Additional Essential Reforms

Aligning Departmental Resources with Leadership Priorities Across All Components and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. As the next Administration pursues its objectives, it should use the department’s resources efficiently in a manner that delivers results for the American people. To accomplish this goal, it will be necessary to:

Ensure the assignment of sufficient political appointees throughout the department. Ensuring adequate accountability throughout the DOJ requires the intentional devotion of sufficient resources by the Administra- tion—not simply replicating what was done under prior Administrations and reflected in the Plum Book.97 The number of appointees serving throughout the department in prior Administrations—particularly during the Trump Administration—has not been sufficient either to stop bad things from hap- pening through proper management or to promote the President’s agenda.

End all nonessential details of department personnel—particularly those detailed to congressional offices—until the department can conduct a thorough review of its personnel needs. Considering all of the many challenges facing the DOJ, the next conservative Administration should terminate and recall all details of DOJ personnel shortly after the President’s inauguration. After a thorough analysis of the department’s resources and priorities is completed, details to other portions of the executive branch and to Congress can resume. Ensure accountability for personnel sanctioned or referred for discipline after a finding of misconduct. The next conservative Administration should complete a thorough review of any sanctions or findings of misconduct issued over the four years preceding the inauguration to ensure that the Biden Administration acted appropriately in response to any such sanctions or findings.

It is not enough for political appointees to serve in obvious offices like the Office of the Attorney General or the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. The next conservative Administration must make every effort to obtain the resources to support a vast expansion of the number of appointees in every office and component across the department—especially in the Civil Rights Division, the FBI, and the EOIR.

Undertake a comprehensive review of DOJ hiring practices. The next conservative Administration should conduct a holistic review of hiring practices employed across all DOJ offices and components to ensure that those practices comply with applicable law and policy. All hiring committees associated with hiring for career positions across the department should be assessed for impartiality to ensure that individuals are hired based on merit, aptitude, and legal skill and not based on association with or membership in certain ideologically aligned groups or based on illegal considerations such as race, religion, or sex.

Eliminating Redundant Offices and Consolidating Functions to Increase Efficiencies. The next conservative Administration should explore the possibility of consolidating and aligning the functions of the DOJ’s various components and offices in human resources, legal counsel, public relations, and other related areas. While local access to appropriate personnel and resources is important, there are inefficiencies and redundancies across the department that result in a bureaucratic, Rube Goldberg–style design that ultimately hinders the department’s mission. From IT infrastructure to management functions to public relations, DOJ lead- ership should explore consolidation and intradepartmental efficiencies to obtain the best possible support for its critical missions.

For example, the Department of Public Affairs has a dual structure of public information officers in which there are some political appointees who lead the office and provide support, but also career appointees who serve as public infor- mation officers for individual divisions (Criminal Division, National Security Division, etc.). The career officials handle the day-to-day work of the division, which entails monitoring important cases, assisting in editing, and distribut- ing press releases, and the political appointees will step in for larger issues that advance the Administration’s initiatives. This could be made more efficient by having political appointees for each division under the supervision of the Direc- tor of Public Affairs.

Additionally, given the interplay of function between the Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) and the Office of Public Affairs, as well as the fact that the Assistant Attorney General for the OLA is a Senate-confirmed position, the two offices should be folded into one for more efficiency and proper coordination. Under an Office of Public and Legislative Affairs, the Assistant Attorney General’s portfolio would encompass both, with one Director/Deputy for Public Affairs and one Director/ Deputy for Legislative Affairs. Pursuing Other Changes in Reporting Chains to Ensure Consistency with the Law and Administration Priorities. The next conservative Administration should undertake a comprehensive review of the DOJ’s current organizational chart and make decisions about its structure—consistent with any authority to do so outside of congressional action—to ensure the most efficient accomplishment of the department’s missions. For example:

Is the current reporting structure for the Associate Attorney General’s Office the best and optimal for the achievement of the department’s mission? Should all of the Deputy Attorney General’s direct reports continue to be direct reports, or would a different structure achieve a better, more efficient outcome in fulfilling the department’s mission? What should the Office of Legal Policy’s role be in the next conservative Administration? Should it continue to be responsible for assisting with judicial nominations, or should that function be assigned to the Office of Legislative Affairs, which interacts with Congress on a daily basis?

Pursuing Legislative Changes for Assistant United States Attorneys’ Compensation. To ensure that the department can attract and retain top legal talent away from Washington, D.C., the next conservative Administration should seek congressional reform of the pay scale used for Assistant United States Attorneys in the field. At a minimum, that reform should include a proposal to com- pensate Assistant United States Attorneys on at least the same basis as attorneys employed by Main Justice who are compensated under the GS scale. Ensuring that the department can attract and retain top legal talent outside of the D.C. market is essential and will help to emphasize the importance of the field’s work in achieving the department’s various missions.

Protecting the Integrity of the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute of Justice. The DOJ’s statistical and research arms should serve the Amer- ican people and not special interests. The Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics should focus the BJS on producing the statistics of greatest interest to everyday Americans, and hence of policymakers, rather than those of particular interest to crim- inal-justice academics. The Director should insist that such statistics be as accurate as possible and presented as clearly as possible. The intellectually engaged, everyday American citizen should be able to read and understand the BJS’s published statistics and reports rather than having to trust “experts” because the statistics are not clear. The BJS should focus on the core statistics involving crime and punishment, such as those relating to serious crimes committed, imprisonment, time served, recidivism, and the like. It should not pursue the niche political agendas of aca- demics or advocates. Moreover, a clear line should be maintained between official government statistics and third-party contractor reports. There should be no reports that look like official BJS reports but are authored by private entities such as the Urban Institute as happened under the Obama Administration.

Research funded by the National Institute of Justice should follow similar principles. The NIJ should fund high-quality, unbiased research on the topics of greatest interest to everyday Americans and policymakers rather than agen- da-driven research desired by advocates or academics.

The National Crime Victimization Survey, which is the nation’s largest crime survey and predates the BJS (it dates to the Nixon Administration), is of particular importance, and the department should prioritize and sufficiently fund it. This survey provides the only comprehensive and credible alternative to police reports for showing who commits crimes. The demographic information that crime victims provide through the survey about who commits crimes against them enables such reports as “Race and Ethnicity of Violent Crime Offenders and Arrestees, 2018,”98 which was published in January 2021 and finds that police are arresting those who, according to victims, actually commit crimes.