[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8617]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   REMARKS IN OPPOSITION TO H.R. 1842

                                 ______
                                 

                  HON. HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 30, 2017

  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in opposition to 
H.R. 1842, the Strengthening Children's Safety Act of 2017.
  Crimes against children are abhorrent, and those who commit them 
should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In 2015, in my 
home state of Georgia, 22,163 children were victims of abuse. Eight 
hundred of those children were subjected to sexual abuse. I recognize 
the merits of H.R. 1842. However, as a senior member of the Judiciary 
Committee, I cannot support a bill which brings sweeping changes to 
Federal code without a thorough review process. This bill creates 
mandatory minimum sentences, which will effectively remove discretion 
from the judges who should be making sentencing decisions--not 
Congress.
  This bill has good intentions, and as a member of the Congressional 
Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, I am in favor of strengthening 
the laws that protect our nation's children. However, this bill also 
enacts major changes in the criminal law, and I do not believe it is 
right for our committee to pass this bill without holding the 
appropriate hearings. I believe that the testimony of experts in the 
fields relevant to this bill would be of great use and would help 
ensure that this committee does not pass a bill that will impose 
unfair, mandatory sentences on individuals.
  This committee does not know the facts of every child abuse case--but 
the judge that hears those cases will. That is why I believe we should 
not bind judges to give mandatory minimum sentences. For this reason, I 
urge my colleagues to vote NAY on this resolution.

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