[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 43 (Monday, March 13, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LOCAL PROSECUTOR ESTABLISHMENT 
                              ACT OF 2017

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 13, 2017

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce the District of Columbia 
Local Prosecutor Establishment Act of 2017, to give District of 
Columbia residents another element of the self-government enjoyed by 
all other American citizens, including those in the U.S. territories. 
The bill would establish a local prosecutor's office designated under 
local law to prosecute all local crimes in the District. Under federal 
law, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, a federal 
entity, is responsible for prosecuting most local crimes committed by 
adults here, which is the greater part of its caseload, in addition to 
prosecuting federal crimes. This bill is special because it effectuates 
a 2002 advisory referendum, approved by 82 percent of D.C. voters, to 
create a local prosecutor's office.
  There is no law enforcement issue of greater importance to D.C. 
residents on which they have less say than the prosecution of local 
crimes here. A U.S. Attorney has no business prosecuting the local 
crimes of a jurisdiction, an anachronism that is out of place in any, 
American self-governing jurisdiction. In fact, the territories of the 
United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American 
Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, all have local prosecutors to 
prosecute local crimes. The absence of a local D.C. prosecutor is one 
more anachronism from the pre-home rule days when D.C. had no local 
government. The goal of this bill is to give the District the same 
jurisdiction over the criminal justice matters that state, local, and 
territorial jurisdictions justifiably regard as mandatory.
  Amending federal law to create a local prosecutor would be an 
important step toward our goal of achieving true self-government. I 
urge my colleagues to support this important measure.

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