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Legislative History—18 U.S.C. § 666

The legislative history of 18 U.S.C. § 666 is sparse. Nevertheless, the limited legislative history of 18 U.S.C. § 666 indicates that Congress intended it to be construed broadly, consistent with its purpose of protecting the vast sums of money distributed through Federal programs from theft and fraud. The Senate Report states that 18 U.S.C. § 666 was "designed to create new offenses to augment the ability of the United States to vindicate significant acts of theft, fraud, and bribery involving Federal monies that are disbursed to private organizations or state and local governments pursuant to a Federal program." S. Rep. No. 225, 98th Cong. 1st Sess. 369, reprinted in 1984 USCCAN 351. The Congress also clearly intended to vitiate the problems of title transfer and commingled funds encountered under 18 U.S.C. § 641. In many cases, such [Sec. 641] prosecution is impossible because title has passed to the recipient before the property is stolen, or the funds are so commingled that the Federal character of the funds cannot be shown. This situation gives rise to a serious gap in the law, since even though title to the monies may have passed, the Federal Government clearly retains a strong interest in assuring the integrity of such program funds. Indeed, a recurring problem in this area (as well as in the related area of bribery of the administrators of such funds) has been that state and local prosecutors are often unwilling to commit their limited resources to pursue such thefts, deeming the United States the principal party aggrieved. Id. at 369. [cited in USAM 9-46.100]