District of Columbia Courts, Public Defender Service, and Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency Act of 2014

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of the District of Columbia Courts, Public Defender Service, and Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency Act of 2014, or H.R. 4185.

First, I want to thank my good friends--the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Issa, and our ranking member, Mr. Cummings--for their work together with me on this bill, especially Chairman Issa for seeing to it that this bill got to the House floor today.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes, really, quite minor changes, but they are important to the District of Columbia and to the Federal agencies involved. They happen to be Federal agencies that uniquely serve the District of Columbia.

I will not bore the House with all of the elements of this bill because they will seem quite minor to the House, though, as I indicate, they are of some considerable importance to the agencies that are involved.

For example--and I will use examples only--for the courts, it allows the courts to collect debts owed to the courts by employees, such as debts for loss or damage to property and improper credit card payments. This is the kind of authority the court would now have.

Where there were erroneous payments to employees, those employees would get a hearing before any such collection was charged to them.

The courts would have the authority to purchase uniforms, as an example. As you can imagine, Mr. Speaker, in our courts, it would be important that everyone who has the authority to enter the courts have the same kind of uniform, given the kinds of secure hearings that take place here in the District of Columbia, even more so than in most other courts--Federal courts of the United States.

As an example, for the Public Defender Service, the board of trustees should be treated as Federal employees or Public Defender Service employees. They were formerly treated as District of Columbia employees because this used to be a District of Columbia agency.

As an example, from the Court Services administration, which serves our offenders who are under court supervision, there is an important section, as an example, to allow CSOSA--as we call it--to use incentives-based programming and not alone sanctions because all of the documentation shows that incentives, along with sanctions--not sanctions alone--are best to get compliance with supervision.

There are a number of others. I thank the committee for bringing this bill, important to the District of Columbia, to the floor before the end of the August recess.

I thank my good friend from Arizona for yielding, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the District of Columbia Courts, Public Defender Service, and Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency Act of 2014 (H.R. 4185).

I would like to thank Chairman Issa and Ranking Members Cummings for their work together to assist me with this bill, and Chairman Issa for seeing to it that the bill would be on the floor today. This bill makes minor changes, but they are important, to the authorities of the District of Columbia Courts (Courts), the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) and the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA), placing these entities in the same position as their federal counterparts for more effective management and operation.

This bill would allow the Courts to collect debts owed to the Courts by its employees, such as debts from loss or damage to property, improper credit card payments, erroneous payments to employees and the like. The Courts would have to provide employees with at least 30 days's written notice regarding the debt collection, and employees would have the right to a hearing conducted by an independent officer. The bill would also give the Courts the authority to purchase uniforms to ensure the safety of its building engineers, maintenance workers and main personnel. These service employees must regularly access buildings run by the Courts at all hours. The increase in the number of security incidents in courthouses throughout the country as well as the location of the Courts here in the nation's capital require visual security and uniformity of staff to help ensure that unauthorized persons do not enter secure areas.

The bill also would allow PDS to accept and use public grants and both voluntary and uncompensated services, such as unpaid law clerks and interns, as well as private contributions made to advance PDS's work. It would allow the members of the PDS board of trustees to be treated as PDS employees instead of District of Columbia employees for purposes of liability. Under current law, due to an apparent drafting error, the members of the board are treated as District of Columbia employees for purposes of any action brought against board members. PDS employees are not District of Columbia employees. PDS has the authority to indemnify its board. This bill would rectify this oversight.

Finally, this bill would allow CSOSA to develop and implement incentive-based programming to accompany its current sanction policies. Combining both sanctions and incentives has proven to be more effective than only compliance with supervision. The bill also would authorize CSOSA to solicit, receive and use gifts for the purpose of advancing its work, and would require the CSOSA to keep detailed records on its use of this gift authority. It would also permit the Director to enter into cost-reimbursement agreements with the D.C. government for space or services provided. The D.C. government is a frequent partner of CSOSA's due to its location in D.C. and CSOSA's mandate to assist in the reintegration of D.C. Code offenders into society. Giving CSOSA the authority to enter into reimbursable agreements with the District is necessary to assist CSOSA in its daily work.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source