Introduction of the District of Columbia District Attorney Establishment Act of 2011

Floor Speech

* Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the sixth in our series of bills, ``Free and Equal D.C.,'' to give District of Columbia residents the self-government and democracy enjoyed by other American citizens. The bill, the District of Columbia District Attorney Establishment Act of 2011, would establish the Office of the District Attorney for the District of Columbia, headed by a district attorney elected by D.C. residents, to prosecute the local criminal laws of the District, now handled by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, a federal official. The bill effectuates a 2002 advisory referendum, approved by 82 percent of D.C. voters, on the creation of an office of the district attorney, headed by a locally elected district attorney.

* There is no law enforcement issue of greater importance to D.C. residents, or on which they have less say here, than the prosecution of local crimes. A U.S. attorney has no business prosecuting the local criminal laws of a jurisdiction, an anomaly from the past that is out of place in 21st century home-rule D.C. The goal of the legislation is to put the District of Columbia on par with every other local jurisdiction in attention to its local criminal laws. Under the bill, the locally. elected district attorney would become the city's chief legal officer. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia would continue to handle federal matters, like the other U.S. attorneys in our country. As presently constituted, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia is the largest in the country, only because it serves as the local city prosecutor. The U.S. Attorney 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.

* Amending the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to create a local district attorney 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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