[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 11 (Monday, January 20, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E49-E50]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FEDERAL JUDICIAL OFFICIALS 
                         RESIDENCY EQUALITY ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                        of district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, January 20, 2025

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia 
Federal Judicial Officials Residency Equality Act, which would require 
the federal district court judges, federal circuit court judges, U.S. 
Attorney, U.S. Marshals and federal court clerk appointed to serve D.C. 
to reside in D.C. In nearly every other jurisdiction in the United 
States, such officials are required by federal law to reside in the 
jurisdiction they have been appointed to serve. The only exceptions are 
the U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshal for the Northern Mariana Islands who 
at the same time are serving in the same capacity in another 
jurisdiction, and officials appointed to the Southern District of New 
York and the Eastern District of New York, which are the only districts 
in different parts of the same city.
  The requirement that these federal officials reside in the 
jurisdiction they serve is related

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to knowledge of the community and to the effect of decisions. As stated 
in the official commentary to the Code of Conduct for United States 
Judges, ``a judge should not become isolated from the society in which 
the judge lives.'' The same holds true for other federal officials. 
This bill recognizes that D.C. deserves federal officials with the same 
understanding of and links to the community as Congress has seen fit to 
require for federal officials in other jurisdictions.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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