Lowering Age At Which A Minor May Be Tried As Adult for Certain Criminal Offenses in District of Columbia

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, once again, we are back with a second bill to undermine Washington, D.C., with an undemocratic and misguided policy.

Republicans in Congress are once more acting again as a city council for D.C., overriding the choices of local residents and their elected officials, while ignoring the real issues the rest of the country faces.

Nearly 700,000 taxpaying Americans in D.C. deserve the same right to self-governance as every other community including control over criminal laws.

Democrats on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform strongly oppose this bill, which would allow children as young as 14 years old to be charged as adults. Let's be clear. This bill is not about safety. It is about stripping away judicial discretion and sending more children into the adult prison system.

This bill lowers the age at which children can be tried as adults in D.C. from 16 to 14 years old for certain crimes. If a crime is committed, a person should be held accountable. We all can agree on this. A 14-year-old is not an adult. They are middle schoolers. Their brains are still developing. Treating them as adults is shameful.

We can all agree that children should be treated differently by our courts. That matters when it comes to accountability and rehabilitation. Here is what the research shows.

Youth charged as adults are more likely to reoffend than youth that go through the juvenile courts. That is not speculation. It is what decades of data show.

The CDC reviewed the evidence and found that sending kids to adult prisons increases violence and does not reduce it. The National Research Council concluded that keeping punishment in line with age is the best way to prevent future offending. Every shred of research says the same thing. Putting kids in adult prison makes us less safe, not more safe.

House Democrats know that violent crime, of course, has no place in our communities. People are right to be concerned about crime. Democrats are taking it seriously. If the goal is safer communities, this bill moves us in the wrong direction.

Mr. Speaker, let's also talk about who this bill impacts. More than 93 percent of youth arrests in D.C. in the first half of this year were Black youth. D.C. already has the highest youth incarceration rate in the country. It is more than three times the national average. This bill would take those discrepancies and make them worse, funneling even more children into the adult system.

The bottom line is simple. The legislation in front of us would not make us safer. It does not make D.C. safer. It makes D.C. less safe. It will deepen racial disparities. It will push more kids into adult prisons where they are more likely to come out worse off than they were and not better. If we care about public safety, the last thing we should do is put 14-year-olds in adult prison.

Instead of taking power away from D.C. residents and our elected officials, Congress should focus on real national priorities like addressing gun violence that threatens communities, threatens schools, and threatens our cities every single day.

Finally, the rules in front of us have been created through the incredible work of the community, through hearings, through meetings, and through public testimony. Let's not all throw it out now. This bill is not about making D.C. safer.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. GARCIA of California. Norton).

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Mr. GARCIA of California. Pressley).

I remind our Republican colleagues that crime in D.C. over the last few years has actually been going down. Quite frankly, the idea that we are now going to put middle schoolers in prison--this should be called the middle schoolers for prison act--is inhumane and shameful.

We can all agree that crime should be taken on, that D.C. and other cities we want to make safer, but this idea that we are going to penalize children in middle school at the age of 14 and put them in prison is irresponsible and, quite frankly, it is un-American.

I remind my colleagues that at this moment, what we are doing right now, is stripping 700,000 residents who have come together in D.C. to create laws, to bring community together, to fight for statehood and representation, we are going to strip them from their ability to manage their own city.

These efforts do nothing to reduce crime or improve public safety. Once again, I know that the President is obsessed with Washington, D.C. He is obsessed with its local laws. I ask him once again that he should step down as President and run for mayor if he is so interested. Let's not put 14-year-olds in prison.

Mr. Speaker, I oppose passage of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. GARCIA of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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