[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1958 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1958

To authorize the Attorney General to establish and carry out a program, 
 known as the Northern Border Prosecution Initiative, to provide funds 
to northern border States to reimburse county and municipal governments 
 for costs associated with certain criminal activities, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 3, 2005

  Ms. Cantwell (for herself, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Schumer, Mr. 
 Leahy, Mr. Craig, Mr. Levin, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Dayton, Mr. Baucus, and 
 Mrs. Clinton) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To authorize the Attorney General to establish and carry out a program, 
 known as the Northern Border Prosecution Initiative, to provide funds 
to northern border States to reimburse county and municipal governments 
 for costs associated with certain criminal activities, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Northern Border Prosecution 
Initiative Reimbursement Act''.

SEC. 2. NORTHERN BORDER PROSECUTION INITIATIVE.

    (a) Initiative Required.--
            (1) In general.--From amounts made available to carry out 
        this section, the Attorney General, acting through the Director 
        of the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the Office of Justice 
        Programs, shall establish and carry out a program, to be known 
        as the Northern Border Prosecution Initiative, to provide funds 
        to reimburse eligible northern border entities for costs 
        incurred by those entities for handling case dispositions of 
        criminal cases that are federally initiated but federally 
        declined-referred.
            (2) Relation with southwestern border prosecution 
        initiative.--The program established in paragraph (1) shall--
                    (A) be modeled after the Southwestern Border 
                Prosecution Initiative; and
                    (B) serve as a partner program to that initiative 
                to reimburse local jurisdictions for processing Federal 
                cases.
    (b) Provision and Allocation of Funds.--Funds provided under the 
program established in subsection (a) shall be--
            (1) provided in the form of direct reimbursements; and
            (2) allocated in a manner consistent with the manner under 
        which funds are allocated under the Southwestern Border 
        Prosecution Initiative.
    (c) Use of Funds.--Funds provided to an eligible northern border 
entity under this section may be used by the entity for any lawful 
purpose, including:
            (1) Prosecution and related costs.
            (2) Court costs.
            (3) Costs of courtroom technology.
            (4) Costs of constructing holding spaces.
            (5) Costs of administrative staff.
            (6) Costs of defense counsel for indigent defendants.
            (7) Detention costs, including pre-trial and post-trial 
        detention.
    (d) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Case disposition.--The term ``case disposition''--
                    (A) for purposes of the Northern Border Prosecution 
                Initiative, refers to the time between the arrest of a 
                suspect and the resolution of the criminal charges 
                through a county or State judicial or prosecutorial 
                process; and
                    (B) does not include incarceration time for 
                sentenced offenders, or time spent by prosecutors on 
                judicial appeals.
            (2) Eligible northern border entity.--The term ``eligible 
        northern border entity'' means--
                    (A) the States of Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, 
                Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North 
                Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and 
                Wisconsin; or
                    (B) any unit of local government within a State 
                referred to in subparagraph (A).
            (3) Federally declined-referred.--The term ``federally 
        declined-referred''--
                    (A) means, with respect to a criminal case, that a 
                decision has been made in that case by a United States 
                Attorney or a Federal law enforcement agency during a 
                Federal investigation to no longer pursue Federal 
                criminal charges against a defendant and to refer such 
                investigation to a State or local jurisdiction for 
                possible prosecution; and
                    (B) includes a decision made on an individualized 
                case-by-case basis as well as a decision made pursuant 
                to a general policy or practice or pursuant to 
                prosecutorial discretion.
            (4) Federally initiated.--The term ``federally initiated'' 
        means, with respect to a criminal case, that the case results 
        from a criminal investigation or an arrest involving Federal 
        law enforcement authorities for a potential violation of 
        Federal criminal law, including investigations resulting from 
        multi-jurisdictional task forces.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act 
$28,000,000 for fiscal year 2006 and such sums as may be necessary for 
fiscal years thereafter.
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