[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S674-S676]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DC CRIMINAL CODE
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I am going to turn this over to Senator
Hagerty and my other colleagues here in a minute, but I just, one, want
to recognize Senator Hagerty from Tennessee for doing something that
needed to be done.
The Congressional Review Act allows us, as a body, to look at certain
enactments coming from the DC--District of Columbia--City Council for
our approval. I am just going to go through the highlights here, but
tomorrow, we will be voting on Senator Hagerty's proposal to disapprove
legislation that was passed regarding revising the DC criminal code.
And Senator Hagerty has done a good service for the people of the
District of Columbia and, I think, for the body and the Nation as a
whole.
So what are we talking about? This is numbers for the District of
Columbia, your Nation's Capital: Total DC crime has increased 25
percent from 2022 to 2023 as of March 3. Carjackings are up 111
percent, have increased for the fifth straight year. Homicides are up
40 percent, and DC has already reached 38 homicides. The average
homicide suspect has been arrested 11 times before committing a
homicide. Sexual assaults are up 123 percent. Property crimes are up 32
percent. There have been 393 robberies in DC during the last 2 months.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, there are 430 fewer
officers than they had in 2019. It is the lowest number of officers
since the 1970s.
I don't know where to end this thing other than to say that the DC
City Council, in light of all of this information, passed a law over
the objection of the Mayor that would reduce the maximum sentence
available for crimes such as carjacking, robbery, home invasion,
burglary, firearm offenses, when all of these offenses are at a
historic high. So Senator Hagerty saw what they did and said: This is
insane.
I just read to you a dramatic increase in crime across the board--
personal property, sexual assault, and murder--and the DC City Council
passed a law over the objection, the veto, of the Mayor to reduce
maximum sentences to eliminate nonenhanced mandatory minimum sentences
for all offenses, except first-degree murder; lowers maximum sentences
to 45 years; expands judicial sentencing reconsideration to all
criminals after 20 years of imprisonment; reduces the scope and maximum
penalty for felony murder. The bottom line is, instead of increasing
punishments, they decided to dramatically decrease punishments for the
crimes that are out of hand.
So when Senator Hagerty introduced this legislation that would reject
this, things started changing--starting with the President of the
United States, who said that he was going to veto any attempt by the
Congress to stop the DC law from becoming law.
Well, something happened because he has changed his mind. In the
House, Democrats and Republicans passed this Congressional Review Act
overwhelmingly. The bottom line is President Biden has now indicated he
will sign it, and DC City Council is trying to find a way to take it
off the books. I doubt if they can.
So, Senator Hagerty, sometimes we wonder if we make a difference
here. You have made a difference. You have brought this body together
because I would anticipate, tomorrow, that we are going to have an
overwhelming vote to reject the DC City Council's efforts to revise
their criminal code to make it less deterrent.
All of us live up here during the week. It is our Nation's Capital.
It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. But crime
is out of control. And we need to restore law and order to our Nation's
Capital, and this effort by Senator Hagerty is now being joined by a
legion of Senate Democrats. And I want to thank each and every Democrat
for stepping forward and joining Senator Hagerty and all the
Republicans for saying no to this bad idea of being soft on crime in a
city that is overwhelmed by crime.
So if there was an award to be given for bad ideas, I would nominate
what the DC City Council did in trying to reduce punishments for crimes
against persons and property at a time when the city is on fire in
terms of crime. So Senator Hagerty and others have stepped into the
breach. Tomorrow, we are going to vote and we are going to end this
ill-conceived idea. And I want to thank Senator Hagerty for his
leadership, and I look forward to being his wingman tomorrow.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, I would like to say that I appreciate and
am very touched by the remarks of the good Senator from South Carolina,
Mr. Graham.
And I thank Senator Graham so much for his support and his presence
here tonight.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Arkansas.
Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the staggering
crime problem plaguing the Nation's Capital and an outrageous attempt
to unleash even more of it on residents and visitors alike.
The DC City Council unanimously voted last year to substantially
weaken its criminal code, including by eliminating life sentences and
most mandatory minimums for any crime but first-degree murder.
It is also lowering maximum penalties for some violent offenses like
carjacking and robberies. These so-called reforms weren't just opposed
by Republicans; they were even a bridge too far for the District's
Democratic Mayor who vetoed the legislation, only to see that overruled
by the City Council by a 12 to 1 margin.
DC is experiencing a wave of the very crimes this proposal is going
soft on. There have been 99 carjackings so far this year. Thirty-eight
homicides have occurred in 2023, and 203 murders took place in the city
last year--the second consecutive year its total surpassed 200.
This preposterous answer to DC's public safety crisis was also
rejected by the Washington Post editorial board,
[[Page S675]]
which said the city could become more dangerous while even further
tying the hands of police and prosecutors if this effort were to
succeed.
Let's be clear, only in an overwhelmingly liberal city, with years of
support from liberal lawmakers at the Federal level, would something
like this ill-conceived crime spree incentive be possible. It is just
bad policy. It is also unbelievably insensitive and disrespectful to
victims on the receiving end of heinous and violent crimes.
There is no justice in downplaying crime. There also can be no
pretense of keeping the public safe and upholding the law and order
when leaders refuse to demand true accountability from those who
brazenly break the law.
How should these victims react to these senseless proposals that
delegitimize their suffering and the consequences that they will
provoke?
Unlike our Democratic colleagues, Republicans won't make excuses for
criminals, and we won't sit back and allow far-left ideology to gut the
criminal justice system of civility to deter and punish unlawful,
violent behavior.
For too long, our friends on the other side of the aisle have used,
frankly, irresponsible rhetoric about crime and policing that would
inevitably lead to ideas as bad as this or worse. From ``defund the
police'' to ``reimagining justice,'' there has been no shortage of
liberal slogans and agendas to undermine the rule of law and minimize
crime's societal impacts.
Democrats in Washington, including President Biden, have only poured
fuel to the fire. Many have openly embraced these absurd concepts,
including the 173 House Democrats who refused to overturn the DC
Council and stand up on the side of common sense.
Let's not forget the ultimate irony in all of this, which is the fact
that for the last 2 years, Democrats were demanding the Senate abolish
the legislative filibuster in order to ram through party-line votes on
incredibly bad policies, including DC statehood.
It seems that, for Democrats, giving the District complete autonomy
over its affairs is a useful political talking point, until it isn't.
If that doesn't undermine just how bad faith the push to wreck the
Senate was, I really don't know what will; and I am so grateful a few
of our colleagues on the other side had the courage to reject it.
So, Mr. President, I am pleased to hear that my colleagues and the
President--and apparently even the DC City Council--seem willing to
draw the line here. Thank goodness.
The question of how long it will last or if they have really learned
a time-tested lesson is still quite open. For the Nation's Capital and
our entire country, I hope this outbreak of sanity and appreciation of
law and order is long lasting.
I thank Senator Hagerty for leading the charge. He has done a
tremendous job, and I think it made a real difference.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I was on the plane--Southwest Airlines
to be specific--this particular Monday, flying up from Oklahoma City to
Washington, DC, to be able to come here to the office, begin to do a
week of work.
The plane was absolutely filled with people coming in that also work
in DC in different Agencies, lots of tourist groups that are actually
coming up, groups of students that are here. All kinds of folks were on
the plane because they were coming to Washington, DC, because it is the
Nation's Capital. It is the Nation's Capital and the spot where the
entire world--every diplomat from every country--comes to Washington,
DC, to be able to meet with Members of the Senate, Members of the
House, the President, and the Executive team. They come to be able to
interact because this is the central point of the government of the
United States. They expect to come and to be able to see the White
House, be able to see the Capitol, be able to tour around phenomenal
Smithsonian institutions and be able to see that.
This is what they also see when they come to Washington, DC, now.
That is the common view that is also around the city because, in the
last few years, since the ``defund the police'' movement took over the
city council, the city council in Washington, DC, did several things.
They took out student resource officers in schools, saying that
SROs--the student resource officers in schools--they were what they
called a pipeline from school to prison. So to solve the issues around
schools, they just stopped enforcing in the schools. And do you know
what has happened? Crime has gone up around schools, and problems have
continued in schools.
Crime has gone up 25 percent just in the last year in Washington,
DC--just in the last year. So far, in 2023, according to the
Metropolitan Police Department--now, remember, we are in March of 2023.
So far in 2023, there has already been 38 homicides in this city, 215
assaults with a dangerous weapon, 298 robberies, 164 burglaries, 1,182
motor vehicle thefts, and from last year to this year, arson is already
up 300 percent in Washington, DC. And this has become the common sight
around the city.
What in the world is going on? In the middle of rampant increase in
crime in Washington, DC, the DC City Council's response to this in an
overwhelming vote was to reduce penalties for felonies and to be able
to say that if you commit a misdemeanor, then you actually have to have
a jury trial as well, knowing full well that would clog up the courts,
and basically misdemeanors would never be heard, and so they just
wouldn't happen. No one would actually get a misdemeanor record in
Washington, DC.
So their plan to end this rampant increase in crime is just not to
enforce the law, and if you were caught, you would get out faster, to
get back to the street to be able to commit crimes again.
Listen, there are amazing people who live in this area, Washington,
DC, remarkable residents who love this city and love this country, and
they do not want to be afraid for their kids going to school.
We had a gentleman who actually worked full time to provide what they
call safe passages for kids to be able to get back and forth from their
homes to their schools. His whole focus was just to be able to bring
down crime in Washington, DC. He was murdered not long ago on one of
those same streets in DC.
This should not be so for this great capital and for this great
Nation, and the response should not be, we are just not going to
enforce the law. That is what the DC Council has said they are going to
do.
To her credit, the Mayor of Washington, DC, vetoed that bill when it
came out of the city council, and the city council overrode her veto
and said: No, we are going to do it anyway.
In response, Senator Bill Hagerty has brought up what is called a
Congressional Review Act, a challenge to this, and he has taken the
next step to be able to say it is not just a Congressional Review Act
but to say Congress has the responsibility and the right to actually
watch over what happens here.
This is not outside the bounds of Congress's responsibility. The U.S.
Constitution, article I, section 8, line 17, says this. Here is the
responsibility of Congress:
[Congress should] exercise exclusive legislation in all
cases whatsoever over such District . . . as may, by
cessation of particular states, and the acceptance of
Congress, become the seat of government of the United States.
That is describing where we are right now. In our constitutional
responsibility, Congress has the responsibility to oversee what is
happening in Washington, DC, and to make sure this area is a safe
place.
Congress, in decades past, has passed over what is called home rule
to Washington, DC, to say to the city council: You have the
responsibility to be able to make decisions for what is going on. But
Congress still has the congressional, constitutional responsibility to
be able to oversee DC. So it is entirely appropriate for Senator
Hagerty to bring this up and say it is time that Congress steps in on
the city council and speaks out for our constitutional obligation and
says we cannot have rampant crime in the seat of our Republic.
This vote that is coming up tomorrow is going to override the city
council. It is hard to believe that the U.S. Congress has to vote to
override a city council vote, but that is our constitutional
responsibility, and we should take that and be able to do it.
[[Page S676]]
This is important for the safety of all those folks who were on that
plane with me and for all the folks who are coming next week from
Oklahoma who will be on spring break. This city will be full of
Oklahomans who come to visit all these museums, and it needs to be a
safe place for them to be able to be in, and it needs to be a spot they
want come to, not a spot that looks like this everywhere all over the
streets. This should not be so.
It is time that we speak out for a simple principle: Defunding the
police, decriminalizing criminal activity, taking school resource
officers out of schools, and saying ``We just won't enforce the law''
doesn't stop crime; it accelerates crime.
For the good people of Washington, DC, they just want a safe city to
live in. For folks who work and tour here, they just want to come to a
safe place where they are not afraid. Let's invite them to come see the
capital, not see this all over the city.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, I would just like to thank my colleagues
Graham, Bozeman, and Lankford for being here this evening to support
this effort.
We need to make certain that our Nation's Capital doesn't become a
national embarrassment, and we need to make certain that we send a
strong message that the American public have had it with crime in
America. The crime spree that is happening in our major cities must
come to an end.
We are putting a marker on the ground tomorrow. I want to thank all
my colleagues, both Republican and Democrat, who are joining me in
this.
I yield the floor.
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