[District of Columbia Courts' Funding of Criminal Justice Act Obligations]

GAO reviewed the District of Columbia's Courts' funding of Criminal Justice Act (CJA) obligations, focusing on two funding sources from the District of Columbia's Appropriations Act of 1999. GAO noted that: (1) the first proviso to the appropriation provides that of the $121 million, up to $6.9 million shall be for the Child Abuse and Neglect (CCAN) Program and up to $25,036,000 shall be for CJA cases, $31,936,000 in total; (2) because the District of Columbia Appropriations Act of 1999 restricts the amount of the Federal Payment to the District of Columbia Courts that may be used for CJA, any reprogramming to CJA from funds for CCAN or other court operations would be reprogramming that falls within statutory law; (3) accordingly, statutory law would require a written notice of the reprogramming to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees 30 days before the reprogramming takes place; (4) whether a June 21 letter constituted the Courts' reprogramming notice and, if so, whether that notice satisfies statutory law is a matter for the Courts in the first instance to determine; and (5) if CCAN funds, or other fiscal year 1999 funds from the Federal Payment to the District of Columbia Courts, are reprogrammed for CJA purposes in accordance with statutory law, they would become available to pay CJA obligations to the same extent as the $25,036,000 originally provided as part of the Federal Payment to the District of Columbia Courts.