Speech #1020112874

I commend Chairman BROOKS and Subcommittee Chairman HUGHES for their work to get this bill enacted so quickly. The need for this legislation arose In January after the Supreme Court ruled in Demarest versus Manspeaker that 28 U.S.C. 1821 requires that all witnesses receive these fees unless they are a member of a group that is specifically excluded from the statutes coverage. Under current law. only deportable aliens are so excluded. There Is. of course. no evidence that Congress ever Intended for prisoners to receive Federil witness fees. and the Circuit Courts of Appe . which previously considered the question refused prisoner requests for these fees. This result makes sense from a policy standpoint. and Is certainly consistent with the longstanding purpose of these fees: To compensate private citizens for the time and expense they Incur in testifying before the Federal courts.