Citizens' Right to Know Act of 2016

Bill: 114-s-3541
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Hatch, Orrin G. [R-UT]
Introduced: 2016-12-09
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement
Subjects: Criminal justice information and records

Criminal procedure and sentencing

Government information and archives

Law enforcement administration and funding

State and local government operations
Latest action: action_date: 2016-12-09
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Summaries:
action_date: 2016-12-09
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Citizens' Right to Know Act of 2016</b></p> <p>This bill requires a state or local government that receives funds under a Department of Justice (DOJ) grant program and uses such funds for a pretrial services program to annually report certain information about participating defendants.</p> <p>DOJ must publish the information.</p> <p>Additionally, DOJ must reduce the grant allocation of a state or local government that fails to comply.</p>

tv_txt: II 114th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 3541 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES December 9, 2016 Mr. Hatch introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To require States and units of local government receiving funds under grant programs operated by the Department of Justice that use such funds for pretrial services programs to submit to the Attorney General a report relating to such programs, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Citizens’ Right to Know Act of 2016 . 2. Reporting requirement for Department of Justice grant recipients using funds for pretrial services programs (a) In general For each fiscal year in which a State or unit of local government receives funds under any grant program operated by the Department of Justice, including the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance grant program under subpart I of part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 ( 42 U.S.C. 3750 et seq. ), and in which the State or unit of local government uses funds received under such program for a pretrial services program, the State or unit of local government shall submit to the Attorney General a report which contains the following: (1) The name of each defendant participating in a pretrial release program administered by the pretrial services program, and whether, as applicable, the defendant appeared for trial and any post-release required court appearance. (2) Information relating to the previous arrest record of each defendant participating in the pretrial services program. (3) Information relating to any previous failure by each defendant participating in a pretrial release program administered by the pretrial services program to appear for trial or any post-release required court appearance. (4) The amount of Federal funds the pretrial services program received during the previous fiscal year. (b) Publication requirement Subject to any applicable confidentiality requirements, the Attorney General shall, on an annual basis, make publicly available the information received under subsection (a). (c) Reduction in funding If a State or unit of local government fails to comply with the requirement under subsection (a) for a fiscal year, the Attorney General shall reduce the amount that the State or unit of local government would otherwise receive under each grant program described in subsection (a) in the following fiscal year— (1) by 10 percent, if the failure to comply with the requirement was the first such failure; or (2) by 20 percent, if the failure to comply with the requirement was the second or subsequent such failure. (d) Reallocation Amounts not allocated to a State or unit of local government under subsection (c) shall be reallocated under each such grant program to States and units of local government that comply with the requirement under subsection (a).