Norton Applauds Senate Committee Vote to Approve Two Important Law Enforcement Posts in D.C. and Expects Full Senate Confirmation

Norton Applauds Senate Committee Vote to Approve Two Important Law Enforcement Posts in D.C. and Expects Full Senate Confirmation

November 9, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) expressed her appreciation to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs for today's vote to approve Michael Hughes for U.S. Marshal for the Superior Court for the District of Columbia and Nancy Ware for Director of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA). Norton, who was granted senatorial courtesy by President Obama, recommended Hughes and Ware to the President to lead the agencies after both were among the finalists sent to her by her 17-member Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission, which gives Norton recommendations that she uses to help select her final choices to submit to the President. Norton said that both candidates were superbly well qualified.

Hughes, who has spent his career in the U.S. Marshals Service in positions throughout the agency, is currently Chief of the Office of Crisis Services in the Tactical Operations Division. "Michael Hughes brings unusually broad experience from his 21 years as a U.S. Marshal to the Superior Court division, which has been without top leadership for several years," Norton said. "He has the essential combination of field and management experience, a calm and diplomatic temperament, and proven strong, patient and problem-solving leadership, which the Superior Court Marshals office needs."

From 2002-2010, Nancy Ware served as executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), an independent agency established by Congress to help coordinate the unique overlapping and joint relationship between the District of Columbia and federal law enforcement authorities. CJCC members include the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the D.C. police chief and other city officials, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the chairman of the U.S. Parole Commission. Before her service with the CJCC, Ware served at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as the director of technical assistance and training for DOJ's well-regarded "Weed and Seed" program, where she was responsible for helping hundreds of sites nationwide to implement strategic plans for public safety, and as the director of Program Development, National Programs at the Bureau of Justice Assistance. When Ware left the CJCC, CSOSA persuaded her to come there as the management analyst to write its five-year strategic plan, mandated by federal law.

"Nancy Ware has spent much of her career assisting District and federal law enforcement agencies resolve issues created by the unique interlocking relationship between the District and federal criminal justice systems," Norton said. "Her decades of experience directly related to program development and implementation and management of large budgets and workforces make her ideally suited to lead CSOSA."

President Obama, like President Clinton, granted the Congresswoman senatorial courtesy to recommend federal district court judges and other important federal law enforcement officials in the District. She recommended Hughes and Ware from a number of candidates screened by her Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission, chaired by Pauline Schneider, a former chair of the D.C. Bar and a partner at the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.