D.C. Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe Act of 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. TIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, D.C. is the modern-day Rome, a bastion of freedom for the world to see, and the front door of our great Nation. In my few short years serving the Fourth District of South Carolina in Congress, I have watched a once proud city succumb to violent crime, vagrancy, and fall into lawlessness.

There are many factors at play here, but the bottom line is this: I want to, in good faith, tell parents from my district that it is safe for the kids to come visit the Nation's Capital on their school trip. Right now, I can't do that. I actually do the exact opposite when people come to my office. I tell them that D.C. is not safe; they should take Ubers.

I have had time and time again where I have had people tell me that they have had serious issues. Just, I guess it was, a month ago, my commanding officer in the Air Force was staying in the Navy Yard. I told him not to walk to dinner. He did.

I called him at 6:30 in the morning, and I said: I bet you walked to dinner.

He said: You are right. I am about to go for a run.

I said: Well, you can't because there is an active shooter outside your building.

That was a month ago.

All this after years of vilifying and defunding the police, the District's violent crime and property theft have never been more blatant. D.C. criminals have never acted so brazenly and with more perceived impunity than I have witnessed in my years in Washington.

In fact, just today, at 1:40 this afternoon--and let me reiterate, this was 3 hours ago and in broad daylight--there was a stabbing just blocks away; a stabbing. Twelve hours before that there was an armed carjacking a few blocks north of there. The last 24 hours, we know how bad it is here, we were just on the GW campus where the mayor refused to enforce the rule of law. There were 250 people trespassing on the yard. The president of the university begged for the city to enforce the rule of law, and they didn't for 10 days. It required an Oversight hearing for her to actually do her job, to tell the MPD to arrest people.

I mean, all of this on top of the fact that an Uber driver that fled Afghanistan--and he was driving Uber Eats--a bunch of children under the age of 20 but over the age of 15 stole his car and killed him. They are going to get out of jail within a year or two, and they are going to have no criminal history.

Are we serious right now? So, yes, the D.C. Council has lost the faith of this institution.

Just this Congress, three Members have been held at gunpoint or assaulted, three Members of Congress in the last 18 months. This is out of control.

This is a small step in the right direction, but we have to respect the rule of law. We have to respect law enforcement, and we have to fund law enforcement. We should have 3,000 law enforcement officers in Washington, D.C. You are going to be down to 1,500 here shortly because of the way that the city council treats law enforcement. It is unacceptable.

These changes are just mere steps in the right direction. A 25-year- old is not a child. I can promise you this, in South Carolina, if a 16- year-old, a group of 16-year-olds killed somebody, they are going to be in prison for a while. They are going to be in prison for quite a while. The fact that they are not is exactly why we are having to do this right now.

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Mr. TIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate D.C.'s desire to have self- rule, but there are responsibilities that come along with that. It seems that our Nation is a Nation in decline because of the lawlessness in Washington, D.C., and we have to get back on track. This is a step in the right direction.

I thank my friend from Florida for proposing this legislation. I encourage all of my colleagues to support it.

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