Sen. Leahy: What about OBL Public Corruption?

Leahy, Cornyn Introduce Anti-Public Corruption Legislation

WASHINGTON (Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), also a member of the Committee, Tuesday introduced the Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act (PCPIA), legislation designed to provide new tools to help prosecutors identify, investigate and prosecute corrupt criminal conduct by public officials. Leahy and Cornyn first introduced the bipartisan legislation during the last Congress, and the Judiciary Committee reported the measure in December 2007. Tuesday was the first day of the 111th Congress.

The Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act bolsters key aspects of federal criminal law. It authorizes funding to increase personnel resources to investigate cases of corruption among public officials, and extends the statute of limitations on select public corruption offenses. It also clarifies ambiguity in current law, including closing a loophole in existing law by broadening the definition of what it means for a public official to perform an ‘official act’ under the bribery statute. The bill also amends the federal bribery statute to make clear that a corrupt payment can be made to influence more than one official act, and amends the federal gratuities statute to clarify that a public official may not accept anything of value, other than as permitted by existing rules or regulations, given to them because of their official position.

Leahy said, “As we have seen in recent months, public corruption can erode the trust the American people have in those who are given the privilege of public service,â€

Captainiron,

Do you have a link to this article, please? Sen. Cornyn is my Senator. Probably we are going to need this sort of legislation as the upcoming planned "deep government integration" with Canada and Mexico also will result in "integrating" the corruption endemic to the latter nation's society and its government into our own! Reportedly, almost every transaction in Mexico is based on a bribe ("la mobida" - 'the bite'), and Mexican families spend quite a significant percentage of their annual incomes on these bribes, needed to get almost anything done.

Wonder when Obama will go before this commitee?

I was just talking to a liberal group at a rally---Move.on. org at a healthcare rally. One of the speakers had a chant starting "Lobbyists Out, Healthcare In"

So afterwards i asked him if he knew of groups working to counter non-transparent lobbying. I asked him if he knew that a lot of foreign citizens now call in on behalf of certain legislation. He got off on that he only knew about groups that used high paid lobbyists. His "assistant " then chimed in, that as far as they were concerned grassroots lobbying was fine. I told them that Harry Truman had initiated the original legislation against grassroots lobbying that has led to the Lobbying Disclosure acts and that, now, many foreign ciitizens are lobbying the US Congress and that this is not "Transparency." Since they said they didn't believe me I told them I had actually seen comments on websites where people listed their residence in another country and that the new tactic in politics seems to be "Pile On" with whoever you can get, foreign citizens included. The assistant said I was now talking about an entirely differnt subject, but I countered that it was the speaker who had brought up the issue of "Lobbyists out" and I was just asking where to go for help.

I guess these Libs want to make up their own rules as it goes along. So apparently it is the money involved that is bad---not the fact that people who have no business directing our affairs are lobbying intensely for certain Bills.

As a person without a lot of money who sometimes votes Democratic and sometimes Republican their evasiveness makes me wonder: "What really are the rules, now? Is it to take from people you don't like, who are not in the liberal cookie cutter?"

Captainron, would you please provide the source link for verification?

News articles without the source may be pulled from the boards.

Thank you.

**** L I N K ****

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200901/010609a.html

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200903/031209d.html
Thursday, March 12, 2009

Thank you james, appreciate the help. Notice this is from March 2009.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jean

Thank you james, appreciate the help. Notice this is from March 2009.

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the update on the first post was dated march 09, the post here did have the right date as the first link