I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1291 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 1, 2007 

Mr. LARSEN of Washington (for himself and Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS) introduced the following bill; which was 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Northern Border Pros5 ecution Initiative Reimbursement Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. NORTHERN BORDER PROSECUTION INITIATIVE. 

2 (a) INITIATIVE REQUIRED.—From amounts made 

3 available to carry out this section, the Attorney General, 

4 acting through the Director of the Bureau of Justice As5 sistance of the Office of Justice Programs, shall carry out 

6 a program, to be known as the Northern Border Prosecu7 tion Initiative, to provide funds to reimburse eligible 

8 northern border entities for costs incurred by those enti9 ties for handling case dispositions of criminal cases that 

10 are federally initiated but federally declined-referred. This 

11 program shall be modeled after the Southwestern Border 

12 Prosecution Initiative and shall serve as a partner pro13 gram to that initiative to reimburse local jurisdictions for 

14 processing Federal cases. 

15 (b) PROVISION AND ALLOCATION OF FUNDS.— 

16 Funds provided under the program shall be provided in 

17 the form of direct reimbursements and shall be allocated 

18 in a manner consistent with the manner under which 

19 funds are allocated under the Southwestern Border Pros20 ecution Initiative. 

21 (c) USE OF FUNDS.—Funds provided to an eligible 

22 northern border entity may be used by the entity for any 

23 lawful purpose, including the following purposes: 

24 (1) Prosecution and related costs. 

25 (2) Court costs. 

26 (3) Costs of courtroom technology. 


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1 (4) Costs of constructing holding spaces. 

2 (5) Costs of administrative staff. 

3 (6) Costs of defense counsel for indigent de4 fendants. 

5 (7) Detention costs, including pre-trial and 

6 post-trial detention. 

7 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

8 (1) The term ‘‘eligible northern border entity’’ 

9 means— 

10 (A) any of the following States: Alaska, 

11 Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, 

12 New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, 

13 Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and 

14 Wisconsin; or 

15 (B) any unit of local government within a 

16 State referred to in subparagraph (A). 

17 (2) The term ‘‘federally initiated’’ means, with 

18 respect to a criminal case, that the case results from 

19 a criminal investigation or an arrest involving Fed20 eral law enforcement authorities for a potential vio21 lation of Federal criminal law, including investiga22 tions resulting from multi-jurisdictional task forces. 

23 (3) The term ‘‘federally declined-referred’’ 

24 means, with respect to a criminal case, that a deci25 sion has been made in that case by a United States 


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1 Attorney or a Federal law enforcement agency dur2 ing a Federal investigation to no longer pursue Fed3 eral criminal charges against a defendant and to 

4 refer the investigation to a State or local jurisdiction 

5 for possible prosecution. The term includes a deci6 sion made on an individualized case-by-case basis as 

7 well as a decision made pursuant to a general policy 

8 or practice or pursuant to prosecutorial discretion. 

9 (4) The term ‘‘case disposition’’, for purposes 

10 of the Northern Border Prosecution Initiative, refers 

11 to the time between a suspect’s arrest and the reso12 lution of the criminal charges through a county or 

13 State judicial or prosecutorial process. Disposition 

14 does not include incarceration time for sentenced of15 fenders, or time spent by prosecutors on judicial ap16 peals. 

17 SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

18 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

19 this section $28,000,000 for fiscal year 2008 and such 

20 sums as may be necessary for succeeding fiscal years. 

Æ 


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