Introduction of the District of Columbia Federal Officials Residency Requirement Equality Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia Federal Officials Residency Requirement Equality Act, which would require certain federal officials who serve the District of Columbia to live within its boundaries. In nearly every other jurisdiction in the United States, federal district court judges, federal circuit court judges, U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Marshals and federal court clerks are required by federal law to reside within the jurisdictions where they have been appointed--but these same officials appointed to serve only the people of the District are not bound by this same requirement. Even in the territories, such officials are required to live in those jurisdictions, other than the U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshal appointed for the Northern Mariana Islands who at the same time are serving in the same capacity in another jurisdiction. The only other exceptions exist for such officials appointed to the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York, which are the only districts that serve different parts of the same city. My bill would put the District on equal footing with almost every other jurisdiction by ensuring that our federal judges, U.S. Marshals, U.S. Attorney and federal clerk live among the residents they have been appointed to serve, in keeping with the federal law that applies elsewhere in the United States.
The requirement that these federal officials live in the jurisdictions they serve is significantly related to knowledge of the effect of their decisions, an important reason the residency requirement is enshrined in federal law. As stated in the official commentary to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, ``a judge should not become isolated from the society in which the judge lives.'' The same holds true for other federal officials. My bill recognizes that the District deserves federal officials with the same understanding and links to the community as Congress has seen fit to require for federal officials in other jurisdictions.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
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