[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 161 (Monday, October 2, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E924]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURTS HOME RULE ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 2, 2023

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia 
Courts Home Rule Act. This bill would give the Council of the District 
of Columbia authority over the jurisdiction and organization of the 
local D.C. courts. The D.C. Home Rule Act (HRA) expressly prohibits the 
Council from enacting any law with respect to any title 11 of the D.C. 
Code, which relates to the jurisdiction and organization of the local 
D.C. courts. Congress can correct this injustice to D.C. residents, who 
pay all federal taxes, by amending the HRA, even before D.C. becomes 
the 51st state.
  Fifty years after passage of the HRA, matters involving the local 
D.C. courts almost never come to Congress, so Congress knows virtually 
nothing about D.C.'s local courts--and could not care less. 
Notwithstanding the importance of D.C.'s local courts to D.C. 
residents, the Council, which is the repository of knowledge and 
experience for D.C.'s criminal and civil justice systems and the body 
accountable to D.C. residents, is irresponsibly left on the sidelines 
while Congress remains the sole entity that may correct flaws in D.C.'s 
local courts.
  Under the HRA, the Council has no authority to ``enact any act, 
resolution, or rule with respect to any provision of title 11 of the 
District of Columbia Code (relating to organization and jurisdiction of 
the District of Columbia courts).'' Matters in title 11 primarily 
relate to the rules of criminal and civil procedure, court 
administration, the branches of the courts, the rules of jury service 
and admission to the bar. This bill would strike this limitation on the 
Council's authority.
  D.C. has never had authority over its local courts, even when it was 
responsible for paying for their operations. Under the National Capital 
Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997, the federal 
government assumed the costs for several state-level functions, 
including the courts. This bill would not change the courts' funding. 
This bill also would not change the authority of the President to 
nominate, or the Senate to confirm, local D.C. judges, which has been 
within their purview since the creation of the modern local court 
system in 1970.
  This bill is an important step to increase democratic self-government 
for D.C. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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