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Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, communities across the country have paid the price of Democrats' soft-on-crime policies. The Democratic Party has backed woke prosecutors who refuse to enforce broad swaths of the Criminal Code. It has endorsed ``defund the police'' policies and candidates, and it has consistently shown more sympathy for the criminals who commit crimes than for the victims who were hurt by them.

It is no surprise that these decisions carry very dangerous consequences, which are being felt across America. Businesses are fleeing Portland, OR, due to surging crime. The mayor of Chicago was just defeated in her primary because she failed to address rampant crime in that city.

One city that is not immune to these consequences is our Nation's Capital, Washington, DC. So far this year, the District of Columbia has seen more than three dozen homicides--a nearly 40 percent increase compared to last year. Forty percent. Sex crimes have more than doubled compared to last year, and there have been more than 1,200 motor vehicle thefts, including carjackings, which is more than double the number at this point last year. In total, the Nation's Capital, where we are located, reported a 25-percent increase in crime compared to last year.

With crime on the rise, you would expect that the elected leaders of the DC City Council would take steps to improve public safety, but that is not what they did. In fact, council members took the exact opposite approach. Forget deterring criminal conduct; the DC City Council responded to this crime wave by reducing penalties for violent crimes. It actually passed legislation that decreases punishment for many of the same crimes that have been on the rise over the last year--lower penalties for carjackings, home invasions, and robberies and lower penalties for convicted felons who illegally carry firearms and for felons who use guns to commit other crimes. There are no mandatory minimum sentences for any crime other than first-degree murder.

It is a slap in the face of every law-abiding resident and visitor to this city; every person who worries about getting carjacked on their way home from work, like the people who work for us here in the Nation's Capital; or being robbed on the Metro, like the visitors from our States who come to the Nation's Capital who don't expect to be assaulted and robbed; or individuals who have their residence targeted by a serial burglar.

This is not the kind of legislation that is meant to keep people safe; it is just the latest iteration of failed soft-on-crime policies. It is no surprise that DC's Criminal Code rewrite was met with severe backlash.

Even the Washington Post published an editorial entitled ``DC's crime bill could make the city more dangerous.'' Well, I give them credit for stating the obvious.

The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia warned that this measure prevents courts from imposing penalties that appropriately reflect the seriousness of the offense and the defendant's criminal history.

One local elected official used especially harsh words to describe a portion of the bill that would allow someone convicted of sexual assault to petition for early release after 20 years. She said:

I don't think the DC Council should be helping rapists get out of prison early. That's crazy.

Crazy indeed--so crazy, in fact, that the city's liberal Mayor, Muriel Bowser, even vetoed this measure when it reached her desk, saying it ``does not make us safer.''

I don't find myself agreeing with the Washington Post editorial board or the Mayor of the District of Columbia often, but they are both right here.

DC Council members should have viewed her veto and the public outrage as a sign that they should go back to the drawing board, but unfortunately they doubled down. DC City Council overrode the Mayor's veto. They ignored the deep concerns of citizens of this city and the dire warnings from public safety advocates and plowed ahead.

Fortunately, that is not the end of the road for this dangerous and deeply misguided bill. The Constitution of the United States gives Congress exclusive legislative jurisdiction over the District of Columbia. It is a Federal district. We must take action to prevent this criminal-friendly measure from going into effect.

As we have seen, this effort has broad bipartisan support, starting at the White House. Last month, the House of Representatives passed a resolution of disapproval by a vote of 250 to 173, with more than 30 Democrats crossing the aisle to support it. Thanks to the Senator from Tennessee, Senator Hagerty's leadership, that resolution will receive a vote on the Senate floor this week. I expect it will pass with strong bipartisan support, as it should, and put a final nail in the coffin of this dangerous and deeply misguided legislation.

Soft-on-crime policies have had a devastating impact on cities across America, and we can't let our Nation's very Capital become a consequence-free playground for lawbreakers. So I appreciate Senator Hagerty's leadership on this resolution and his work to ensure that it receives a vote in the Democrat-led Senate.

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