I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2181
To ensure the safety of witnesses and to promote notification of the interstate
relocation of witnesses by States and localities engaging in that reloca-
tion, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 17, 1997
Mr. MCCOLLUM (for himself, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. BUYER, Mr. CHABOT, Mr.
COBLE, Mr. BARR of Georgia, Mr. HUTCHINSON, Mr. GEKAS, Ms. JACK-
SON-LEE of Texas, Mr. MEEHAN, and Mr. WEXLER) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To ensure the safety of witnesses and to promote notification
of the interstate relocation of witnesses by States and
localities engaging in that relocation, and for other pur-
poses.
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 ‘‘Witness Protection and
Interstate Relocation Act of 1997’’.
TITLE 
I—GANG-RELATED 
WIT-
NESS INTIMIDATION AND RE-
TALIATION
SEC. 101. INTERSTATE TRAVEL TO ENGAGE IN WITNESS IN-
TIMIDATION OR OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE.
Section 1952 of title 18, United States Code, is
amended—
(1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as
subsections (c) and (d), respectively; and
(2) by inserting after subsection (a) the follow-
ing:
‘‘(b) Whoever travels in interstate or foreign com-
merce with intent by bribery, force, intimidation, or
threat, directed against any person, to delay or influence
the testimony of or prevent from testifying a witness in
a State criminal proceeding or by any such means to cause
any person to destroy, alter, or conceal a record, docu-
ment, or other object, with intent to impair the object’s
integrity or availability for use in such a proceeding, and
thereafter engages or endeavors to engage in such con-
duct, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more
than 10 years, or both; and if serious bodily injury (as
defined in section 1365 of this title) results, shall be so
fined or imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both;
and if death results, shall be so fined and imprisoned for
any term of years or for life, or both, and may be sen-
tenced to death.’’.
SEC. 102. CONSPIRACY PENALTY FOR OBSTRUCTION OF
JUSTICE 
OFFENSES 
INVOLVING 
VICTIMS,
WITNESSES, AND INFORMANTS.
Section 1512 of title 18, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(j) Whoever conspires to commit any offense defined
in this section or section 1513 of this title shall be subject
to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense
the commission of which was the object of the conspir-
acy.’’.
TITLE II—WITNESS RELOCATION
AND SAFETY
SEC. 201. WITNESS RELOCATION SURVEY AND TRAINING
PROGRAM.
(a) SURVEY.—The Attorney General shall survey all
State and selected local witness protection and relocation
programs to determine the extent and nature of such pro-
grams and the training needs of those programs. Not later
than 270 days after the date of the enactment of this sec-
tion, the Attorney General shall report the results of this
survey to Congress.
(b) TRAINING.—Based on the results of such survey,
the Attorney General shall make available to State and