Introduction of the District of Columbia Prosecutor Home Rule Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia Prosecutor Home Rule Act of 2021 to give District of Columbia residents another important element of self-government that does not require statehood and is enjoyed by all other Americans, 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 a holdover from when the District had no home rule and 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--have the authority to prosecute all local crimes in their jurisdictions. A local D.C. prosecutor is long overdue, placing the District behind all other U.S. jurisdictions. The goal of this bill is to give the District the same jurisdiction over the criminal 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 in the District. I urge my colleagues to support this important measure.

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