DC Criminal Code
Floor Speech
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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.
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