Report of Meeting with Attorney General Holder
by by Steve Cook, President
July 17, 2009
For the meeting with the AG and the DAG, I was joined by Vice President for Policy Bob Mydans, Executive Director Dennis Boyd and Counsel Bruce Moyer. The AG and DAG were joined by EOUSA Director Marshall Jarrett, Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis, Counsel to the AG Monty Wilkinson and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Kathryn H. Ruemmler. This meeting was very positive and encouraging.
The AG began by saying that he was interested in meeting with us because he wanted to understand better the resources that AUSAs need to perform their jobs, to pay attention to their concerns, and to reflect that NAAUSA had an open door to him. In this initial meeting, NAAUSA raised four issues for discussion with the AG: the AUSA retirement legislation; the need for AUSA security improvements; the opportunity to address AUSA pay within emerging government-wide pay reform; and NAAUSA representation on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee. (Dennis Boyd provided the AG and DAG with bound materials addressing all of these issues.) In addition, the AG and the DAG raised the issue of policy and resource improvements related to litigation discovery.
On the retirement legislation, NAAUSA informed the Attorney General of the principal sponsorship of the retirement/collections reform legislation by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) and their joint goal to introduce bills in both chambers before the start of the August recess. The Attorney General noted his past personal support for legislation achieving improvements in AUSA retirement benefits, and he reaffirmed his continued personal support. The AG asked that DOJ and NAAUSA continue to collaborate on further analysis and discussion of the costs of the legislation and the scope of its coverage, e.g., whether it should apply only to AUSAs or whether as well to DOJ attorneys with similar prosecutorial responsibilities. The coverage issue is one that DOJ has wrestled with in the past. The current legislative proposal extends only to AUSAs and USAs who previously served as AUSAs.
On the security issue we outlined the five points addressed in our written security materials and highlighted some of the results from our membership security survey (some of which are set out on NAAUSA.org). Notably (because it was the number one priority identified in the NAAUSA security survey) we discussed the need to provide secure parking for AUSAs. In this regard we discussed both short and long term solutions. The AG observed (accurately we believe) that there appeared to be a noticeable increase in the number of threats against AUSAs since his time as DAG in the Clinton administration.
On pay we discussed the need to address a broad range of issues from new AUSA pay to senior AUSA pay, to include pay caps, pay compression and the disparity with the SES pay scale and bonus system. We emphasized that there was a unique opportunity to address these issues within a government-wide pay reform legislative proposal currently being drafted by the Office of Personnel Management.
Finally, we briefly discussed the possibility of securing representation on the AGAC.
During further discussion, the AG said that he wanted the Department to take a closer look at several criminal justice issues, including mandatory minimum sentencing and the sentencing guidelines. Additionally he touched on DOJ efforts to improve its performance in litigation-related discovery. Specifically, he said that the DAG is heading two working groups looking comprehensively at discovery issues on both the civil and criminal sides. Input from the AUSA community will be important, the AG said. DAG Ogden noted that his inquiry includes focusing on the operational support AUSAs need to fulfill their obligations. He said that the focus is on technology, training, and the resource issues necessary for AUSAs to best do their jobs. The AG said he wants to assure accessibility by AUSAs to the "best equipment for discovery and the production of documents."
Obviously these issues are not so distantly related to the media attacks on the integrity of individual prosecutors and the AUSA community at large. In this regard the AG asked that NAAUSA's help communicate to the field his view that the cases and events in the news had not detracted from his "full confidence and trust in AUSAs." Many people are doing the right job all the time, he said.
In conclusion, the AG noted that NAAUSA's concerns were reasonable and that further discussion should proceed with EOUSA Director Marshall Jarrett. We anticipate significant follow-up work on these issues in the coming months. In addition to the meeting with the AG and the DAG, we had separate preparatory meetings with EOUSA Director Marshall Jarrett and Deputy Director Terry Derden and agreed to continue our discussions on several issues.
On Capitol Hill, Bob Mydans and Bruce Moyer joined me for a series of meetings focused on preparations for bipartisan introduction and support of the AUSA retirement/collections reform legislation with Sen. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), as well as with staff associated with Sen. Leahy, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
I came away from all of these meetings impressed by the significantly improved relationship that NAAUSA has established with Department of Justice over the past several years, and the wide range of support and contacts Bruce Moyer and Dennis Boyd have cultivated on our behalf on the Hill. We will keep you advised of our continued progress on the AUSA retirement bill as we near introduction, as well as ongoing discussions with DOJ on security and pay improvements, as well as representation on the AGAC.
«
back to NAAUSA News
