House passes 2 bills aimed at overhauling DCs lax crime laws with bipartisan support: Critical first step

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed two bills aimed at overhauling Washington, DC’s age of criminal responsibility and lenient sentencing guidelines with bipartisan support.The DC CRIMES Act cleared the lower chamber in a 240-179 vote, with 31 Democrats joining all Republicans except for Rep.

Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). The second bill, H.R.5140, passed in a 225-203 vote, with eight Democrats backing it and just one Republican, Massie, voting against it. US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro hailed the votes as a “critical first step following President Trump’s highly successful surge to address violent crime in DC.” “He is the first president to recognize the out-of-control crime and the fact that it can be stopped,” Pirro told The Post.

“The fact that these bills received bipartisan support shows that both sides recognize the need to change the trajectory of violence in our nation’s capital,” the district’s top prosecutor added.The DC CRIMES Act, sponsored by Rep.Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), seeks to lower the maximum age a criminal defendant is considered a “youth offender” from 24 to 18 and repeal local provisions that allowed DC judges to sentence youth offenders to less than mandatory minimum terms. Under DC law, youth offenders as old as 24 are currently eligible for reduced or modified sentences, such as probation instead of a jail sentence, for certain crimes.  “Simply put, if you’re 18-24 years old and you commit a crime in our nation’s capital, you should be sentenced as an adult,” Donalds wrote on X after the vote.

“This is common sense.“We are Making DC Safe Again.” H.R.5140, introduced by Rep.

Brandon Gill (R-Texas), aims to lower the age DC teenagers can be charged as adults from 16 to 14. Under current district law, criminal defendants under the age of 18 years are tried as juveniles in family court.  In some cases, 16-year-olds may be tried as adults if charges include murder, firs...