[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 214 (Monday, December 13, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURTS HOME RULE ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 13, 2021

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of 
Columbia Courts Home Rule Act. This bill would give the Council of the 
District of Columbia authority over the jurisdiction and organization 
of the local D.C. courts. The D.C. Home Rule Act (HRA) expressly 
prohibits the Council from enacting any law with respect to any 
provision of the D.C. Code title that relates to the local D.C. courts. 
Congress can correct this injustice to the District's federal taxpaying 
residents by amending the HRA, even before the District becomes the 
51st state.
  Forty-eight years after passage of the HRA, matters involving the 
local D.C. courts almost never come to Congress, so Congress knows 
virtually nothing about the District's local courts--and could not care 
less. Notwithstanding the importance of D.C. 's local courts to 
District residents, the D.C. Council, which is the repository of 
knowledge and experience for the District's criminal and civil justice 
systems and the body accountable to our residents, is irresponsibly 
left on the sidelines while Congress remains the sole entity that may 
correct flaws in the District's local courts.
  Under the HRA, the Council has no authority to ``enact any act, 
resolution, or rule with respect to any provision of title 11 of the 
District of Columbia Code (relating to organization and jurisdiction of 
the District of Columbia courts).'' Matters in title 11 are limited 
primarily to the rules of criminal and civil procedure, court 
administration, the branches of the courts, the rules of jury service 
and admission to the bar. Our bill would strike this limitation on the 
Council's authority.
  The District has never had authority over its local courts, even when 
it was responsible for paying for their operations. Under the National 
Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997, the 
federal government assumed the costs for several state-level functions, 
including the courts because the federal government alone has 
jurisdiction over the courts. This bill would not change the courts' 
funding. This bill also would not change the authority of the President 
to nominate, or the Senate to confirm, local D.C. judges, which has 
been within their purview since the creation of the modem local court 
system in 1970.
  This bill is an important step to increase democratic self-government 
for the District. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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