[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 50 (Thursday, March 21, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Public Defender Funding

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, our judicial system is vital, and every 
player has an important role--from the judge to the prosecutor, to the 
public defender, to the bailiffs, to the jurors. Cuts to our Federal 
public defender program have caused real difficulties in meeting the 
constitutional obligation of the role that public defenders play in our 
justice system.
  Every day, across the country, public defenders work to ensure that 
the Constitution is applied fairly and evenly to all, regardless of 
whether you are the richest or the poorest person in the courtroom. By 
doing so, public defenders safeguard our democratic values, providing a 
necessary check and balance in our judicial system.
  As the Senate's only former public defender, this is very personal to 
me, but it really is vital to all of us. I spent some of my first years 
after law school serving as a public defender in White River Junction, 
VT, and I saw firsthand how many people who find themselves in our 
criminal justice system are struggling with substance abuse or misuse, 
mental health challenges, and oftentimes both. And I saw how absolutely 
important it is that every person who comes into the courtroom gets as 
good a lawyer as those who walk in with a high-priced attorney.
  The principles that public defenders represent are vital to what we 
believe in our Constitution: fidelity to due process and fidelity to 
equal treatment under the law. Those have been engrained in our country 
since its founding.
  Mr. President, as I think you well know, John Adams--hardly a 
supporter of England--chose to represent British troops after the 
Boston Massacre. Why? Because he believed in the right to counsel, and 
he believed in the presumption of innocence, and that they were 
indispensable to our democracy. He had so much confidence in acting on 
those principles that it showed the confidence he had in the future of 
our country.
  Public defenders are the direct descendants of those founding 
principles that underpin the rule of law so vital to our well-being.
  As the Supreme Court recognized in 1938, when it required appointed 
counsel for Federal defendants, access to a competent lawyer is an 
``essential barrier against the arbitrary or unjust depravation of 
human rights.'' That led the Court to realize, 25 years later, in the 
case of Gideon v. Wainwright, that the right to counsel is one of the 
fundamental rights for all of us who live in the United States. The 
Court's words then are as true today as they were before:

       The right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be 
     deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some 
     countries, but it is in ours.

  That is a confident country. It can live with the rule of law, and 
the rule of law requires representation. We will provide it, and we 
will make ourselves stronger for it.
  For months, I have been talking to many of my colleagues, 
highlighting that there was a funding shortfall facing Federal public 
defenders. Six months ago, it looked like Federal defender offices 
across the country were going to have 10 percent personnel cuts. Those 
are very painful cuts, and really it was going to affect the quality of 
representation.
  Instead, Congress acted, and Congress has basically corrected the 
shortfall in the final appropriations package released today. I 
understand that these Federal funding levels will allow the Federal 
defenders to avoid layoffs this year and end what had been a proposed 
and very harsh hiring freeze.
  I am so grateful. I am so grateful to my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle: Chair Patty Murray, Vice Chair Susan Collins, Chair Chris 
Van Hollen, Ranking Member Bill Hagerty, along with the chair of our 
Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin. All have worked diligently on this 
issue.
  And I really want to thank the hard-working Appropriations staff for 
supporting the important role public defenders play in protecting our 
Constitution and our democracy and working as staff members to get the 
job done, with the leadership of their Senate leaders.
  I ask that this budget cycle be a reminder and a lesson that we don't 
repeat this next year. The Constitution guarantees indigent criminal 
defendants the right to counsel, and it is our obligation to make 
certain that they are there, just as we pay for the salaries of 
prosecutors. The Administrative Office of the Courts has already 
submitted a budget request for next year that would allow us to honor 
this obligation.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to support public 
defenders throughout the next budget cycle.
  This decision by this Congress in this budget to uphold and 
strengthen all of the people who play such a vital role in our justice 
system is an act of commitment and renewal to our constitutional 
principles, and it is an act of confidence in the future of our 
democracy.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

                          ____________________