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Show THE VOICE OF BUSINESS A bell vhay is flruSy criminal By Richard L. Lesher, President Chamber of Commerce of the United States More and more Americans now believe this country is never really safe until Congress goes out on recess. It follows that when Congress stays in Washington, remains hard at work, and then comes up with a piece of legislation officially described as broad, sweeping, and vague, all of us should be on guard. This is especially true of a bill now awaiting final Senate approval that has been in Uie works for years, and that has the full support of America's favorite liberal, Senator Edward Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy's legislation, S. 1722, is certainly broad and sweeping, for it is nothing less than an attempt to rewrite and consolidate the nation's criminal laws. What's more, it is very vaguely written. A man whose intelligence and diligence I greatly admire, Senator Jim McClure of Idaho, tells me he first became interested in Kennedy's bill two years ago, when he learned it would inadvertently invoke a two-year mandatory prison sentence for hunters who shot ducks out of season. Now that McClure, working with the staff of the Senate Steering Committee, has thoroughly dissected the bill, he has reached a far more ominous conclusion that should horrify the entire American business community: In his words, "...a broad judical interpretation of S. 1722 would put large numbers of businessmen in jail." The bill makes literally hundreds of changes in current law. With only minor exceptions, those provisions governing business liability are made looser, more ambiguous, and thus, easier to interpret. Those provisions dealing with drug abuse, pornography and sex crimes are made narrower and more difficult to interpret. McClure observes: "It could be that these two divergent trends in the bill are wholly coincidental, and that the staff of the Senate's most liberal Senator has made hundreds of painfully constructed chances many with cleverly executed liberal implicationsinnocently im-plicationsinnocently and without any ideological purpose. I, for one think that is a fairy tale." Take a look at some of the principal ways W. 1722 could transform America's approximately 14 million businesses into our largest criminal class. Under current law, the voluntary manslaughter statute does not apply to business because the crime must be committed "in the heat of passion." But, by turning manslaughter into a generalized "reckless homicide" statute, the Kennedy bill would open up a broad new area of business prosecution. Next, remember the Supreme Court decision upholding Bill Barlow the gutsy small businessman in Idaho, who said OSHA inspectors violated the Constitution by attempting to enter his company without a search warrant? Well, you can forget it. Mr. Kennedy's bill would make it unlawful to evict OSHA and other government inspectors from your plant or home. As long as a government inspector testifies he thought he was complying with the law and operating in good faith, i.e., with a "clean heart and empty head," (Is this definition meant to prohibit many bureaucrats from having to commit perjury?) you will go to jail for threatening to evict him. Police officers, of course, cannot t such stern measures ever, aea suspected murderers. So just' think' this land where we came to be frw suspected murderer would have m rights after passage of the Kennedy than an innocent businessman who not been accused of anything! Next, the bill would make it a fed crime to refuse to obey an agei subpoena to appear as a witness produce documents. An agency s poena will now be considered "an der." It does not make a bit of ference if you are convinced the s poena is unlawful. Next, in the Senate version of K nedy's bill, one sectio endangerment would bootsti certain OSHA, environmental and m safety violations to class D felonj That could mean prison sentences of to five years, and fines of up to a mil dollars per violation. Next, while expanding the strikebreaking law to make it m useful against business, the Kenrn bill takes the extraordinary step freeing labor unions from cun criminal statutes dealing with extort and blackmail. These are just some though by means all of the objectiona features of S. 1722. Together, howe they demonstrate that in terms potential impact, this bill is one of most destructive Congress has c sidered in many years. My advice to the business commui is simple: Unless significat amended, we should resist it tooth ; nail. If we do not, we may well vritc the final nail being driven into our ( coffin the one containing what's lef free enterprise in America. |