I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 475
To require the Attorney General to make competitive grants to State, Tribal,
and local governments to establish and maintain witness protection and
assistance programs.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY24, 2023
Mr. M
FUME(for himself, Mr. BACON, Ms. NORTON, Ms. KELLYof Illinois,
Mr. E
VANS, Mr. CARSON, Mr. DAVIDSCOTTof Georgia, Mr. BISHOPof
Georgia, Ms. T
ITUS, Mr. SCOTTof Virginia, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia,
Ms. J
ACKSONLEE, Mr. TRONE, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Mr.
K
EATING, Mr. COHEN, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, and Mr. RUPPERSBERGER)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary
A BILL
To require the Attorney General to make competitive grants
to State, Tribal, and local governments to establish and
maintain witness protection and assistance programs.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Witness Security and 4
Protection Grant Program Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. WITNESS PROTECTION GRANT PROGRAM. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 7
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(1) the term ‘‘applicant’’ means a State, Tribal, 1
or local government that applies for a grant under 2
this section; and 3
(2) the terms ‘‘serious drug offense’’ and ‘‘seri-4
ous violent felony’’ have the meaning given those 5
terms in section 3559(c)(2) of title 18, United 6
States Code. 7
(b) G
RANTSREQUIRED.—Subject to subsection (j), 8
the Attorney General shall make competitive grants to 9
State, Tribal, and local governments to establish or main-10
tain programs that provide protection or assistance to wit-11
nesses in court proceedings involving— 12
(1) a homicide, serious violent felony, or serious 13
drug offense; or 14
(2) gangs or organized crime. 15
(c) C
RITERIA.—In making grants under this section, 16
the Attorney General shall evaluate applicants based upon 17
the following: 18
(1) The extent to which the applicant lacks in-19
frastructure to support programs that provide pro-20
tection or assistance to witnesses. 21
(2) The prevalence of witness intimidation in 22
the jurisdiction of the applicant. 23
(3) The percentage of cases not prosecuted by 24
the applicant due to witness intimidation. 25
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(4) The number of homicides per capita com-1
mitted in the jurisdiction of the applicant. 2
(5) The number of serious violent felonies or se-3
rious drug offenses per capita committed in the ju-4
risdiction of the applicant. 5
(6) The extent to which organized crime is 6
present in the jurisdiction of the applicant. 7
(7) Any other criteria that the Attorney Gen-8
eral determines appropriate. 9
(d) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE.—From amounts made 10
available under subsection (j) to carry out this section, the 11
Attorney General, upon request of a recipient of a grant 12
under this section, shall direct the appropriate offices 13
within the Department of Justice to provide technical as-14
sistance to the recipient to the extent the Attorney General 15
determines technical assistance is needed to establish or 16
maintain a program that provides protection or assistance 17
to witnesses. 18
(e) B
ESTPRACTICES.— 19
(1) R
EPORT.—A recipient of a grant under this 20
section shall submit to the Attorney General a re-21
port, in such form and manner and containing such 22
information as specified by the Attorney General, 23
that evaluates each program established or main-24
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tained pursuant to the grant, including policies and 1
procedures under the program. 2
(2) D
EVELOPMENT OF BEST PRACTICES .— 3
Based on the reports submitted under paragraph 4
(1), the Attorney General shall develop best practice 5
models to assist State, Tribal, and local governments 6
in addressing— 7
(A) witness safety; 8
(B) short-term and permanent witness re-9
location; 10
(C) financial and housing assistance; and 11
(D) any other services related to witness 12
protection or assistance that the Attorney Gen-13
eral determines necessary. 14
(3) D
ISSEMINATION TO STATES .—Not later 15
than 1 year after developing best practice models 16
under paragraph (2), the Attorney General shall dis-17
seminate the models to State, Tribal, and local gov-18
ernments. 19
(4) S
ENSE OF CONGRESS .—It is the sense of 20
Congress that State, Tribal, and local governments 21
should use the best practice models developed and 22
disseminated under this subsection to evaluate, im-23
prove, and develop witness protection or witness as-24
sistance programs as appropriate. 25
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(5) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION RELATING TO 1
SENSITIVE INFORMATION .—Nothing in this section 2
shall be construed to require the dissemination of 3
any information that the Attorney General deter-4
mines— 5
(A) is law enforcement sensitive and 6
should only be disclosed within the law enforce-7
ment community; or 8
(B) poses a threat to national security. 9
(f) F
EDERALSHARE.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Federal share of the 11
cost of a program carried out using a grant made 12
under this section shall be not more than 75 per-13
cent. 14
(2) I
N-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS.— 15
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-16
graph (B), the non-Federal share for a program 17
carried out using a grant made under this sec-18
tion may be in the form of in-kind contributions 19
that are directly related to the purpose for 20
which the grant was made. 21
(B) M
AXIMUM PERCENTAGE .—Not more 22
than 50 percent of the non-Federal share for a 23
program carried out using a grant made under 24
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this section may be in the form of in-kind con-1
tributions. 2
(g) A
DMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Of amounts made 3
available to carry out this section for a fiscal year, the 4
Attorney General may use not more than 5 percent for 5
administrative costs. 6
(h) G
EOGRAPHICDISTRIBUTION.—In making grants 7
under this section, the Attorney General shall— 8
(1) to the extent reasonable and practical, en-9
sure an equitable geographical distribution through-10
out the United States of programs that provide pro-11
tection or assistance to witnesses; and 12
(2) give due consideration to applicants from 13
both urban and rural areas. 14
(i) R
EPORT TOCONGRESS.—The Attorney General 15
shall submit a report to Congress— 16
(1) not later than December 31, 2024, on the 17
implementation of this section, including any infor-18
mation on programs funded by grants made under 19
this section; and 20
(2) not later than December 31, 2028, on the 21
programs funded by grants made under this section, 22
including on best practice models developed under 23
subsection (e)(2). 24
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(j) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 1
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 2
$30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028. 3
Æ
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