Alert:
Forfeiture
Vote
Postponed
One
Week,
Action
Still
Needed!
3/03/00
The Senate Judiciary Committee's vote on S. 1931, a bill to reform asset forfeiture law, has been postponed until Thursday, March 9. PLEASE TAKE ACTIONS SUPPORTING THIS BILL IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY. Visit http://www.drcnet.org/forfeiture/ to send your two Senators e-mail, and while you're doing that, write down their phone numbers and call them to make a larger impact. (You can also call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and get their numbers and be transferred from there.) Even better would be to make an appointment to visit your Senators' district offices and lobby in person. Under current forfeiture law, government agencies can seize home, vehicles, bank accounts and other property, without proving the guilt of the owner, most of the time without so much as even filing charges! S. 1931 doesn't go as far as a House bill passed last year, H.R. 1658, would to correct this situation, but it is a meaningful reform bill nonetheless. If S. 1931 fails, it will become harder to pass any forfeiture reform bill in the future, and an historic opportunity will have been lost. Please forward this notice to friends of reform, or use the tell-a-friend form at http://www.drcnet.org/forfeiture/ to spread the word and increase the support for S. 1931. Organizations from across the political spectrum are supporting it, and collectively may have generated 20,000 e-mails to the Senate or more, and who knows how many letters, faxes and phone calls. S. 1931 has an excellent chance of passing, but only with participation from concerned citizens like yourselves. A briefing published yesterday by policy.com provides further information on this important issues, available online at http://www.policy.com/news/dbrief/dbriefarc546.asp. Additional press clippings, including editorials endorsing S. 1931 in the Washington Post and the New York Times, can be found online at http://www.forfeiture.org.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
