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Federal Law Enforcement Council Act

Policy Introduction

Published February 2026

Based on Rev 2.1 of the Federal Law Enforcement Council Act

Overview

The Federal Law Enforcement Council Act restructures the governance of federal law enforcement by abolishing the office of the Attorney General and replacing it with a seven-member Federal Law Enforcement Council. The Act addresses a structural vulnerability in the current system: the concentration of all federal prosecution authority in a single officer who serves at the pleasure of the President, creating conditions under which the entire federal law enforcement apparatus can be captured for political purposes.

The Act separates two functions that the current structure conflates in the Attorney General -- the communication of legitimate executive enforcement priorities and the exercise of independent prosecutorial judgment. A new cabinet-level Law Enforcement Secretary serves as the President's policy voice. The Council exercises all prosecutorial authority independently. Communications between the Executive and the Council must pass through a single Authorized Communication Channel, and only formally documented communications carry legal standing. Informal pressure -- through any channel, from any source -- is defined out of legal existence rather than merely prohibited.

The Act preserves presidential authority within constitutional bounds. The President nominates Council Members with Senate confirmation, appoints and removes the Law Enforcement Secretary at will, and retains the ability to remove Council Members for documented cause. Council Members serve staggered fourteen-year terms on a calendar-fixed biennial appointment schedule that no action by any officer can alter, ensuring that the President controls whom to nominate but not when or how often nominations arise. Each appointment is terminal -- no member may serve a subsequent term. Vacancies are covered through a tiered roster of former Council Members and senior career officials until the seat is filled at the next scheduled biennial date. The structure operates within the constitutional framework upheld by the Supreme Court for independent commissions since Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935) and reaffirmed in Seila Law LLC v. CFPB (2020) and Collins v. Yellen (2021).

Key Components

  • General Provisions (Title I) -- Establishes the Act's short title, congressional findings, statement of purpose, and definitions used throughout the statutory framework.

  • Federal Law Enforcement Council (Title II) -- Seven members with staggered fourteen-year terms, calendar-fixed biennial appointments, terminal appointment, partisan balance requirements, for-cause removal protections, rotating chair, and tiered vacancy coverage.

  • Nomination Transparency and Documentation (Title III) -- Dual-track system requiring nominees to submit either an existing record of legal analysis or a supervised assessment, plus a prosecutorial philosophy statement, across six defined subject matter areas.

  • Law Enforcement Secretary (Title IV) -- A cabinet-level position limited to communicating executive enforcement priorities, with no prosecutorial, investigative, or enforcement authority and no access to case-specific information.

  • Executive-Council Communication Protocol (Title V) -- Establishes the Authorized Communication Channel and Documentation Registry. Only formally documented communications carry legal standing. Undocumented communications must be reported to the Inspector General and create no obligation on the Council or Department personnel.

  • Director of Operations (Title VI) -- A career professional appointed by the Council to manage day-to-day Department of Justice operations.

  • Decision Authority and Voting Thresholds (Title VII) -- Three-tiered voting structure requiring simple majority for routine decisions, enhanced majority for senior personnel actions, and supermajority for politically sensitive matters, with an explicit threshold table for reduced membership and the build-up period.

  • Special Counsel (Title VIII) -- Statutory mechanism with mandatory appointment triggers for matters involving the President, Council Members, or the Director of Operations, a qualified roster maintained by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, and a judicial backstop if the Council fails to act.

  • Inspector General (Title IX) -- Independent Inspector General selected through a five-member nominating committee, serving a single ten-year term, removable only by supermajority Council vote with judicial concurrence.

  • Senior Service Corps (Title X) -- Former Council Members performing substantive institutional functions including prosecution pattern review, policy evaluation, training, ethics review panel service, and vacancy coverage, with a mandatory four-year minimum service period.

  • Ethics Review and Accountability (Title XI) -- Inspector General-triggered peer review by Senior Service Corps members with graduated sanctions, D.C. Circuit appellate review, and a Bridge Ethics Review Panel for the transition period.

  • Career Workforce Protections (Title XII) -- Merit-based personnel standards with DOJ-specific prohibited personnel practices, including protections against case-based reassignment and politically motivated performance evaluations.

  • Whistleblower Protections (Title XIII) -- Protections for reporting undocumented communications, political interference, and prohibited personnel practices, with criminal penalties for retaliation and multiple independent reporting channels.

  • Transparency and Oversight (Title XIV) -- Annual prosecution pattern reporting, biennial GAO audits, mandatory congressional testimony, and scheduled public disclosure of Documentation Registry entries.

  • National Security Coordination (Title XV) -- Documented coordination mechanism through a designated liaison while maintaining the Council's final prosecutorial authority and the prohibition on case-specific communications.

  • Transition and Implementation (Title XVI) -- Thirteen-year phased build-up with biennial appointments. The Attorney General continues during the build-up, the Council begins pre-operational activities in Year 7, and operational authority transfers when the fifth member is seated in Year 9.

Documentation

The full legislative text, policy rationale, and additional supporting materials provide complete detail on the Act's provisions, design reasoning, and implementation framework.

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Prepared by Albert Ramos for The American Policy Architecture Institute