Norton Applauds Senate Committee's Passage of a Bill to Strengthen Local Justice Process in D.C.
Norton Applauds Senate Committee's Passage of a Bill to Strengthen Local Justice Process in D.C.
October 19, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) expressed relief and satisfaction with passage today by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs of the D.C. Courts and Public Defender Service Act of 2011 (S. 1379), an important bill for the administration of justice in the District. The bill permits the chief judges of the D.C. Superior Court and Court of Appeals to toll or delay court proceedings, without penalty, when an emergency such as a natural or man-made disaster warrants. It also reduces the term of service, from five years to three years, required of judges in the Family Court Division of the Superior Court, a policy aimed at easing recruitment of able judges to the family court. In addition, the bill authorizes the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, a federally-funded government agency, to purchase professional liability insurance for its attorneys, staff and board members, which is indispensable for all who practice law here today.
Norton thanked Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), her good friend who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, for ushering the bill through the full committee and getting it passed with a voice vote. Norton got the same noncontroversial bill through the House last Congress, but it was not taken up by the Senate.
"Considering the voice vote with which I got this bill through the House last Congress, I am optimistic that we can get it through the House again," Norton said. "Senator Akaka's success in committee gives the bill, whose reforms are critical to the administration of justice in the District, a good head start for passage in both houses."