“The federal government has made it far too easy for government agencies to take and profit from the property of those who have not been convicted of a crime,” said Dr. Paul. “The FAIR Act will protect Americans’ Fifth Amendment rights from being infringed upon by ensuring that government agencies no longer profit from taking the property of U.S. citizens without due process. It guards against abuse while maintaining the ability of courts to order the surrender of proceeds of crime.” 

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen a wave of stories where the government unjustly seized property from innocent Americans without charging them with a crime,” said Rep. Walberg. “These types of abuses of civil asset forfeiture laws should be a clarion call to reform the system and uphold the constitutional rights of the American people. That’s why I’m committed to championing the FAIR Act, which includes comprehensive and bipartisan reforms to limit the scope of the government’s forfeiture powers and protect individual rights.”

Those against the measure argue that civil forfeiture is about more than raising funds. They say it helps undermine criminal enterprises by cutting into their operating budget. Law enforcement insists that civil forfeiture is a means to go after the profits of illicit activity of the drug trade and groups that raise money for terrorists activities. Hence, civil forfeiture removes the profit incentive from criminal kingpins. By seizing the criminals ill-gotten goods the more you would reduce the incentive for crime. They also argue that it is an efficient method since it allows law enforcement agencies to use these seized proceeds to further battle illegal activity, that is, directly converting value obtained from illegal items for law enforcement purposes by harming criminals economically while helping law enforcement financially.