ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

Enhanced Financial Recovery and

Equitable Retirement Treatment Act of 2007

Legislation to improve the collection of

Title I - Debt Collection Reform

· The 93 United States Attorney Offices are responsible for criminal and civil debt collection efforts that result in billions of dollars a year and generate additional funds for federal agencies, the Department of Justice and the victims of crime. From FY 2003 to FY 2006, US Attorney Offices have collected an averaged over $4 billion a year, more than twice the total budget of all USAOs. The FY 2006 statistical report from DOJ provides detail on collection activities last year.

· However, according to the Government Accountability Office, which has criticized the Department of Justice for deficiencies in the collection of civil and criminal judgments, there are still tens billions of dollars left to be recovered, sums not collected due to inefficiencies in the law and competing priorities.

· Title I responds to GAO’s criticism through the creation of reforms in the law governing Department of Justice collection efforts to assure that civil and criminal offenders are not afforded their ill-gotten gains, that innocent victims are compensated for their losses to the fullest extent possible, and that the Department of Justice possesses and devotes sufficient resources to collection efforts.

· The collection reforms principally rely upon: surcharges that provide an incentive to able defendants to promptly pay civil and criminal judgments, fines and restitution owed to the federal government and victims; and offsets, subtracted from the amount of the debt due the federal agency, to partially defray the Department of Justice’s collection costs. The National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys estimates that these reforms will provide at least $832 million in new funds to DOJ from FY07 to FY12.

5% Criminal Surcharge – Impose a 5% surcharge on criminal debtors who do not pay fines and restitution within 15 days of judgment.
5% Civil Surcharge – Impose of 5% surcharge on civil debtors who do not pay civil debt within 15 days of judgment. Federal agencies are still entitled to 100% of principle and interest. It would replace the 10% civil enforcement surcharge which only applies to selected actions.
Increase Civil Offset to 5% - Add 2% to the current 3% of civil recoveries now paid to the DOJ Working Capital Fund. The additional 2% would go into the Enhanced Financial Recovery Fund.
5% Offset on Federal Restitution – The 5% offset on federal restitution would match the 5% civil offset and apply only to criminal judgments where restitution is due a federal agency.
Increased Special Assessments – Special assessments, which are collected before fines and restitutions, would be increased across-the-board. For example, the special assessment would increase from $100 to $200.

Title II -- Assistant United States Attorney Retirement

Title II provides parity between the retirement benefits of AUSAs and those of federal law enforcement officers. It will strengthen the Department of Justice’s ability to win critical cases by better ensuring the retention of skilled, experienced federal prosecutors.

Improving the AUSA retirement benefit will confront the growing exodus of top-flight prosecutors from the Department of Justice, which is harming the Department’s ability to prosecute terrorists, gang leaders, drug kingpins, intellectual pirates, and white collar criminals. The average line AUSA remains with DOJ for only 8 years, a critical loss of litigation skill and experience by the government.

DOJ internal studies and surveys have identified the enhancement of the AUSA retirement benefit as the foremost remedy in improving the AUSA retention rate. A report of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee concluded: “Clearly, career AUSAs should be authorized to receive retirement benefits afforded all of the other members of the federal law enforcement community since the majority of AUSA responsibilities relate to the investigation, apprehension or detention of individuals suspected or convicted of criminal laws of the United States.”

Elevating the AUSA retirement benefit also will assist DOJ in its current effort to realign the skillbase of the AUSA workforce of 5,400 AUSAs in 93 U.S. Attorney Offices. Recent DOJ workforce realignment efforts have been only modestly successful, with cash incentive retirement offers prompting a limited response among eligible AUSAs.

Title II will bring the retirement benefits of AUSAs into line with the retirement benefits of thousands of federal law enforcement employees, including Special Agents of the FBI, Secret Service, IRS and DEA, deputy U.S. Marshals, probation and pretrial service officers and Bureau of Prison employees. When Congress originally granted a better retirement benefit to law enforcement personnel, AUSAs served as political appointees, outside the purview of the improvement.