II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 234
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to
direct certain prosecutor’s offices to annually report to the Attorney
General, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY23, 2025
Mr. K
ENNEDY(for himself and Mr. CRUZ) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets
Act of 1968 to direct certain prosecutor’s offices to annu-
ally report to the Attorney General, and for other pur-
poses.
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 ‘‘Prosecutors Need to 4
Prosecute Act of 2025’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:01 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S234.IS S234
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•S 234 IS
SEC. 2. DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND PROSECUTOR REPORTS. 1
Section 501 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control 2
and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151) is amend-3
ed— 4
(1) by redesignating subsections (g) and (h) as 5
subsections (h) and (i), respectively; and 6
(2) by inserting after subsection (f) the fol-7
lowing: 8
‘‘(f) D
ISTRICTATTORNEYREPORTINGREQUIRE-9
MENTS.— 10
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 11
‘‘(A) C
OVERED OFFENSE.—The term ‘cov-12
ered offense’ means any of the following: 13
‘‘(i) Murder or non-negligent man-14
slaughter. 15
‘‘(ii) Forcible rape. 16
‘‘(iii) Robbery. 17
‘‘(iv) Aggravated assault. 18
‘‘(v) Burglary. 19
‘‘(vi) Larceny. 20
‘‘(vii) Motor vehicle theft. 21
‘‘(viii) Arson. 22
‘‘(ix) Any offense involving the illegal 23
use of a firearm. 24
‘‘(x) Any offense involving the illegal 25
possession of a firearm. 26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:01 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S234.IS S234
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•S 234 IS
‘‘(B) COVERED PROSECUTOR .—The term 1
‘covered prosecutor’ means the chief executive 2
of a district attorney or prosecutor’s office that 3
serves a local government— 4
‘‘(i) the population of the jurisdiction 5
of which is not less than 360,000 individ-6
uals; and 7
‘‘(ii) that receives funds under this 8
part. 9
‘‘(2) R
EPORTING REQUIREMENT .—Not later 10
than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Pros-11
ecutors Need to Prosecute Act of 2025, and annu-12
ally thereafter, a covered prosecutor shall submit to 13
the Attorney General a report that contains, for the 14
previous fiscal year, the following: 15
‘‘(A) The total number of cases referred to 16
the covered prosecutor for prosecution of a cov-17
ered offense. 18
‘‘(B) The number of cases involving a cov-19
ered offense— 20
‘‘(i) that the covered prosecutor de-21
clined to prosecute or refer for diversion; 22
or 23
‘‘(ii) for which the covered prosecutor 24
declined to reach a plea agreement. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:01 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S234.IS S234
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•S 234 IS
‘‘(C) For cases involving a covered offense 1
that result in a plea agreement or referral for 2
diversion reached with the defendant, the num-3
ber of cases for which the defendant— 4
‘‘(i) was previously arrested for a cov-5
ered offense arising out of a separate con-6
viction; 7
‘‘(ii) was previously convicted for a 8
covered offense arising out of a separate 9
conviction; 10
‘‘(iii) is involved in an open case in-11
volving a covered offense arising out of 12
separate conduct; 13
‘‘(iv) is serving a term of probation 14
for a conviction for a covered offense aris-15
ing out of separate conduct; and 16
‘‘(v) was released on parole for a con-17
viction for a covered offense arising out of 18
separate conduct. 19
‘‘(D) The number of covered offenses that 20
the covered prosecutor does not prosecute as a 21
result of an internal policy against prosecuting 22
specific criminal offenses, including— 23
‘‘(i) each covered offense captured in 24
the internal policy; and 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:01 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S234.IS S234
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•S 234 IS
‘‘(ii) each criminal offense that is not 1
captured in the internal policy. 2
‘‘(3) C
OMPLIANCE.—With respect to a covered 3
prosecutor that complies with the requirement under 4
paragraph (2)— 5
‘‘(A) the Attorney General shall give pri-6
ority in disbursing funds under this part to the 7
local government served by the covered pros-8
ecutor; and 9
‘‘(B) the local government described in 10
subparagraph (A) shall ensure that the covered 11
prosecutor receives a portion of the funds re-12
ceived under this part. 13
‘‘(4) U
NIFORM STANDARDS .—The Attorney 14
General shall establish uniform standards for the re-15
porting of the information required under this sub-16
section, including the form such reports shall take 17
and the process by which such reports shall be 18
shared with the Attorney General. 19
‘‘(5) S
UBMISSION TO JUDICIARY COMMIT -20
TEES.—The Attorney General shall— 21
‘‘(A) submit the information received 22
under this subsection to the Committee on the 23
Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:01 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S234.IS S234
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•S 234 IS
the Judiciary of the House of Representatives; 1
and 2
‘‘(B) publish such information on a pub-3
licly viewable website.’’. 4
SEC. 3. BYRNE-JAG FUNDS AND ELIMINATION OF CASH 5
BAIL. 6
The Attorney General shall not distribute amounts 7
under subpart I of part E of title 1 of the Omnibus Crime 8
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 9
et seq.) to a State or local government that has in effect 10
a policy that prohibits the use of cash bail for a defendant 11
in a case involving the illegal use or illegal possession of 12
a firearm. 13
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:01 Feb 19, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S234.IS S234
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS