Judiciary & Public Safety Public Hearing

Council of the District of Columbia COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY & PUBLIC SAFETY NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004 COUNCILMEMBER CHARLES ALLEN, CHAIRPERSON COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY & PUBLIC SAFETY ANNOUNCES A PUBLIC HEARING ON B24-0838, the “Restoring Trust and Credibility to Forensic Sciences Amendment Act of 2022” Thursday, June 30, 2022, 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Virtual Hearing via Zoom To Watch Live: https://www.facebook.com/CMcharlesallen/ On Thursday, June 30, 2022, Councilmember Charles Allen, Chairperson of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, will convene a public hearing to consider Bill 24-0838, the “Restoring Trust and Credibility to Forensic Sciences Amendment Act of 2022”. The hearing will be conducted virtually via Zoom from 9:30 a.m. to no later than 1:30 p.m. The stated purpose of B24-0838, the “Restoring Trust and Credibility to Forensic Sciences Amendment Act of 2022”, is to amend the Department of Forensic Sciences Establishment Act of 2011 to redesignate the Department of Forensic Sciences as the Forensic Sciences and Public Health Laboratory, to redesignate the Laboratory as an independent agency within the executive branch of the District of Columbia government, to amend the qualifications and term of the Director, to expand the types of documents that are to be made publicly available, to amend the duties of the Director, to codify the budget process for the Laboratory, to establish the position of Chief Forensic Sciences Officer within the Laboratory, to address circumstances that unduly bias the provision of forensic sciences services and the independence of the Laboratory, to redesignate the Science Advisory Board as the Science Advisory and Review Board (“Board”), to provide for a robust and independent procedure for addressing self-disclosures, complaints, or allegations of testing errors before the Board, to require that correspondence and reports published by the Board be made public, to expand membership and change the qualifications for members on the Board, to grant access to the Board to all records of the Laboratory, and to amend existing law to conform to the redesignations of the Laboratory and the Board. The Committee invites the public to provide oral and written testimony. Public witnesses seeking to provide oral testimony at the Committee’s hearing must thoroughly review the following instructions: 1  • Anyone wishing to provide oral testimony must email the Committee at judiciary@dccouncil.us with their name, telephone number, organizational affiliation, and title (if any), by the close of business on Monday, June 27. • The Committee will approve witnesses’ registrations based on the total time allotted for public testimony. The Committee will also determine the order of witnesses’ testimony. • Representatives of organizations will be allowed a maximum of five minutes for oral testimony, and individuals (and any subsequent representatives of the same organizations) will be allowed a maximum of three minutes. In order to accommodate additional public witnesses, the Committee may reduce witnesses’ allotted time for testimony but will inform witnesses if it plans to do so. • Witnesses are not permitted to yield their time to, or substitute their testimony for, the testimony of another individual or organization. • If possible, witnesses should submit a copy of their testimony electronically in advance to judiciary@dccouncil.us. • Witnesses who anticipate needing language interpretation are requested to inform the Committee as soon as possible, but no later than five business days before the hearing. The Committee will make every effort to fulfill timely requests; however, requests received fewer than five business days before the hearing may not be fulfilled. For witnesses who are unable to testify at the hearing, written statements will be made part of the official record. Copies of written statements should be submitted to the Committee at judiciary@dccouncil.us. The record will close at the end of the business day on Thursday, July 14. 2