Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB234 Compare Versions

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11 II
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION S. 234
55 To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to
66 direct certain prosecutor’s offices to annually report to the Attorney
77 General, and for other purposes.
88 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
99 JANUARY23, 2025
1010 Mr. K
1111 ENNEDY(for himself and Mr. CRUZ) introduced the following bill; which
1212 was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
1313 A BILL
1414 To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets
1515 Act of 1968 to direct certain prosecutor’s offices to annu-
1616 ally report to the Attorney General, and for other pur-
1717 poses.
1818 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
1919 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2020 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2121 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prosecutors Need to 4
2222 Prosecute Act of 2025’’. 5
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2626 SEC. 2. DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND PROSECUTOR REPORTS. 1
2727 Section 501 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control 2
2828 and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151) is amend-3
2929 ed— 4
3030 (1) by redesignating subsections (g) and (h) as 5
3131 subsections (h) and (i), respectively; and 6
3232 (2) by inserting after subsection (f) the fol-7
3333 lowing: 8
3434 ‘‘(f) D
3535 ISTRICTATTORNEYREPORTINGREQUIRE-9
3636 MENTS.— 10
3737 ‘‘(1) D
3838 EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 11
3939 ‘‘(A) C
4040 OVERED OFFENSE.—The term ‘cov-12
4141 ered offense’ means any of the following: 13
4242 ‘‘(i) Murder or non-negligent man-14
4343 slaughter. 15
4444 ‘‘(ii) Forcible rape. 16
4545 ‘‘(iii) Robbery. 17
4646 ‘‘(iv) Aggravated assault. 18
4747 ‘‘(v) Burglary. 19
4848 ‘‘(vi) Larceny. 20
4949 ‘‘(vii) Motor vehicle theft. 21
5050 ‘‘(viii) Arson. 22
5151 ‘‘(ix) Any offense involving the illegal 23
5252 use of a firearm. 24
5353 ‘‘(x) Any offense involving the illegal 25
5454 possession of a firearm. 26
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5858 ‘‘(B) COVERED PROSECUTOR .—The term 1
5959 ‘covered prosecutor’ means the chief executive 2
6060 of a district attorney or prosecutor’s office that 3
6161 serves a local government— 4
6262 ‘‘(i) the population of the jurisdiction 5
6363 of which is not less than 360,000 individ-6
6464 uals; and 7
6565 ‘‘(ii) that receives funds under this 8
6666 part. 9
6767 ‘‘(2) R
6868 EPORTING REQUIREMENT .—Not later 10
6969 than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Pros-11
7070 ecutors Need to Prosecute Act of 2025, and annu-12
7171 ally thereafter, a covered prosecutor shall submit to 13
7272 the Attorney General a report that contains, for the 14
7373 previous fiscal year, the following: 15
7474 ‘‘(A) The total number of cases referred to 16
7575 the covered prosecutor for prosecution of a cov-17
7676 ered offense. 18
7777 ‘‘(B) The number of cases involving a cov-19
7878 ered offense— 20
7979 ‘‘(i) that the covered prosecutor de-21
8080 clined to prosecute or refer for diversion; 22
8181 or 23
8282 ‘‘(ii) for which the covered prosecutor 24
8383 declined to reach a plea agreement. 25
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8787 ‘‘(C) For cases involving a covered offense 1
8888 that result in a plea agreement or referral for 2
8989 diversion reached with the defendant, the num-3
9090 ber of cases for which the defendant— 4
9191 ‘‘(i) was previously arrested for a cov-5
9292 ered offense arising out of a separate con-6
9393 viction; 7
9494 ‘‘(ii) was previously convicted for a 8
9595 covered offense arising out of a separate 9
9696 conviction; 10
9797 ‘‘(iii) is involved in an open case in-11
9898 volving a covered offense arising out of 12
9999 separate conduct; 13
100100 ‘‘(iv) is serving a term of probation 14
101101 for a conviction for a covered offense aris-15
102102 ing out of separate conduct; and 16
103103 ‘‘(v) was released on parole for a con-17
104104 viction for a covered offense arising out of 18
105105 separate conduct. 19
106106 ‘‘(D) The number of covered offenses that 20
107107 the covered prosecutor does not prosecute as a 21
108108 result of an internal policy against prosecuting 22
109109 specific criminal offenses, including— 23
110110 ‘‘(i) each covered offense captured in 24
111111 the internal policy; and 25
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115115 ‘‘(ii) each criminal offense that is not 1
116116 captured in the internal policy. 2
117117 ‘‘(3) C
118118 OMPLIANCE.—With respect to a covered 3
119119 prosecutor that complies with the requirement under 4
120120 paragraph (2)— 5
121121 ‘‘(A) the Attorney General shall give pri-6
122122 ority in disbursing funds under this part to the 7
123123 local government served by the covered pros-8
124124 ecutor; and 9
125125 ‘‘(B) the local government described in 10
126126 subparagraph (A) shall ensure that the covered 11
127127 prosecutor receives a portion of the funds re-12
128128 ceived under this part. 13
129129 ‘‘(4) U
130130 NIFORM STANDARDS .—The Attorney 14
131131 General shall establish uniform standards for the re-15
132132 porting of the information required under this sub-16
133133 section, including the form such reports shall take 17
134134 and the process by which such reports shall be 18
135135 shared with the Attorney General. 19
136136 ‘‘(5) S
137137 UBMISSION TO JUDICIARY COMMIT -20
138138 TEES.—The Attorney General shall— 21
139139 ‘‘(A) submit the information received 22
140140 under this subsection to the Committee on the 23
141141 Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on 24
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145145 the Judiciary of the House of Representatives; 1
146146 and 2
147147 ‘‘(B) publish such information on a pub-3
148148 licly viewable website.’’. 4
149149 SEC. 3. BYRNE-JAG FUNDS AND ELIMINATION OF CASH 5
150150 BAIL. 6
151151 The Attorney General shall not distribute amounts 7
152152 under subpart I of part E of title 1 of the Omnibus Crime 8
153153 Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 9
154154 et seq.) to a State or local government that has in effect 10
155155 a policy that prohibits the use of cash bail for a defendant 11
156156 in a case involving the illegal use or illegal possession of 12
157157 a firearm. 13
158158 Æ
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