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Floor Speech

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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.

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