{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/sens-paul-and-booker-introduce-bipartisan-fair-act-to-reform-civil-forfeiture-laws-protect-americans-rights/", "Sens. Paul and Booker Introduce Bipartisan FAIR Act to Reform Civil Forfeiture Laws, Protect Americans\u2019 Rights", "2024-12-12", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nDecember 12, 2024\n\nContact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nSens. Paul and Booker Introduce Bipartisan FAIR Act to Reform Civil Forfeiture Laws, Protect Americans\u2019 Rights\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act to reform civil forfeiture laws and protect Americans\u2019 rights from government abuse.\n\n\u201cThe government should never have the power to seize a person\u2019s property without due process. Yet, under current civil asset forfeiture laws, Americans are being stripped of their property without ever being charged or convicted of a crime. The FAIR Act directly addresses these injustices and is a critical step toward restoring fairness and accountability, protecting property owners\u2019 rights, and curbing the weaponization of civil forfeiture laws once and for all,\u201d said Dr. Paul.\n\n\u201cCivil asset forfeiture allows federal law enforcement to seize the property of Americans who haven\u2019t even been charged with or convicted of a crime,\u201dsaid Senator Booker.\u201cUnder this system, police can keep cash, cars, and even homes based on mere suspicion of a crime. These losses often become law enforcement\u2019s profit because the burden is on the property owner to prove they should get their property back. Reforming federal civil asset forfeiture is long overdue and the FAIR Act will ensure due process and protect the public from unfair deprivations and forfeiture abuses.\u201d\n\nThe latest version of the FAIR Act closely mirrors previous versions of the bill, with updates to reflect changes made by the House Judiciary Committee during a markup on June 14, 2023. The bill was favorably reported out of committee by a unanimous 26-0 vote, signaling broad bipartisan support and increasing the likelihood of legislative progress. In the Senate, the FAIR Act is currently cosponsored by Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Angus King (I-ME), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).\n\nYou can read the FAIR Act HERE.\n\nThe FAIR Act is also supported by:\n\n\u201cCivil forfeiture is an abomination and reform is long overdue,\u201d said Dan Alban, Senior Attorney for Institute for Justice. \u201cThe FAIR Act makes important strides by removing the profit incentive that drives so many of these abuses, preventing evasion of state law protections for property owners by ending the federal \u2018equitable sharing\u2019 program, and by ensuring that every property owner gets their day in court before a neutral judge by eliminating administrative forfeitures. It is urgent that Congress pass the FAIR Act.\u201d\n\n\u201cAt present, the government may seize, and ultimately keep, a person\u2019s belongings based on allegations of a connection to criminal activity without ever taking the next logical step of pursuing a criminal charge, much less securing a criminal conviction,\u201d said Brett Tolman, Executive Director of Right On Crime and former U.S. Attorney. \u201cAs a result, innocent citizens have lost their homes, cars, and life savings over a mistake or, worse yet, through the malice or indifference of a government official without requiring the government to justify the taking.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy family has experienced firsthand the devastating consequences of government overreach through the IRS\u2019s abuse of power,\u201d said Savannah Chrisley, CPAC Senior Fellow for Criminal Justice Reform. \u201cThe FAIR Act is a critical step toward restoring accountability and protecting innocent citizens from unjust seizures. By eliminating profit incentives and ensuring due process, this legislation addresses a fundamental violation of our rights and provides much-needed safeguards against these egregious abuses. I urge Congress to pass the FAIR Act to prevent other families from enduring the same injustices.\u201d\n\n\u201cRepublicans and Democrats alike have, for years, recognized civil asset forfeiture as one of the most egregious forms of government overreach. Nearly 30 years ago, then-Congressman Henry Hyde authored a book about the abuse of civil asset forfeiture. He wrote, \u2018Increased government and police powers, rising criminal activity and violence, popular anxiety about drug use \u2014 all have become justifications for curtailing the application of the Bill of Rights and the individual security it once guaranteed.\u2019 Many states have passed civil asset forfeiture reform laws to protect individuals from abuse of this tool, but Congress hasn\u2019t yet acted. Senator Paul\u2019s FAIR Act provides that opportunity. We urge all senators to cosponsor the FAIR Act and restore the Constitutional guarantees of the Fifth Amendment,\u201dsaid Jason Pye, Vice President of Due Process Institute.\n\n\u201cNFIB thanks Senator Paul for reintroducing this important legislation to protect small business owners from unjust asset seizures. The federal government should not be allowed to seize business owners\u2019 property without evidence of wrongdoing. Small business owners are constantly navigating numerous burdensome federal rules and regulations \u2013 spending time proving their own innocence without ever being charged for a crime should not be another burden on their plate,\u201d said Andrea McGee, Principal of Federal Government Relations at National Federation of Independent Business.\n\n\u201cThe Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act (FAIR Act) is vital legislation that seeks to restore fundamental constitutional protections by reforming the federal civil asset forfeiture process, a system that too often undermines trust in law enforcement and the rule of law. Civil asset forfeiture, in its current form, allows government agencies to seize property based on mere suspicion of its involvement in criminal activity\u2014without charging or convicting the owner of a crime. This practice erodes public confidence in our justice system. By raising the evidentiary standard for seizures and providing better transparency and accountability, the Act helps ensure that the practice of asset forfeiture aligns with the Constitution and public expectations of justice. For these reasons, we are happy to support this legislative effort, and we applaud Sen. Rand Paul for his leadership. Restoring legitimacy and trust in law enforcement is not a partisan issue rather it is a shared priority for all who believe in the foundational principles of fairness and accountability,\u201d said Jillian Snider, Policy Director for Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties at the R Street Institute.\n\n\u201cThrough civil forfeiture, the federal government seizes billions of dollars in money and property each year without ever seeking a criminal conviction. Victims of forfeiture don\u2019t have to be found guilty of a criminal offense in court, and most of them never see the inside of a courtroom. Civil forfeiture, in its current form, is without due process and basic fairness. Senator Paul\u2019s Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act would do much to fix the broken system of civil forfeiture. The bill would help restore the principle of \u201cinnocent until proven guilty\u201d by shifting the burden rightly back onto the government to prove one\u2019s money or property was used in criminal activity. It would also protect the right to counsel, improve transparency, remove government\u2019s incentives for civil forfeiture, and eliminate the pernicious \u201cequitable sharing program\u201d by which federal law enforcement is able to ignore and circumvent state laws that limit or prevent civil forfeiture. Those who need the protections of the law when government agents threaten to forfeit their property are not always the most popular, influential, or politically powerful members of their community. Senator Paul\u2019s leadership in this space to help protect the property rights of all is commendable and greatly appreciated,\u201dsaid Dan Greenberg, General Counsel for Competitive Enterprise Institute.\n\n\u201cNo American should have to worry about the government unjustly seizing their property, but current law allows law enforcement to \u201carrest\u201d property now and ask questions later. The FAIR Act strengthens due process protections for innocent property owners and removes the financial incentives policymakers have created for law enforcement to unjustly seize cash, cars, and even houses from individuals who haven\u2019t been charged with a crime. Civil asset forfeiture denies Americans their constitutionally guaranteed presumption of innocence, leaving them with few options to recover their property, while encouraging law enforcement agencies to use the proceeds to fund their activities. 30 states and the District of Columbia have acted to rein in civil asset forfeiture abuse, and we applaud Sen. Paul for working to solve the problem at the federal level,\u201dsaid Greg Glod, Senior Policy Fellow at Americans for Prosperity.\n\nBackground:\n\nCivil forfeiture laws present a threat to the rights of all property owners in the United States. These laws authorize the government to seize property based on the mere suspicion that it may be connected to criminal activity. No charges or conviction are required and, once property is seized, owners must navigate the confusing and expensive legal system to win it back. Worst of all, unlike criminal cases where the accused is afforded certain rights, such as the right to counsel, civil forfeiture cases are brought against the property itself and the government usually faces a lower evidentiary threshold, meaning the deck is stacked against the property owner.\n\nBy passing the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act, Congress can decisively remedy this unjust system by providing strong due process protections to property owners.\n\nThe FAIR Act would:\n\nEliminate \u201cEquitable\u201d Sharing: The \u201cequitable\u201d sharing program allows state law enforcement officers to turn seized property over to federal officials for forfeiture \u2014 and get up to 80% of the proceeds of the forfeited property. The FAIR Act ends \u201cequitable\u201d sharing and ensures that law enforcement cannot ignore state law.\n\nRemove the Profit Incentive: Law enforcement should be motivated by public safety, not financial rewards. The FAIR Act would restore the rule in which the proceeds of forfeiture go to the Treasury\u2019s General Fund, where Congress can appropriate the money for any purpose.\n\nRestore Principle of \u201cInnocent Until Proven Guilty\u201d: Under current law, federal law enforcement agencies may take property suspected of involvement in crime without charging the property owner with a crime. The FAIR Act places on the government the burden to show that a property owner consented or was willfully blind to his property being used in a crime by a third party.\n\nRequire Clear and Convincing Evidence: The FAIR Act would require that the government prove its case by the higher standard of clear and convincing evidence, instead of the current preponderance of the evidence standard that the property was used for an illegal purpose.\n\nProtect the Right to Counsel: Under current law, defendants receive appointed counsel due to indigency only if (1) they request it, and (2) their home has been seized. The FAIR Act would ensure that indigent owners can receive, at the discretion of the court, representation in civil forfeiture proceedings.\n\nReform IRS Seizures: The FAIR Act requires that the IRS prove that the defendant knowingly deposited funds with criminal intent before they can seize the property. It also requires that a probable cause hearing be held no later than 14 days after the IRS seizes funds under the pretense of a structuring violation.\n\nEnact Strong Reporting Requirements: Requires the Attorney General to report on deposits made to the Treasury Fund, and that such report shall indicate the state, type of forfeiture, and provide details to specifically identify which funds were obtained from civil forfeiture and which funds were acquired from criminal forfeiture.\n\nAbolish Administrative Forfeitures: Administrative forfeitures happen automatically when property owners fail to challenge a seizure in court for any reason, including the inability to afford a lawyer or a missed deadline to file a claim. The seized property is simply presumed \u201cguilty\u201d without a neutral arbiter such as a judge determining whether it should be permanently taken from its owner. According to the Institute for Justice, administrative forfeitures account for 88 percent of all forfeitures. This provision would effectively force the government to go to court to keep property it has seized.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/sens-paul-and-booker-introduce-bipartisan-fair-act-to-reform-civil-forfeiture-laws-protect-americans-rights/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.49765913374722, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}