[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 192 (Tuesday, December 3, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA RETURNING CITIZENS 
                        COORDINATION ACT OF 2019

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 3, 2019

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of 
Columbia Returning Citizens Coordination Act of 2019. This bill would 
allow the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Court Services and 
Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA) to 
share information with the District of Columbia government to help 
ensure the District has services ready, in coordination with BOP and 
CSOSA, for returning citizens.
  D.C. inmates face significant hurdles in preparing to return to 
society because most are spread across the country in BOP facilities 
hundreds or even thousands of miles from the District, their families 
and their loved ones. Because they are frequently housed so far away 
from the District, coordinating returning citizens' reentry into 
society is difficult. This bill would make the coordination efforts 
between the BOP, CSOSA and District agencies less burdensome and more 
efficient.
  Under this bill, District agencies would be better able to determine 
what physical and mental health and other needs returning citizens may 
have before they are even released from prison. Because D.C. Code 
felons are the only local inmates housed by the BOP, this bill is 
especially important for District residents.
  Currently, BOP is allowed to share information regarding returning 
citizens with CSOSA, since it is also a federal agency, but not with 
D.C. agencies. This bill would allow BOP and CSOSA to treat agencies of 
the D.C. government as they do other federal agencies for the purposes 
of--but only for the purposes of--federal privacy laws, such as the 
Privacy Act, so that the District agencies that assist individuals 
during their return can more easily obtain the necessary information to 
provide appropriate services.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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