From Overcriminalized.com:
Table of Contents
New:
•S. 3589: Carbon Capture and Sequestration Deployment Act of 2010
•S. 3591: Carbon Capture and Sequestration Deployment Act of 2010
•S. 3651: STALKERS Act of 2010
Updates:
•H.R. 5663: Robert C. Byrd Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010
•H.R. 5566: Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010
•H.R. 5138: International Megan's Law of 2010
•H.R. 3804: National Park Service Authorities and Corrections Act of 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S. 3589: Carbon Capture and Sequestration Deployment Act of 2010
Sponsor: Rockefeller (D - WV)
Official Title: A bill to provide financial incentives and a regulatory framework to facilitate the development and early deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technologies, and for other purposes.
Status:
7/14/2010: Introduced in Senate
7/14/2010: Referred to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Commentary: This bill would establish the Carbon Storage Stewardship Board as an independent agency within the Department of Energy and empower it to prescribe rules and regulations relating to the operation of carbon storage facilities. Any person that “knowingly and willfully violates any provision” of the bill “or any rule or order thereunder” would be subject to imprisonment for up to two years, a fine of $50,000, or both. This measure is nearly identical to S. 3591, which was simultaneously introduced in the Senate.
S. 3591: Carbon Capture and Sequestration Deployment Act of 2010
Sponsor: Rockefeller (D - WV)
Official Title: A bill to provide financial incentives and a regulatory framework to facilitate the development and early deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technologies, and for other purposes.
Status:
7/14/2010: Introduced in Senate
7/14/2010: Referred to Senate Finance Committee
Commentary: This bill would establish the Carbon Storage Stewardship Board as an independent agency within the Department of Energy and empower it to prescribe rules and regulations relating to the operation of carbon storage facilities. Any person that “knowingly and willfully violates any provision” of the bill “or any rule or order thereunder” would be subject to imprisonment for up to two years, a fine of $50,000, or both. This measure is nearly identical to S. 3589, which was simultaneously introduced in the Senate.
S. 3651: STALKERS Act of 2010
Sponsor: Klobuchar (D - MN)
Official Title: A bill to amend Title 18, United States Code, with respect to the offense of stalking.
Status:
7/27/2010: Introduced in Senate
7/27/2010: Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee
Commentary: This bill is the Senate version of H.R. 5662, with some very minor changes. Section 2261A(1) of Title 18, U.S. Code, presently makes stalking illegal when the prohibited conduct involves “travel[] in interstate or foreign commerce or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or enter[ing] or leav[ing] Indian country.” This bill would also make stalking unlawful when the prohibited conduct occurs “in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.” It would define stalking as conduct engaged in “with intent to kill, physically injure, harass, or intimidate a person . . . that causes or attempts to cause bodily injury or serious emotional distress” or “occurs in circumstances where the conduct would be reasonably expected to cause the other person serious emotional distress.” This bill would also provide for the enhancement of the punishments for any violation, which are presently set out in 18 U.S.C § 2261(b), in specified circumstances. If the conduct involves the violation of a protective order and the victim is under the age of 18 or over the age of 65, the offender is 18 years old or older, and the offender knows or should know that the victim is under the age of 18 or over the age of 65, the term of imprisonment that may be imposed would be increased by up to 5 years.
H.R. 5663: Robert C. Byrd Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010
Sponsor: Miller (D - CA)
Official Title: A bill to improve compliance with mine and occupational safety and health laws, empower workers to raise safety concerns, prevent future mine and other workplace tragedies, establish rights of families of victims of workplace accidents, and for other purposes.
Status:
7/1/2010: Introduced in House
7/1/2010: Referred to House Education and Labor Committee
7/13/2010: Hearing Held by House Education and Labor Committee
7/21/2010: Mark up in the House Education and Labor Committee
7/21/2010: Ordered to be reported
7/29/2010: Reported to House
7/29/2010: Referred to House Judiciary Committee
7/29/2010: Discharged House Judiciary Committee
7/29/2010: Placed on House calendar
Commentary: Section 820(d) of Title 30, U.S. Code, currently prohibits “willfully” violating a mandatory mining health or safety standard or “knowingly” violating or refusing to comply with certain orders issued by the Secretary of Labor. This bill would significantly lower the protectiveness of the mental state required to prove a violation of a mandatory health and safety standard from “willfully” to “knowingly.” Violators are currently subject to imprisonment for up to one year, a fine of up to $250,000, or both on the first conviction, and imprisonment for up to 5 years, a fine of $500,000, or both for subsequent violations. This bill would increase the penalty for first violations to imprisonment for up to 5 years, a fine of $1,000,000, or both, and the penalty for subsequent violations to imprisonment for up to 10 years, a fine of $2,000,000, or both. Under 30 U.S.C. § 820(c), a director, officer, or agent of a corporate violator who “knowingly authorized, ordered, or carried out” the conduct leading to the violation is subject to prosecution to the same extent as the corporation. This provision will not necessarily be interpreted by the courts to require the government to prove that the director, officer, or agent had any actual knowledge that what he or she authorized, ordered, or carried out was unlawful.
H.R. 5566: Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010
Sponsor: Gallegly (D - CA)
Official Title: A bill to amend Title 18, United States Code, to prohibit interstate commerce in animal crush videos, and for other purposes.
Status:
6/22/2010: Introduced in House
6/22/2010: Referred to House Judiciary Committee
6/23/2010: Mark up in the House Judiciary Committee
6/23/2010: Ordered to be reported
7/19/2010: Reported to House
7/21/2010: House passage of amended bill under suspension of rules.
7/22/2010: Received in Senate
8/5/2010: Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee
Commentary: This bill replaces H.R. 5092 and is a response to the U. S. Supreme Court’s April 2010 decision in United States v. Stevens, in which the Court found that 18 U.S.C. § 48, which prohibits the commercial creation, sale, or possession of certain depictions of animal cruelty, violated the First Amendment because it was substantially overbroad. The Court noted, among other things, that the reach of § 48 was so broad that it would include depictions of hunting activities. Because the statute applied to depicted conduct that was illegal in any state where the depiction was created, sold, or possessed, the Court also observed that a “depiction of entirely lawful conduct runs afoul of the ban if that depiction finds its way into another State where the same conduct is illegal.” This bill would prohibit the knowing sale or distribution in interstate or foreign commerce of “animal crush videos” and create safe harbors for depictions of veterinary or animal husbandry practices and depictions of hunting, trapping, or fishing. It would apply to depictions of actual conduct that violate a criminal prohibition on cruelty to animals under Federal law “or the law of the State in which the depiction is created, sold, distributed, or offered for sale or distribution.”
H.R. 5138: International Megan's Law of 2010
Sponsor: Smith (R - NJ)
Official Title: A bill to protect children from sexual exploitation by mandating reporting requirements for convicted sex traffickers and other registered sex offenders against minors intending to engage in international travel, providing advance notice of intended travel by high interest registered sex offenders outside the United States to the government of the country of destination, requesting foreign governments to notify the United States when a known child sex offender is seeking to enter the United States, and for other purposes.
Status:
4/26/2010: Introduced in House
4/26/2010: Referred to House Foreign Affairs Committee
4/26/2010: Referred to House Judiciary Committee
7/27/2010: Reported to House
7/27/2010: Reported to House
7/27/2010: Placed on House calendar
7/27/2010: House passage of amended bill under suspension of rules.
7/28/2010: Received in Senate
8/5/2010: Referred to Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Commentary: This bill would create a federal registry for convicted sex offenders who travel abroad. The bill would also require U.S. diplomatic missions in foreign countries to establish and maintain country-wide sex offender registries for sex offenders from the United States who temporarily or permanently reside in each country. An offender’s “knowing” failure to comply with the reporting requirements of these registration systems “after being duly notified of the requirements” would be punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years, a fine as authorized by Title 18, U.S. Code, or both.
H.R. 3804: National Park Service Authorities and Corrections Act of 2009
Sponsor: Tonko (D - NY)
Official Title: A bill to make technical corrections to various acts affecting the National Park Service, to extend, amend or establish certain National Park Service authorities, and for other purposes.
Status:
10/13/2009: Introduced
10/13/2009: Referred to House Natural Resources Committee
10/13/2009: Referred to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
10/13/2009: Referred to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
10/14/2009: Referred to Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
11/5/2009: Hearing Held by Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
11/18/2009: Discharged Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
11/18/2009: Mark up in the House Natural Resources Committee
12/7/2009: Reported to House by House Natural Resources Committee
12/7/2009: Discharged House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
12/7/2009: Discharged House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
12/7/2009: House passage of amended bill under suspension of rules.
12/8/2009: Received in Senate
12/8/2009: Referred to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
3/17/2010: Hearing Held by Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
6/21/2010: Mark up in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
6/21/2010: Ordered to be reported Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
8/5/2010: Reported to Senate by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
8/5/2010: Placed on Senate calendar
Commentary: This bill makes technical corrections to certain acts affecting the National Park Service. Included in the bill is a provision clarifying that if a violation of a national park regulation “occurs within a park, site, monument, or memorial that is part of the National Park System,” violators are subject to the penalties specified in two other sections of the U.S. Code. Applicable penalties for violations of the Secretary of Interior’s published rules and regulations include a fine of up to $500 or up to six months imprisonment. For other federal criminal code violations, applicable criminal fines against individuals include up to $5,000 for infractions and up to $250,000 for felonies (or misdemeanors resulting in death). The criminal fines against corporations include up to $10,000 for infractions and up to $500,000 for felonies (or misdemeanors resulting in death).
"Overcriminalization" includes applying criminal sanctions to conduct that traditionally has not been considered inherently wrongful, federalizing crime that properly belongs under state jurisdiction, and attaching criminal penalties without criminal intent. Reasonable people may disagree whether any specific bill included in the Legislative Update Alert is an abuse of criminal law or is in fact justified. Nevertheless, the Legislative Update Alert includes all bills our researchers have identified that add or enhance federal criminal penalties. Please visit us at Overcriminalized.com
No comments:
Post a Comment