[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 15, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S411-S412]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Crime

  Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I rise today to discuss yet another one 
of the consequences of this President's failed policies, and that is 
out-of-control crime.
  Many Democrats have championed a soft-on-crime agenda that has 
contributed to soaring crime rates.
  According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, since 2019, violent 
crime is up 26 percent, aggravated assault is up 34 percent, and 
homicides are up a staggering 43 percent. This is not only 
unacceptable, it is terrifying. Repeated calls to defund the police, 
for open borders, and reduced sentencing or bail requirements have led 
to a crime increase so overwhelming that America's fear regarding crime 
in their communities is at a 50-year high.
  Though President Biden bears ultimate responsibility here, in many 
ways he is following the direction of his party when it comes to crime. 
We have seen a lack of leadership from the White House, an overly 
politicized Department of Justice, and district attorneys who refuse to 
prosecute crimes.
  The Biden administration has insisted on nominating radical, soft-on-
crime advocates to Federal judgeships. While this is an utter disregard 
for law and order, it is deeply concerning, and it is a trend that we 
have seen over the last 2 years.
  Despite previous efforts to defund the police, my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle are now walking back their claims that less law 
enforcement makes us safer. As many Democrat-led cities across the 
country heeded these calls, the United States experienced the biggest 
rise in murder since the start of national recordkeeping in 1960.
  On top of this, we are experiencing record numbers of police officers 
who are quitting their profession or they are heading for retirement. 
Seattle has lost more than one-quarter of its police force in the last 
2\1/2\ years. Just a short drive from here in DC, in Fairfax County, 
VA, their police chief declared a personnel emergency and staff 
shortage last June and installed mandatory overtime to keep their 
communities protected. Small communities across this country have seen 
their entire police force quit all at once. And perhaps very alarming, 
the New York City Police Department saw 3,701 police officers retire or 
resign in 2022. That is the most since 9/11.
  My small State of West Virginia, my home State, is not exempt from 
these challenges as well. In 2021, the Morgantown Police Department 
began dealing with a 20-percent reduction in staffing. Our police chief 
said this was due to the danger associated with being an officer and an 
overall growing stigma of officers being aggressive or biased. The West 
Virginia University Police Department is experiencing a similar 
shortage, with a turnover rate that is still much higher than it was 
previous to the pandemic.
  I live in Charleston, WV. The Charleston Police Department has been 
offering large financial incentives to attract officers they 
desperately need. And the pride of West Virginia, our West Virginia 
State Police, continues to struggle to keep our State troopers.
  We rely on our police for a multitude of services and protection, and 
in this era of out-of-control crime, we cannot afford to see these 
shortages continue.
  On top of all this, the border crisis continues to fuel the fire of 
crime and spread illicit narcotics in our communities. Last year, we 
seized almost 15,000 pounds of fentanyl at our border. Well, in this 
first quarter, we have already seized 12,500 pounds just this fiscal 
year. That is only in a quarter of a year.
  I see the ramifications of Biden's border crisis in my State, which 
is disproportionately impacted by the fentanyl and addiction crisis. In 
2022, we sadly lost 1,135 West Virginians to overdoses. We have the 
highest rate of overdose deaths per capita of any State in the Union. 
There were 6,916 emergency room visits related to overdoses, with our 
EMS teams responding to another 9,205 suspected overdose calls.
  Last week, in Wheeling, WV, local prosecutors indicted drug 
traffickers who served as ``one of the largest suppliers of illicit 
substances to West Virginia,'' according to our U.S. Attorney's Office 
in the Northern District. And I congratulate Bill Ihlenfeld, who is the 
U.S. attorney in that office.
  There was an original drug bust last October that recovered 
approximately 75 pounds of cocaine, 19 pounds of methamphetamine, and 5 
pounds of fentanyl, which is very lethal in very small 
doses. Investigators found that these traffickers had drugs shipped 
from the U.S.-Mexico border to Ohio via tractor-trailer or they used 
cash payments to give to people who flew from California to the 
Pittsburgh International Airport. The connection between the crisis at 
our border and the drug epidemic we are seeing at home doesn't get any 
clearer than that.

  Here in our Nation's Capital, amid surging violent crime and police 
shortages, DC's City Council is attempting a dangerous and 
irresponsible rewrite of their criminal code. Reducing the penalties 
for violent crimes--carjackings, robberies, and even homicides--as 
these numbers rise is incredibly tone deaf to local calls for increased 
safety and policing. This is happening right in the President's 
backyard.
  So I commend my colleague Senator Bill Hagerty from Tennessee for 
introducing a resolution of disapproval to block the DC City Council's 
dangerous and irresponsible Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 from 
taking effect. The DC City Council's legislation is the complete 
opposite of what we need to control this out-of-control crime.
  While I have been talking about concerns for the types of crimes we 
can see, there are also increasing threats from crimes that could be 
described as unseen. These threats emphasize the vulnerability of our 
children as recent years have pushed their lives into an increasingly 
digital space. Because of the pandemic, children are learning digitally 
and have more access to devices than ever before, putting them at an 
increased risk for luring, grooming, and exploitation.
  The data here is incredibly disturbing. One in twenty children will 
experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18. That 
statistic increases for young girls, with one in five experiencing some 
form of sexual abuse before the age of 18. Ninety percent of child 
abuse victims know their abusers, and 60 percent of child sexual abuse 
victims never tell anyone.
  Well, I am a mother of three and a grandmother of eight now, and this 
is incredibly upsetting to me. We must safeguard our children from 
things that no child should ever have to experience.
  So I would tell President Biden: I hope these statistics are a wake-
up call.
  Now more than ever, American families are asking for law and order in 
their communities and peace of mind in their neighborhoods. We as 
Republicans stand ready to continue our push for solutions that make 
our country safer and a stronger place to live.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. BRAUN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to let these 
comments be made before the vote, and I will keep them brief.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BRAUN. Madam President, yesterday, I spoke about a new law passed 
by the DC City Council. This law lowers penalties for crimes like 
carjacking and robbery. Thankfully, Congress is stepping in to stop 
this legislation.
  DC, Washington here, should be an example of our American ideals. 
Sadly, it is becoming an example of the crime we are experiencing 
across the country in our larger cities. In Chicago, the Midwest, there 
are new records being broken in the wrong way each week, in New York, 
and even in places like my State capital of Indianapolis. It should be 
a wake-up call to crack down. Yet city governments keep going the other 
way.
  The first priority of any government should be the safety of its 
citizens, especially at the local level, where you live each day. We 
know a big part of this is not about the laws we have. We have a lot of 
laws on the books. They are not enforced. In my State capital of 
Indianapolis, I have a prosecutor who will not enforce those laws, and 
even in the heart of our country, the Midwest, you have the same issue.
  I guess the most disturbing part of all of this is the hatred for our 
police. They place their safety at hazard to protect ours. Too often, 
they pay the ultimate price in doing so.

[[Page S412]]

  (The remarks of Mr. BRAUN pertaining to the introduction of S. 459 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. BRAUN. Madam President, we lost a Hoosier recently who spent 7 
years fighting ALS. I was proud here, along with Senator Coons, to 
start the ALS Caucus. ALS is one of those diseases, when you are 
diagnosed with it, for which there is not a very good prognosis--3 to 4 
years, maybe, sometimes.
  Corey Polen from Indiana was able to stretch it out to 7 years and 
fought valiantly along the way. He was involved in trying to take his 
cause and help others. Currently, there is no cure, and there is 
severely limited access to treatment options.
  Since I have been here, I have been trying to reform healthcare in 
general. That is a task when you have one side of the aisle that 
doesn't think there is anything to do there or isn't interested in it 
and the other side maybe wanting to have more government when I think 
we need to reform it in an underlying way and make it more transparent, 
more competitive, and remove barriers to entry so that you have doctors 
and nurses wanting to come into the profession.
  Let's take this commonsense part of it. This is a disease, along with 
several other diseases, for which, once you are diagnosed, you do not 
have time, and you are beset by a cumbersome process that keeps people 
from getting into and even staying in treatment. We need to fix that to 
where, through the Promising Pathway Act, which I have had out there 
and which is gaining stride, we need to make an exception for those 
ailments that have treatments in progress and where the individuals 
suffering from them are willing to take the risk. They want to do that 
because there is no other option, especially when there are promising 
treatments that you are working with.
  In Corey's case, his journey began in October 2015. He was hiking 
with his wife Jennifer in Arizona. On that hike, he kind of hurt his 
ankle and noticed more. He then returned to his hometown and wanted to 
look into it further. That is when he got that bleak diagnosis.
  All along the journey, as his condition was getting worse, he was out 
there to help others with it. His main goal for us here in Congress was 
for us to get something like the Promising Pathway Act across the 
finish line, which would give hope to him and to all of the others with 
similar diseases who are frustrated by the fact that we can't move 
quickly enough, especially when there is stuff in the works that looks 
like it is going to be someday, if not a cure, at least a mitigation to 
the disease. We weren't able to get that done.
  I would ask my fellow Senators and someone else in the House to carry 
it. We need to get this across the finish line. A panel of FDA advisers 
voted 7 to 2 that there was enough evidence to do something different. 
That gave hope to people like Corey and others that something would get 
done, but it hasn't happened. We have this under our own control to get 
it done, and it is well past time to get it done.
  I have been here going on now into my fifth year, and we have been 
dragging our feet. I am going to roll up my sleeves and get it done, 
and we are going to keep pursuing this effort through our ALS Caucus. 
Senator Coons and I have done it, and we have made headway. But why 
wouldn't we, when we have been dawdling with this issue for so long, 
not give the benefit of the doubt to treatments that are promising and 
get this across the finish line for these individuals who have no other 
hope but for us to get it done?
  I yield the floor.

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