The fair and efficient
allocation of government resources is a matter of central concern.
This is particularly true in regard to the distribution of enforcement
personnel. In late 1992, the subcommittee staff asked TRAC to
update a study which had found that the Justice Department had
scattered assistant U.S. Attorneys around the country in surprising
ways. When it came to federal prosecutors on a per capita basis,
Vermont had almost twice as many assistant U.S. Attorneys as New
Hampshire and New Hampshire had nearly twice as many as Northern
New York. In a more urban context, Eastern Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
and New York East (Brooklyn) had nearly twice as many as California
North (San Francisco) and California Central (Los Angeles). On
October 14, 1993, Susan B. Long and David Burnham, TRAC's Co-Directors,
were the lead witnesses in a hearing that exposed the failure
of the Justice Department to develop a sound method for deciding
where its prosecutors would be assigned.
