President Trump is working with Republican congressional leaders on a “comprehensive crime bill,” legislation that will put his popular crime-fighting agenda in front of voters ahead of the midterm elections next year.
Mr. Trump has made fighting violent crime around the U.S., particularly in the nation’s capital, a top priority this year, including deploying the National Guard to help immigration seeps in Los Angeles and support police in the District of Columbia.
“Speaker Mike Johnson, and Leader John Thune, are working with me, and other Republicans, on a Comprehensive Crime Bill,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday on social media, adding that it is what the “country needs, and NOW More to follow. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Congress last passed a crime bill in 1994 when Bill Clinton was president. It was considered the largest crime bill in U.S. history and funded 100,000 new law enforcement officers and spent $9.7 billion on prisons.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order Monday in which he threatened to pull federal support from the District of Columbia and other jurisdictions that refuse to end their cashless bail policies. He said federal funds, services or approvals can be withheld if local leaders don’t comply.
Another executive order said federal grants and contracts for cities and states with cashless bail policies could be canceled.
Mr. Trump also ordered the National Guard to prepare for rapid deployment to fight crime across the country and enlisted more federal agencies to join his crime-fighting effort, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation.
Those measures were designed to tackle the “crime emergency” that Mr. Trump declared Aug. 11 in the nation’s capital.
He has since said the effort could be needed in other cities.
Critics have countered that violent crime is down in the District and other cities from spikes during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Mr. Trump accused cities of manipulating data to lower crime rates, and the Justice Department is investigating the District’s crime statistics.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.