U.S Department of Justice Executive Office for United States Attorneys SSAORNE UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS OSEQUS Volume 43 No Forty-Third Year September 1995 Interview with Andrew Fois Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs General ndrew Fois is the Assistant Attorney AAG _______ or the Office of Legislative Affairs OLA He has broad range of experience in criminal justice policy and _______ and is an at legislative matters currently adjunct professor _________________________________________ the Georgetown University Law Center After graduating from there in 1983 he began his career as an Assistant and there State Attorney in Dade County Florida shortly after joined the United States Attorneys office for the _________ District of Columbia where he served more than four years including one year as supervisor He left the office in 1989 to serve as Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary ______ Committees Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice where he worked on several major criminal justice initia tives including the Brady Law and the Crime Bills of 1990 1991 and 1993 Before being nominated for the position of _______________________________________ AAG of OLA he served for 14 months as an advisor to the Attorney General and as Associate Deputy Attorney Andrew Fois General Assistant Attorney General for the Andrew was interviewed by Assistant United States Office of Legislative Affairs Attorney David Nissman referred to as DN Editor-in- Chief of the United States Attorneys Bulletin subsequently merged and treated as one bill The first part around DN What pieces of legislation are floating dealt primarily with international terrorism immigration Congress concerning revisions to Title 18 or other criminal issues and terrorist fundraising The second one dealt more that are of interest to the Department provisions with resources additional funding and authorization for U.S for Counter-terrorism Center for AF There are probably hundreds of bills that would Attorneys FBI U.S and other law enforcement and amend Title 18 in one form or another Let me talk about Attorney personnel several more provisions for additional and enhanced inves some of the major pieces of legislation in which the the tigative and prosecutive authority We had good deal of Department is particularly involved The first is the Hill from the success in moving that bill through the Senate In the Terrorism Bill It initially went up to before the Oklahoma House although we did substantively even better in the Administration in two parts one part after House Judiciary committee the bill has not made its City bombing and the second part shortly They were yet continued on page 295 ________S I.rrI_IIIsIssIJE.. IgIt 1IiE 298 ATTORNEY GENERAL HIGHlIGHTS AG Calls on Congress to Support COPS Program DAG Standards Supports Upgrading Secunty This months issue featziresDwz interview wzhtIAsszsra7z1t Attbrny GenralfJr 299 UNITED STATES ArrORNEYS OFFICES LegIative1Affas1 Ady Fis nemanyof Brach Heiress Murder akedto be kept to Significant Issues/Events you up dateop legislative would Sigmficant Cases ciffairs we thought it be good zda to ketou tile info1mauon diretly We als hav 309 EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR UNiTED STATES ATTORNEYS iin1cludea tdbletJzat lists recenthearings EOUSA Staff Update nnouhcedbhe Office ofgslo.tive Affairs Case Management Update Our WordPerfect 7ips you Revised Thx Check Waiver colunn ill teacI simple nacios to save When Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act 1howtojcreate time Office of Education master lesson will Legal you1 tzf easy we teadhyou WordPerfect Tips kocreath ore sktve tine OLEPublication Corner tellsyouabout 316 DOJ HIGHLIGHTS etv books nd ho to et all4f our publia Significant Issues/Events in th DO Significant Cases tons SolzcittrGeneral cass flig/Ilights section indude summary ofKvles 323 ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILIIY Whitlev an important Brady csethaz Statements Closing ArgumentsImproper arelyplacis4the1responsibilitydnprosŁcu ImmunityGrand Jury ThrgetChange of Status tors to review relevant information assembled FraudTruthfulness in Statements to Others law with by enforcement agencies an eye toward disclosure 323 SENTENCING GUIDELINES Ivle IS yetanother Guideline Sentencing Update strong indicationof the close skrutiny imposed onmsecutors foi the non-disclosure of infoi- 324 CAREER opPoRrumEs To Ioseof you thawerédjiréOd- Civil Division Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Office of Imnugration Litigation Wiliconsideryoitromments in Immigration and Naturalization Service ispond the Bulletin FBI SES Office of the General Counsel making further changes tp Appendix ARevised Tax Check Waiver Form Appendix BOLE Course Nomination Form Appendix COLA Recent Hearings David Marsha11N1ssman Appendix DGusdelzne Sentencing Update II Published by Executive Office for United States Attorneys Washington D.C CamI DiBattiste Director United States Attorneys Bulletin Staff 202514-3572 David Marshall Nissman Editor-in-Chief Ed Hagen Editor Wanda Morat Editor Susan Dye Graphic Designer Barbara Jackson Editor 294 UNITED STATES ATFORNEYS BULLETIN SEPTEMBER 1995 continued 293 from page crime that some variance in the ratio is neededcertainly that one-to-one is not sufficient for prosecution purposes way to the floor We are working for that to happen in the So we sent up bill to encourage the Congress to reject fall Well be following that closely and pushing that that change That bill also would reject changes the Let me discuss some of the other legislative issues of Commission would make to money laundering sentencing interest to AUSAs We have bill that we sent up in June guidelines just after the Supreme Court came down with the Lopez Theres always of course the appropriations process decision The bill would reinstate or attempt to reinstate in Right now because of everything thats going on with constitutional way the Gun-Free School Zones Act which appropriations and the Hill theyre little bit behind was passed in 1990 as part of the 1990 Crime Bill and is schedule Usually by this time both the House and Senate something that know number of U.S Attorneys offices have acted But as of this early August date only the House use Its one of those kind of interesting federalism issues hasacted Overall the Department has done pretty well that were all increasingly sensitive to as more and more which in this congressional climate is encouraging There crimes are federalized and as more and more of these are some things that we need to work on There is an effort the Federal level types of prosecutions happen at Basically to move 200 lawyers from the general legal activities this bill would add requirement that the prosecutor prove account basically Tax and Environment Divisions into that the gun in question moved in or affected interstate U.S Attorneys offices with the goal commerce We think that will being that they will continue to do tax address both the Lopez Courts con- and environmental cases but how cern and be something that prosecu- Both in the House and the Senate practical that is is another question do in tors can readily prove as they members understand that the Thats something were working hard other contexts and would not affect United States Attorneys and to reverse in the Senate U.S the ability to bring most of these offices did well in Assistant United States Attorneys Attorneys pretty cases that we would be interested in the House account and we hope to the line bringing The other bill that might are front of Federal law continue that be of interest is the Crack/Powder enforcement and Federal Cocaine Bill This was prompted by DN Let me go back to Lopez for just prosecution the Sentencing Commission in May second Lopez of course is big sending to the Hill Sentencing Andrew Fois issue for us in that were unclear how Assistant Attorney General for the Guideline amendments which if many other statutes it may affect Has Office of Legislative Affairs Congress does not reject by any effort been made by OLA to look November will become law and at other potential problems and do become the binding Sentencing legislative fix on other criminal Guidelines The Commission recommended that the so- statutes that may not specify an interstate commerce ele called hundred-to-one weight ratio that applies at certain ment points between crack and powder cocaine sentences be AF Yes there has been We worked closely with the reduced to one-to-one ratio So now in order to get five Office of Legal Counsel the Office of Policy Development year mandatory minimum sentence under present law you and the Solicitor Generals Office and we came to two con- if of but have to get that youve got one gram crack youd clusions one the view is that the Lopez opinion itself is have hundred grams of powder cocaine The relatively narrow It seems to be addressing particularly Commissions recommendation would equalize that by for other unique legislative posturewhile sending signals raising the amount of crack to the equal amount of powder future statuteswhere the legislative history is abnormally feels the to get that sentence The Department one-to-one devoid of any kind of findings any kind of discussion of an ratio would result in insufficient sentences to vindicate our effect on interstate commerce The hearing record was law enforcement interest and that there are significant dif- and the floor debate record sparse was sparse and from ferences in the quality of the substances and particularly in being there at the time remember it was the sort of thing