Introduction Of The District Of Columbia District Attorney Establishment Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

Introduction Of The District Of Columbia District Attorney Establishment Act Of 2009

* Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today I introduce the District of Columbia District Attorney Establishment Act of 2009, continuing a series of bills that I will introduce this session to ensure a continuation of the process of the transition to full democracy and self-government for the residents of the District of Columbia. This bill is the seventh in our ``Free and Equal D.C.'' series of bills to eliminate anti-Home Rule legislation and to remedy obsolete or inappropriate congressional laws to the local affairs of the District of Columbia or denials of federal benefits or recognition routinely granted to other jurisdictions.

* This bill would establish an Office of District Attorney for the District of Columbia, to be headed by a district attorney elected by D.C. residents. This bill would effectuate the November 2002 referendum in which D.C. voters overwhelmingly (82 percent) approved a locally elected District Attorney.

* This important legislation is designed to put the District of Columbia on par with every other local jurisdiction in the country by allowing D.C. residents to elect an independent district attorney to prosecute local criminal and civil matters now handled by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, a federal official. Under this bill, the new, locally elected district attorney would become the city's chief legal officer. The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia would remain and, like other U.S. Attorneys' offices in the U.S., would handle only the federal matters under its jurisdiction. As presently constituted, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District is the largest in the country only because it serves mainly as the local city prosecutor. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia needs to be freed up to handle national security and other vital federal cases, particularly in the post-9/11 nation's capital.

* There is no law enforcement issue of greater importance to our residents, or on which we have less say, than the prosecution of local crimes here. A U.S. Attorney has no business in the local criminal affairs of a local jurisdiction. This bill simply would make the District's prosecutor accountable to the people by electing him or her, as elsewhere in the nation.

* In addition to issues of democracy and self-government, such as congressional voting rights and legislative and budget autonomy, that District residents are entitled to as American citizens, residents are determined to achieve each and every other element of home rule. Amending the District's Home Rule Act to create a local district attorney position would be an important development toward our goal of achieving true self-government. I urge my colleagues to support this important measure.

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