Residents interested in getting a sense of how national politics and government work can learn more about it from someone who confronts the issue on a daily basis. House of Representatives member Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, will be in West Bend on Sunday, hosting a town hall beginning 7 p.m. at City Hall. Constituents can attend and listen to the congressman’s views on issues he and his colleagues face regularly. “Getting back to the community regularly not only helps us understand wha... Read more

For the last few years, opponents of civil forfeiture have been calling on Congress to make it more difficult for law enforcement to take property, cash, and vehicles from innocent Americans through a process known as civil asset forfeiture. Now, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers on Capitol Hill is taking action. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., is spearheading legislation reforming federal civil forfeiture laws. He, along with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Reps. ... Read more

Right now, people need our help. Right now, thousands in Wisconsin and across America are struggling with opioid abuse. And that's why stopping this epidemic is a top priority in the House of Representatives. The scope of the epidemic has expanded dramatically. Between 2004 and 2012, the proportion of deaths related to opioids increased by approximately 38%. About 4.3% of Wisconsin adults reported using heroin or other opioids in 2013, which was a marked increase from a decade earlier. In fact, ... Read more

THESE days, it’s practically unheard-of for those on the left to embrace ideas promoted by the likes of the Koch brothers and the conservative Heritage Foundation. But it would be a shame if partisan distrust kept Democrats from supporting a proposal favored by the right: a measure that would bolster the idea that a criminal conviction should require proof of what lawyers call “mens rea” — literally, a guilty mind. That’s because it can be harnessed to aid some of those who are especially ill tr... Read more

Legislation to help prisoners who have completed their sentences successfully return to society advanced in the House on Tuesday. The House Judiciary Committee passed the Second Chance Reauthorization Act of 2015 by a voice vote. The bill reauthorizes grant funding for both public and private re-entry programs, including academic and vocational education for offenders in prison, jails and juvenile facilities. “Most of the people currently imprisoned will one day return to society, and it’s in al... Read more

U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner accused Marco Rubio of "McCarthyism" as the GOP hopeful has ramped up criticism of the USA Freedom Act co-authored by the longtime Wisconsin congressman. That includes Rubio's suggestion ISIS would have supported the bill, a comment Sensenbrenner said he resents. "I don't know why Sen. Rubio would object to it," Sensenbrenner told WisPolitics.com. "But saying that I am ISIS's biggest supporter in Washington being the author of the Freedom Act, I think, is McCarthyism ... Read more

More than six months ago, Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner won a broad, bipartisan victory in his push to reform the Patriot Act. Now, he's fending off claims by one of his party's leading presidential candidates that his legislation weakened national security. Sensenbrenner calls those claims by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio "political posturing." At issue: the National Security Agency's mass collection and storage of phone "metadata" — records of whom Americans call and when (not the content ... Read more

In the wake of last month’s monstrous terrorist attacks in Paris and the recent massacre in San Bernardino, national security hawks wasted no time in declaring their verdict of who was truly responsible. The USA FREEDOM Act and encryption are the culprits. They don’t offer evidence to back their statements—instead, they rely on a preconceived narrative of truthiness. Presidential candidate Jeb Bush called for the restoration of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act "I think we need to restore the metad... Read more

A lead author of the U.S. Patriot Act has some advice for European officials as they wrestle with the balance between personal liberties and security in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. “The cautionary tale is that democracy depends upon a respect for civil liberties,” Jim Sensenbrenner, the former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told POLITICO this week. “In France this goes all the way back to their revolution, which was right after ours and the Declaration of the Rights of Man ... Read more

The 2014 farm bill is failing to produce the cost savings promised taxpayers. That’s why Congress should fix the holes in the bill that have let $5.2 billion more than expected flow out in one fiscal year. A proposal sponsored by two Wisconsin congressmen offers a good starting point. Democrat Ron Kind of La Crosse and Republican Jim Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls introduced the plan, which would rein in subsidies received by farmers and insurance companies from the farm bill’s $9-billion-a-ye... Read more