U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) introduced a bill Tuesday (Feb. 7) that would strip federal funding from the offices of local district attorneys who fail to prosecute violent criminals.
The Prosecutors Need to Prosecute Act would require elected district attorneys to “report violent crimes that they fail to charge criminals with committing,” Kennedy’s office said in a statement. “Prosecutors who fail to report these decisions risk losing priority federal funding for their districts.”
Kennedy is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill was co-sponsored by Republican senators John Thune (South Dakota), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee).
“Criminals are victimizing innocent Americans, and woke prosecutors are letting them do it over and over again,” Kennedy said. “Louisianians and all Americans deserve to know when their district attorneys refuse to stand up for victims.
“Our bill would require prosecutors to report what crimes they fail to prosecute, so that Americans can better hold their public servants accountable.”
Kennedy’s office said the bill would apply to state and local prosecutors in the 50 US cities in which crime is most on the rise -- including New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland. It said jurisdictions with a formal policy that eliminates cash bail for offenses involving firearms would “lose certain federal grant funding.”