I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 356
To assign the responsibility for conducting prosecutions for violations of
the laws of the District of Columbia to the head of a local prosecutor’s
office designated under local law of the District of Columbia.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY13, 2025
Ms. N
ORTONintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
A BILL
To assign the responsibility for conducting prosecutions for
violations of the laws of the District of Columbia to
the head of a local prosecutor’s office designated under
local law of the District of Columbia.
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 ‘‘District of Columbia 4
Prosecutor Home Rule Act’’. 5
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•HR 356 IH
SEC. 2. RESPONSIBILITY OF LOCAL PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE 1
FOR CONDUCT OF ALL DISTRICT OF COLUM-2
BIA PROSECUTIONS. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 23–101, D.C. Official 4
Code, is amended by striking subsections (a) through (f) 5
and inserting the following: 6
‘‘(a) Prosecutions for violations of all police or munic-7
ipal ordinances or regulations of the District of Columbia 8
and for violations of all penal statutes of the District of 9
Columbia in the nature of police or municipal regulations 10
shall be conducted in the name of the District of Columbia 11
by the head of the local prosecutor’s office or the assist-12
ants of the head of such office, except as may otherwise 13
be provided in any such ordinance, regulation, or statute 14
of the District of Columbia. 15
‘‘(b) In this section, the ‘local prosecutor’s office’ is 16
the office designated under local law of the District of Co-17
lumbia as the office responsible for conducting prosecu-18
tions under this section. 19
‘‘(c) Nothing in this section shall affect the authority 20
of the Attorney General of the United States or the United 21
States Attorney for the District of Columbia to exercise 22
jurisdiction concerning violations of the laws of the United 23
States.’’. 24
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 25
this section shall apply with respect to violations of Dis-26
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•HR 356 IH
trict of Columbia ordinances, regulations, and statutes 1
which occur after the expiration of the 1-year period which 2
begins on the date on which a local law of the District 3
of Columbia which designates the local prosecutor’s office 4
for purposes of section 23–101(b), D.C. Official Code (as 5
amended by subsection (a)), takes effect. 6
(c) R
ETENTION OF FEDERALBENEFITS BYCON-7
TINUINGEMPLOYEES.—With respect to any individual 8
who is an employee of the United States Attorney for the 9
District of Columbia as of the day before the date de-10
scribed in subsection (b) and continues to be employed by 11
the local prosecutor’s office designated for purposes of sec-12
tion 23–101(b), D.C. Official Code (as amended by sub-13
section (a))— 14
(1) such individual shall continue to be treated 15
as an employee of the Federal Government for pur-16
poses of receiving benefits under any chapter of sub-17
part G of part III of title 5, United States Code; 18
and 19
(2) such designated local prosecutor’s office 20
shall be treated as the employing agency of the indi-21
vidual with respect to such benefits. 22
Æ
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