Unlike civil forfeiture, U.S. criminal forfeiture laws have never been reformed at the federal level. Congressman Henry Hyde (R–IL), who served as chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary from January 1995 to January 2001, decided to focus solely on civil forfeiture reform a decision made to avoid a new round of fights with the Department of Justice (DOJ) that would have held up enactment of Hyde’s reform bill, the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).[1]
The chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees have stated that reforming federal civil asset forfeiture laws is a top priority for them.[1] The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (DOJ IG) has issued several critical reports on how some federal agencies and state and local authorities administer their forfeiture programs.[2] And Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced certain policy changes related to DOJ’s Equitable Sharing Program as part of a “firs
Steinbach MLA and Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen, recently announced that Bill 9, the Scrap Metal Act, along with its corresponding Scrap Metal Regulation, is now in force. The announcement is part of the province s comprehensive plan to address the increasing problem of metal theft, particularly of catalytic converters.