In another push to amend and scale back the Lacey Act, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced an amendment Thursday aimed at removing every reference to "foreign law" from the act and substituting its current federal penalties with civil penalties.
Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and James Risch (R-Idaho) are co-sponsors on the legislation, which is referred to as the Freedom from Over-Criminalization and Unjust Seizures Act of 2012, or FOCUS Act.
The amendment follows in the wake of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's raids on Gibson Guitar, carried out in November 2009 and August 2011. The Lacey Act was most recently amended in 2008 to expand its scope for the purposes of combating illegal logging in foreign countries.
"It is long overdue that the Lacey Act be revised to address its broad overcriminalization," Sen. Paul wrote in a statement posted on his website. "We have seen the damage this extremely broad and vague law has done to American companies and it is time to change its language to better serve Americans and the American jobs it threatens."
Sen. Paul further characterized the Lacey Act's current incarnation as "overly broad, imprecise, vague, and subject to abuse by overzealous prosecutors and activist judges."
The Hardwood Federation, of which the NWFA is a part, does not support amending the Lacey Act, and legal experts with the Bureau of National Affairs in Arlington, Va., said in December it is "one of the bulwarks of U.S. efforts to control international trade in illegally taken wildlife … and it has long been recognized as important for both U.S. and foreign economies."
