, a bill originally introduced by Representative Brian Higgins of New York, for the purposes of adding cosponsors and requesting reprintings pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII.