Keeping Communities Safe from Soft-on-Crime Policies

Despite rampant violent crime – including against Members of Congress, their staff, and interns – and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers reaching the lowest they have been in the past 50 years, the D.C. Council has continued to enact soft-on-crime policies that put residents and visitors of Washington, D.C., at risk. 

One area of significant concern is the rise in juvenile crime in D.C. The number of juveniles arrested has risen each year since 2020 and more than 2,000 juveniles were arrested in 2023 and 2024. In 2024, juveniles made up 51.8 percent of all robbery arrests, and as of April of this year, juveniles made up 60 percent of all carjacking arrests. 

Since assuming the majority, House Republicans have worked tirelessly to combat these radical policies that threaten the safety of everyone in D.C. When the D.C. Council passed legislation to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for any crime besides first degree murder, reduce maximum penalties for violent crimes, and get rid of life sentences, we blocked their dangerous legislation with H.J. Res. 26 – a bill House Democrats overwhelmingly opposed.

Now, once again, House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to keep Americans safe in our nation’s capital. Our legislation addresses juvenile crime by lowering the age that defines a “youth” from under 25 to under 18, requiring the D.C. Attorney General to create a website with juvenile crime statistics so policymakers can better create policy reforms, and blocking the ability of judges to sentence youth offenders below mandatory minimum sentences.

The American people are fed up with out-of-control crime. We must take actions to ensure criminals are kept off our streets and crimes do not go lightly punished.

H.R. 4922, the DC CRIMES Act of 2025, introduced by Rep. Byron Donalds, allows Congress to exert their oversight power over the D.C. Council and promote safety in Washington by lowering the age that defines a “youth” from under 25 to under 18 and blocking the Council’s pursuit of soft-on-crime sentencing and radical progressive policies.

While the D.C. Council continues to pass and defend laws that make it easier for violent criminals to walk the streets, House Republicans are fighting to keep our nation’s capital safe for residents and visitors.
Supporting D.C. Police Officers and Protecting Our Capital

As crime skyrocketed in our nation’s capital, Democrats went after the police fighting to protect the community instead of the criminals. Rather than working to ensure our police have the resources they need, the D.C. Council imposed bureaucratic policies that obstruct Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers’ ability to remove criminals from our streets.

The D.C. Council’s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022 included provisions that made it harder for police to engage in vehicular pursuit and apprehend dangerous criminals, imposing a complex framework of at least 14 considerations officers are required to weigh before initiating the pursuit of a fleeing suspect.

This soft-on-crime and overly complicated process has resulted in less justice for victims and kept criminals on the street who may otherwise be behind bars, continuing to fuel the rampant crime in D.C. and surrounding communities. 

D.C.’s police officers shouldn’t have to decide between keeping our capital safe or protecting themselves. The best way to ensure residents of and visitors to our nation’s capital can explore D.C. safely is to make sure the MPD has the resources and support necessary to keep crime off the streets – not obstruct their pursuit of criminals with complicated guidelines.

Congress has a duty to oversee the governance of D.C. and make sure the MPD is able to effectively fight crime and keep Washingtonians and visitors safe. House Republicans are bringing legislation to get rid of these burdensome requirements and empower officers to pursue suspects fleeing in a vehicle when necessary, effective, and without unreasonable risk.

Rep. Clay Higgins’ legislation, H.R. 5143, the District of Columbia Policing Protection Act of 2025, amends the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022 to allow MPD officers to engage in vehicular pursuit of a suspect fleeing in a motor vehicle if the officer deems it necessary, the most effective means of apprehension, and without unreasonable risk to bystanders, and develops a trial system that would alert people to police pursuits in their immediate vicinity.

House Republicans will always stand with our men and women in uniform who risk their lives every day to keep our communities safe. Who will Democrats stand with: the police or the criminals? 
Restoring Judicial Appointment Power to the President

Currently, the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission provides a list of recommended judicial nominees to the President. The President then selects nominees from this list for appointment. 

The commission consists of seven members chosen by local government officials and the D.C. Bar. Additionally, one member is chosen by the President and another by the chief judge of the U.S. district court for the District of Columbia; however, the President’s appointee was selected by Obama for a five-year term and reappointed by Biden, leaving us with a completely left-leaning, soft-on-crime commission crafting the list of potential judicial nominees.

Article II of the U.S. Constitution gives the President appointment power over federal judges in D.C. – it doesn’t restrict that power to a list made by a commission. It’s time to restore proper appointment authority to where the founders intended it to reside: with the President of the United States. 
We cannot allow an unaccountable, left-leaning commission to restrict the Constitutional power of the President to limit appointees to soft-on-crime and biased judges that better align with their political agenda. 

This week, House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to abolish the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission and restore appointment power to the President by allowing him to appoint judges through the normal Senate confirmation process. This legislation is in line with the Constitution and consistent with other federal judicial nomination processes.

H.R. 5125, the District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Reform Act of 2025, sponsored by Rep. Pete Sessions, repeals the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission and restores the authority to the President to choose his judicial nominees to the D.C. courts.

It’s past time to make D.C. courts accountable again and ensure judges appointed in our nation’s capital will follow the law. 
Cracking Down on Juvenile Crime in D.C.

In the District of Columbia, juvenile crime has reached historic levels – more than twice the national average as of February 2024. The number of juveniles arrested has risen each year since 2020, with more than 2,000 juveniles arrested in 2023 and 2024. And these aren’t minor crimes – in 2024, juveniles made up 51.8 percent of all robbery arrests, and as of April of this year, juveniles made up 60 percent of all carjacking arrests.

Meanwhile, kids in D.C. are skipping school and failing to get an education, with around one third of the 16,000 D.C. public school students skipping class during the 2023-2024 school year. It should come as no surprise that the group where truancy is growing the fastest – middle school aged students – is also the age group responsible for the spike in car jackings and other serious crimes in 2023.

In order to lower crime in our nation’s capital, we must acknowledge the threat these young people are posing to public safety, increase deterrence for juvenile crime, and hold accountable those who commit serious crimes.

Teenagers who commit serious and violent crimes such as murder, sexual abuse, and armed robbery must be held accountable for the pain they inflict and the danger they pose by being tried as adults. Almost 200 juveniles arrested for violent crimes in 2024 had previous violent crime arrests on their records.

Rep. Brandon Gill’s legislation, H.R. 5140, lowers the age at which a minor may be tried as an adult for certain violent criminal offenses, including murder, sexual abuse, armed robbery, and first degree burglary, in the District of Columbia from 16 to 14 years of age.

To fight back against rising juvenile crime, we must hold young people accountable for the seriousness of their crimes and the harm they perpetrate on public safety. House Republicans will continue implementing tough-on-crime legislation to make our nation’s capital safe for everyone.
Streamlining the Cross Border Energy Infrastructure Permitting Process

The United States trades a considerable amount of oil, gas, and electricity with Canada and Mexico, creating a large and interconnected North American market. Expanding cross-border energy transportation infrastructure, such as pipelines and transmission lines, allows for increased energy trade; however, potential new projects to expand our cross-border capacity are held up by federal regulatory uncertainty. 

So far, Congress has not established permitting procedures for cross-border energy infrastructure, resulting in a confusing process consisting of a mix of presidential permits, agency-specific procedures, and executive discretion. This lack of regulatory clarity has hindered energy developers, delayed projects, and even caused permit revocations, such as when President Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, hurting our economy and killing American jobs to further his political agenda.

This week, House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to deliver regulatory clarity to developers through establishing a consistent and transparent permitting framework to authorize the construction, operation, and maintenance of facilities that cross international borders for the import and export of oil, natural gas, and electricity. This bill codifies part of President Trump’s Executive Order titled, “Reducing Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers.”

The legislation allows developers to obtain a Certificate of Crossing through either the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) or the Department of Energy (DOE), clarifies jurisdiction by assigning FERC to oversee applications for oil and natural gas pipelines and DOE to oversee electric transmission facility applications, imposes deadlines on FERC and DOE for approving permits and issuing certificates, and requires Congressional approval for the President to revoke previously issued permits with executive orders.

Energy developers need a clear framework to expand our energy trade, not bureaucracy and uncertainty.

H.R. 3062, the Promoting Cross-border Energy Infrastructure Act, sponsored by Rep. Julie Fedorchak, establishes a more streamlined and transparent framework for approving the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of international border-crossing facilities for the import and export of oil and natural gas and the transmission of electricity, removing regulatory uncertainty and promoting energy security.

It’s past time for reliable, transparent guidelines for cross-border energy infrastructure development – House Republicans are delivering.
Reestablishing the National Coal Council

In the United States, not only does coal play a vital role in providing reliable energy and supporting our growing electricity needs, but it also directly supports over 100,000 well-paying American jobs and indirectly supports hundreds of thousands more. The United States has the world's largest coal reserves, estimated at around 469 billion short tons, and coal remains an important part of the country's energy system.

Due to coal’s national significance, the National Coal Council, established in 1984, provided the Secretary of Energy guidance on issues related to the coal industry and its workers for 37 years, including reports on coal technology and innovation, marketing and exports, and advanced technologies. The Council’s charter required renewal every two years. 

Unfortunately, in 2021, the Biden Administration allowed the Council’s charter to expire to appease radical environmentalists and replaced it with the National Advisory Committee on Coal, which aligned with their anti-American energy agenda – once again, putting activists before the American people.

House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to codify President Trump’s Executive Order titled, “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry” and reestablish the National Coal Council. Our legislation would also remove the requirement for the Council’s charter to be renewed every 2 years.
Rep. Michael Rulli’s legislation, H.R. 3015, the National Coal Council Reestablishment Act, reestablishes and codifies the National Coal Council to provide industry expertise to the DOE through guidance, reports, and recommendations on matters affecting the coal industry and the future of coal technologies, and gets rid of the biennial renewal requirement.

Energy security is national security. House Republicans will continue working to undo Biden’s disastrous anti-American energy policies, revitalize domestic coal production, and steer the U.S. towards energy reliability and dominance.
Protecting American Grid Stability

Due to domestic manufacturing, data centers that enable AI advancements, and electrification of sectors across the economy, significant increases in electricity demand are anticipated nationwide. As electricity demand across the country grows at a remarkable pace, our electric grid will need more dispatchable baseload energy in order to prevent rolling blackouts and power shortages. 

However, under the Obama and Biden Administrations, our grid security and reliability was undermined by ‘Green New Scam’ policies and overregulation which forced the retirement of crucial baseload power plants. For example, the Biden Administration put in place new rules, like the Clean Power Plan 2.0, in order to speed up the retirement of such power plants which are responsible for providing much of America’s baseload power – this results in grid instability, power shortages, and more blackouts. 

Thanks to a lengthy approval process, our interconnection queue – or list of projects waiting to be connected to the electricity grid – has drastically increased over the last several years, extending wait times to up to 7 years and delaying critical projects. Transmission providers tasked with making sure we have sufficient electricity to power our communities are struggling to keep up with the growing backlog.

This week, House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to allow grid operators to expedite essential projects that will improve our grid reliability and ensure the lights stay on in Americans’ homes. Our legislation also imposes deadlines on FERC to ensure the agency sets up this streamlined approval process, boosting America’s energy security and making sure our power stays on.

H.R. 1047, the Guaranteeing Reliability through the Interconnection of Dispatchable (GRID) Power Act, sponsored by Rep. Troy Balderson, enables grid operators to expedite consideration of essential power generation projects that will increase grid reliability by moving them to the front of the line for approval, which will help provide the necessary power to meet America’s growing demand.

House Republicans will always fight to cut red tape that obstructs American energy security and keep the power on in American homes.