[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1024 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1024
To authorize the Attorney General to carry out a program, known as the
Northern Border Prosecution Initiative, to provide funds to northern
border States to reimburse county and municipal governments for costs
associated with certain criminal activities, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 8, 2003
Ms. Cantwell (for herself, Mr. Crapo, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Murkowski, Mr.
Leahy, Mrs. Clinton, and Mr. Schumer) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize the Attorney General to carry out a program, known as the
Northern Border Prosecution Initiative, to provide funds to northern
border States to reimburse county and municipal governments for costs
associated with certain criminal activities, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Northern Border Prosecution
Initiative Reimbursement Act''.
SEC. 2. NORTHERN BORDER PROSECUTION INITIATIVE.
(a) Initiative Required.--From amounts made available to carry out
this section, the Attorney General, acting through the Director of the
Bureau of Justice Assistance of the Office of Justice Programs, shall
carry out a program, to be known as the Northern Border Prosecution
Initiative, to provide funds to reimburse eligible northern border
entities for costs incurred by those entities for handling case
dispositions of criminal cases that are federally initiated but
federally declined-referred. This program shall be modeled after the
Southwestern Border Prosecution Initiative and shall serve as a partner
program to that initiative to reimburse local jurisdictions for
processing Federal cases.
(b) Provision and Allocation of Funds.--Funds provided under the
program shall be provided in the form of direct reimbursements and
shall be allocated in a manner consistent with the manner under which
funds are allocated under the Southwestern Border Prosecution
Initiative.
(c) Use of Funds.--Funds provided to an eligible northern border
entity may be used by the entity for any lawful purpose, including the
following purposes:
(1) Prosecution and related costs.
(2) Court costs.
(3) Costs of courtroom technology.
(4) Costs of constructing holding spaces.
(5) Costs of administrative staff.
(6) Costs of defense counsel for indigent defendants.
(7) Detention costs, including pre-trial and post-trial
detention.
(d) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``eligible northern border entity'' means--
(A) the States of Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Michigan,
Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North
Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and
Wisconsin; or
(B) any unit of local government within a State
referred to in subparagraph (A).
(2) The term ``federally initiated'' means, with respect to
a criminal case, that the case results from a criminal
investigation or an arrest involving Federal law enforcement
authorities for a potential violation of Federal criminal law,
including investigations resulting from multijurisdictional
task forces.
(3) The term ``federally declined-referred'' means, with
respect to a criminal case, that a decision has been made in
that case by a United States Attorney or a Federal law
enforcement agency during a Federal investigation to no longer
pursue Federal criminal charges against a defendant and to
refer of the investigation to a State or local jurisdiction for
possible prosecution. The term includes a decision made on an
individualized case-by-case basis as well as a decision made
pursuant to a general policy or practice or pursuant to
prosecutorial discretion.
(4) The term ``case disposition'', for purposes of the
Northern Border Prosecution Initiative, refers to the time
between the arrest of a suspect and the resolution of the
criminal charges through a county or State judicial or
prosecutorial process. Disposition does not include
incarceration time for sentenced offenders, or time spent by
prosecutors on judicial appeals.
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act
$28,000,000 for fiscal year 2004 and such sums as may be necessary for
fiscal years thereafter.
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