To provide for the appointment of an Assistant United States Attorney for each judicial district for the purpose of prosecuting firearms offenses.

July 17, 2001

Mr. UDALL of New Mexico (for himself, Mr. FLAKE, Mr. WU, Ms. HART, Mr. BONIOR, Mr. MOORE, Mr. WEINER, and Mr. UDALL of Colorado) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

To provide for the appointment of an Assistant United States Attorney for each judicial district for the purpose of prosecuting firearms offenses.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Gun Crime Prosecution Act of 2001'.

SEC. 2. APPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS TO PROSECUTE FIREARMS OFFENSES.

(a) IN GENERAL- The United States Attorney for each judicial district shall--

(1) appoint 1 Assistant United States Attorney in addition to any other Assistant United States Attorneys appointed for the judicial district;

(2) assign the additional Assistant United States Attorney responsibility for prosecuting only offenses under chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, and any other offense under Federal law involving firearms or ammunition; and

(3) require the additional Assistant United States Attorney in the prosecution of such offenses, to give priority to--

(A) crimes of violence (as defined in section 16 of such title) committed by individuals who have previously been convicted of such a crime; and

(B) offenses by individuals who have previously been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than 1 year.

(b) LIMITATION ON AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS- To carry out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated to the Attorney General $8,300,000 for each of fiscal years 2002 through 2005. Amounts appropriated pursuant to this subsection are authorized to remain available until expended.

END