I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2063 
To establish the National Center for the Right to Counsel. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 28, 2015 
Mr. DEUTCH (for himself, Mr. QUIGLEY, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. CON-
YERS, Mr. COHEN, Mr. MCGOVERN, and Mr. SCOTT of Virginia) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a pe-
riod to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for con-
sideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To establish the National Center for the Right to Counsel. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Center for 
the Right to Counsel Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution 
of the United States provides that ‘‘In all criminal 
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prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to 
. . . have the Assistance of Counsel for his de-
fense.’’. 
(2) In Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 
(1963), the United States Supreme Court held that 
the States were required to provide counsel for indi-
gent defendants in all felony cases. 
(3) In Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25 
(1972), the United States Supreme Court held that 
indigent defendants are entitled to court-appointed 
counsel in any case that leads to actual imprison-
ment. 
(4) For more than 50 years, the States and 
local governments have been struggling to satisfy 
this mandate. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘Board’’ means the Board of Di-
rectors of the National Center for the Right to 
Counsel. 
(2) The term ‘‘Center’’ means the National 
Center for the Right to Counsel established in this 
Act. 
(3) The term ‘‘indigent defendant’’ means a de-
fendant in a criminal case who is unable to afford 
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a reasonable attorney’s fee in the case against such 
person. 
(4) The term ‘‘public defense services’’ means 
legal assistance provided to an indigent defendant in 
a criminal case against such person. 
(5) The term ‘‘public defense system’’ means a 
system that provides public defense services, and in-
cludes a system that is run by a State or local unit 
of government, and a system that is run by a private 
entity or individual that provides such services by 
reason of a contract with a State or local unit of 
government. 
(6) The term ‘‘State’’ means any State of the 
United States, the District of Columbia, the Com-
monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin 
Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Common-
wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 
SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF CENTER. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—There is established in the Dis-
trict of Columbia a private nonmembership nonprofit cor-
poration, which shall be known as the National Center for 
the Right to Counsel, for the purpose of— 
(1) providing financial support to supplement, 
not supplant, funding for public defense systems; 
and 
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