Prepared Statement of Ranking Member Chuck Grassley
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
“Holding Criminals Accountable: Extending Criminal Jurisdiction to Government Contractors and Employees Abroad”
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding today’s hearing to discuss extending federal criminal law to government contractors and employees serving overseas. This is an important topic given the increased use of government contractors by federal agencies in overseas operations, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Holding any individual accountable for crimes is an important part of the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction.
I think we all would agree that anyone who commits a crime should be held accountable and that bringing criminals to justice is one of the most important roles of government. However, extending the long arm of American criminal law is an issue that should not be done without significant consideration and caution.
Chairman Leahy and I have worked together in the past to ensure that government contractors are not given a free pass to commit crimes or to defraud the government from resources that are entrusted to our country by other nations. We worked together in 2008 on the Wartime Enforcement of Fraud Act that would have tolled the statute of limitation on fraud offenses that occurred in a war zone.
We also worked together to amend the False Claims Act to ensure that funds that were under the trust or administration of the United States government were protected from fraud and abuse. That fix was necessary to address a loophole created by the courts in the Custer Battles decision where Iraqi funds administered by the U.S. government were subjected to fraud. This was a damaging loophole because it essentially said that contractors were free to defraud the government as long as the money was from a foreign country that entrusted the U.S. government to administer it. Ultimately, we closed that loophole in the Fraud Enforcement Recover Act which was signed into law by President Obama.
Today’s hearing is no less important because criminal acts committed by U.S. citizens and contractors abroad could threaten our foreign relations. As such, it is right for us to examine the ways we can bring these criminals within the reach of the law. Legislation extending the reach of U.S. criminal law to contractors was introduced in the 110th and 111th Congresses. Both times, that legislation failed to clear both chambers and was never signed into law.
Chief among the concerns with the legislation was the lack of a clear exception for contractors that were employed by the intelligence community. In 2007, President Bush issued a Statement of Administration Policy citing concerns with legislation expanding extraterritorial jurisdiction over contractors and citing concerns with the impact on national security activities and operations. Similar concerns held up legislation in the last Congress as well.
I think there is a lot of merit to extending our criminal law to civilian contractors and employees abroad. However, we must make sure that this is done in a manner that is narrowly tailored to the specific problem and is not overly broad. Further, we must ensure that we do not harm critical national security and intelligence operations abroad. Those concerns should be addressed in a proper forum and not necessarily aired in public. However, in the limited scope we can address that topic in a public forum, I intend to ask some questions about what a carve-out for the intelligence community should look like.
I also want to know about how many new resources the Department of Justice will require to implement investigations and prosecutions under a proposed expansion of extraterritorial jurisdiction. Given the current fiscal situation of the federal government, I am concerned that reallocating resources from one side of the Justice Department to another could limit other investigations and prosecutions.
I look forward to hearing the testimony of the witnesses, asking some of these important questions, and working with the Chairman and members of the committee on this important topic. Thank you.
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