I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2647 

To require the Attorney General to make competitive grants to eligible State, 

tribal, and local governments to establish and maintain certain protection 

and witness assistance programs. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 26, 2011 

Mr. CUMMINGS (for himself, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. 

STARK, Mr. PIERLUISI, and Mr. COHEN) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To require the Attorney General to make competitive grants 

to eligible State, tribal, and local governments to establish and maintain certain protection and witness assistance programs. 

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 ‘‘Witness Security and 

5 Protection Grant Program Act of 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. WITNESS PROTECTION GRANT PROGRAM. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (i), the At8 torney General shall make competitive grants to eligible 


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1 State, tribal, and local governments to establish or main2 tain programs that provide protection or assistance to wit3 nesses in— 

4 (1) court proceedings involving homicide, or in5 volving a serious violent felony or serious drug of6 fense as defined in section 3559(c)(2) of title 18, 

7 United States Code; and 

8 (2) court proceedings involving gangs or orga9 nized crime. 

10 (b) CRITERIA.—In making grants under subsection 

11 (a), the Attorney General shall evaluate applicants based 

12 upon the following: 

13 (1) The extent to which the applicant has a 

14 lack of infrastructure to support a witness assistance 

15 program. 

16 (2) The extent to which witness intimidation is 

17 present with respect to the applicant. 

18 (3) The level of cases not prosecuted by the ap19 plicant due to witness intimidation. 

20 (4) The number of homicides per capita com21 mitted in the jurisdiction of the applicant. 

22 (5) The number of serious violent felonies or se23 rious drug offenses, as defined in section 3559(c)(2) 

24 of title 18, United States Code, per capita com25 mitted in the jurisdiction of the applicant. 


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1 (6) The extent to which organized crime is 

2 present in the jurisdiction of the applicant. 

3 (7) Other appropriate criteria as determined by 

4 the Attorney General. 

5 (c) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—From amounts made 

6 available under subsection (i) to carry out this section, the 

7 Attorney General, upon request of a recipient of a grant 

8 under this section, shall direct the appropriate offices 

9 within the Department of Justice to provide technical as10 sistance to such recipient to the extent the Attorney Gen11 eral determines such technical assistance is needed to es12 tablish or maintain a program described in such section. 

13 (d) BEST PRACTICES.— 

14 (1) REPORT.—Each recipient of a grant under 

15 this section shall submit to the Attorney General a 

16 report, in such form and manner and containing 

17 such information as specified by the Attorney Gen18 eral, that evaluates each program established or 

19 maintained pursuant to such grant, including poli20 cies and procedures under the program. 

21 (2) DEVELOPMENT OF BEST PRACTICES.— 

22 Based on the reports submitted under paragraph 

23 (1), the Attorney General shall develop best practice 

24 models to assist States and other relevant entities in 

25 addressing— 


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1 (A) witness safety; 

2 (B) short-term and permanent witness re3 location; 

4 (C) financial and housing assistance; and 

5 (D) any other services related to witness 

6 protection or assistance that are determined by 

7 the Attorney General to be necessary. 

8 (3) DISSEMINATION TO STATES.—Not later 

9 than 1 year after the development of best practice 

10 models under paragraph (2), the Attorney General 

11 shall disseminate to States and other relevant enti12 ties such models. 

13 (4) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 

14 Congress that States and other relevant entities 

15 should use the best practice models developed and 

16 disseminated in accordance with this section to 

17 evaluate, improve, and develop witness protection or 

18 witness assistance as appropriate. 

19 (5) CLARIFICATION.—Nothing in this section 

20 requires the dissemination of any information if the 

21 Attorney General determines such information is law 

22 enforcement sensitive and should only be disclosed 

23 within the law enforcement community or that such 

24 information poses a threat to national security. 

25 (e) FEDERAL SHARE.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal share of the 

2 cost of a project carried out using a grant made 

3 under this section shall not be more than 75 per4 cent. 

5 (2) IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS.— 

6 (A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara7 graph (B), the non-Federal share for a project 

8 carried out using a grant made under this sec9 tion may be made in the form of in-kind con10 tributions that are directly related to the pur11 pose for which the grant was made. 

12 (B) MAXIMUM PERCENTAGE.—Not more 

13 than 50 percent of the non-Federal share for a 

14 project carried out using a grant made under 

15 this section may be in the form of in-kind con16 tributions. 

17 (f) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—Federal adminis18 trative costs to carry out this section for a fiscal year shall 

19 not exceed 5 percent of the funds appropriated pursuant 

20 to subsection (i) for such fiscal year. 

21 (g) GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION.—The Attorney 

22 General shall ensure that, to the extent reasonable and 

23 practical, grants authorized by this section are made to 

24 achieve an equitable geographical distribution of such pro25 grams throughout the United States and that due considVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:28 Jul 27, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2647.IH H2647

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1 eration be given to applicants of rural and urban commu2 nities. 

3 (h) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The Attorney General 

4 shall submit a report to Congress— 

5 (1) not later than December 31, 2013, on the 

6 implementation of this section and any information 

7 on programs funded by grants made pursuant to 

8 this section; and 

9 (2) not later than December 31, 2017, on the 

10 programs funded by grants awarded under this sec11 tion, including on matters specified under subsection 

12 (d)(2). 

13 (i) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

14 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

15 $30,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2012 through 

16 2016. 

Æ 


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