[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 8, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            DC Criminal Code

  Now, Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, a man stabbed to 
death in a public library, a woman kidnapped and mugged in broad 
daylight, a construction worker assaulted by suspects who fled in a 
stolen car--this is just a small sampling of life in Washington, DC, in 
recent months.
  Carjackings and car thefts have become a daily routine. Homicides are 
racking up at a rate of four--four--per week. There have been so many 
attacks on people riding public transportation that civilian volunteers 
have had to create their own patrols on Metro trains and platforms.
  We are the greatest superpower Nation in history, and this is our 
Capital City, but local politicians have let its streets become a 
danger and an embarrassment.
  Earlier this year, local Democrats tried to respond by going even 
softer on crime and putting violent convicts back on the streets even 
more rapidly. Well, Republicans say: Enough is enough. Enough is 
enough. We have brought forward a resolution here in Congress that will 
overrule the left's effort to make this catastrophe even worse.
  Democrats were not happy. The White House put out a formal statement 
opposing us. The vast majority of House Democrats voted against us. But 
then President Biden had an epiphany. He reversed himself. The public 
pressure was so great that the President now says he wants to sign the 
same Republican bill that he had previously announced he opposed.
  The headlines tell the story: ``Biden's About-Face on DC Crime Bill 
Shows Democrats on [the] Defensive.''
  The Democrats' flip-flop is good news for the residents of the 
District of Columbia and the 300-plus million Americans who deserve--
deserve--to be able to visit their capital in peace.
  But our Democratic friends are not getting off the hook this easily. 
They are not going to be able to duck the heat for the violent crime 
surge to which their policies, their rhetoric, and their political 
movement have directly contributed. What about all of the Americans who 
live in cities and neighborhoods all across our country? In my hometown 
of Louisville, violent crime has become an unwelcome daily fixture. 
Since the start of the pandemic, over 500 lives have been lost to 
homicide--dozens of the victims have been children--and last fall, a 
car was stolen, on average, every 2.5 hours. Minneapolis has seen 19 
percent more vandalism than at this point last year; San Francisco, 18 
percent more robberies. In Chicago, this year's rate of car thefts is 
already 138 percent higher than last year's. In St. Louis, kidnappings 
are up 113 percent.

  Over the weekend, in Atlanta, dozens of rioters attacked and laid 
siege to the site of the city's future public safety training center--
public safety training center. These people lit construction equipment 
on fire and aimed fireworks and Molotov cocktails at police officers. 
Twenty-three of these radical leftists have been charged with domestic 
terrorism.
  This is what happens when the political left spends years--years--
spotlighting anti-law enforcement rhetoric.
  This is what happens when Democrats at all levels decide we need 
fewer arrests, shorter sentences, and more generosity to criminals at 
the expense of less justice for victims and for families.
  This is what happens when far-left dark money flows to radical 
candidates for district attorneys' offices and the liberal DAs simply 
refuse to prosecute whole sections of the Criminal Code.
  This is what happens after every single Senate Democrat voted on 
party lines against additional police funding just last year. Every 
Democratic Senator voted in lockstep against Senator Rubio's amendment 
that would have redirected some of their massive, reckless tax-and-
spending spree to actually fund law enforcement.
  Look, nobody will confuse Washington Democrats' last-minute reversal 
on this one resolution for a ``road to Damascus'' moment on the crime 
issue. The American people are a lot smarter than that.