Norton Introduces Bill For An Elected D.C. District Attorney - July 13, 2006
Norton Introduces Bill For An Elected D.C. District Attorney
July 13, 2006
Washington, DC—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a bill to establish an Office of District Attorney for the District of Columbia, to be headed by a District Attorney elected by D.C. residents. This is the ninth bill in her “Free and Equal D.C.” series of bills to eliminate anti-home rule legislation and to remedy obsolete or inappropriate intervention into the local affairs of the District of Columbia or denials of federal benefits or recognition routinely granted to other jurisdictions. Norton said that the District of Columbia District Attorney Establishment Act of 2006 “would move the city a quantum leap toward full home rule for our city.” The Norton bill follows a referendum in November of 2002 where D.C. voters overwhelmingly (82%) approved a locally elected D.A. Subsequently, the City Council approved legislation authorizing the Home Rule Act to be amended. She intends to introduce the bill each session until she can get an agreement to carry out the will of the people of the District of Columbia as expressed in the referendum. Under Norton’s bill the new District Attorney would become the city’s chief legal officer and take on local criminal prosecutions and civil matters currently under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“There is no issue of greater importance to our citizens and no issue on which residents have less say than the prosecution of local crimes. No U.S. Attorney has any business in the local criminal affairs of local jurisdictions,” Norton said. “No other citizens in the United States are treated so unfairlyon this issue of such major importance. My bill would make the D.A. accountable to the people who elect him or her as elsewhere in the country.” Norton’s bill would have the election of a D.A. to begin in 2008.
“Until we get congressional voting rights, in addition to achieving legislative and budget autonomy, we must make every effort to move toward complete home rule,” Norton said. “Amending the Home Rule Act with a local D.A. provision would be a dramatic development toward our goal of achieving true self government.”