Statement of Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith Full Committee Markup of H.R. 6080 and H.R. 1950 (Codification Bills)

Statement of Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith
Full Committee Markup of
H.R. 6080 and H.R. 1950 (Codification Bills)

Chairman Smith: The Rules of the House entrust to the Judiciary Committee the responsibilities of revision and codification of the statutes of the United States.  This power does not give our committee substantive legislative jurisdiction over all areas of law.  It merely confers the authority to organize duly enacted laws into an efficient codification system. 

The non-partisan Office of Law Revision Counsel is responsible for properly codifying public laws into titles and sections of the United States Code.  From time to time, that office provides the Judiciary Committee advice as to how to enact a more user-friendly and cohesive statutory system. 

Over the past several months, Republican and Democratic committee staff have worked cooperatively with the Office of Law Revision Counsel to develop the two bills under consideration.  H.R. 6080 makes technical changes to title 41, the title that contains Public Contracts law.  And H.R. 1950 creates a new title of positive law—title 54—to compile all of the laws that relate to National Parks.

Codification bills do not make any substantive changes to existing law and therefore attract bipartisan support. 
My manager’s amendment makes minor changes to H.R. 1950 that further ensure that no substantive law will be altered by its enactment.  I encourage my colleagues to support the manager’s amendment and the two bills.