Jerrold Nadler

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a member of the committee.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 3115) to remove the 4-year sunset from the Pro bono Work to Empower and Represent Act of 2018.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 3115.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Alaska (Mrs. Peltola), the House sponsor of the bill and a worthy successor to our late colleague, Don Young.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for closing. Mr. Speaker, there are an untold number of victims of domestic and sexual violence in this country, including young children, who are without legal recourse to escape their abusers, to protect themselves and their families, and to obtain the services they need to rebuild their lives. The POWER Act has started the hard work of incentivizing and encouraging thousands of lawyers to provide pro bono legal services to the victims and survivors that are most in need. But we need more attorneys to join the cause. By removing the sunset date from the POWER Act, S. 3115 will allow us to continue and expand the critical programs we created in 2018, while ensuring that there is no gap in access to services for those who need them. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in support of this crucial legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I rise to thank Casey Lee for her service to the Committee on the Judiciary. Casey came to the Committee after first working on AAPI civil rights and housing issues for Congressman Ted Lieu through a fellowship with APAICS. Casey received her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Casey joined the Committee in 2022 as a Staff Assistant for the Full Committee. As Staff Assistant, Casey supported the full committee's senior staff and me directly. A core part of my administrative team, Casey acted as assistant clerk during hearings and markups and oversaw the committee's internship program. When other full committee administrative staff and subcommittee legislative aides/assistant clerks left their positions, Casey seamlessly assumed their duties in addition to her own and worked diligently to support the Staff Director, two Deputy Staff Directors, and multiple subcommittee counsels for all their research and administrative needs. This included helping compile the Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law subcommittee activity report for the 117th Congress and helping manage cosponsorship requests for immigration legislation. Casey worked with our Member Services, Communications, and Digital Directors to highlight committee accomplishments for the 117th Congress and draft social media posts. She also created graphics and videos for the Respect for Marriage Act, the Assault Weapons Ban Act, and more. Casey was also a founding member of the committee's first diversity, equity, and inclusion working group to facilitate trainings, plan initiatives, enhance our recruitment, and be a resource to other staff on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Throughout all her work, Casey brought her tireless worth ethic and commitment to excellence. Our Committee, Congress, and the American people greatly benefited from her service. While we are sad to see Casey go and she will certainly be missed, we are happy that she will continue to serve the public interest as a policy advisor for the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. We thank Casey for her service to the Committee and wish her the best of luck with this new chapter.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 4003.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 4003) to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to provide for training on alternatives to use of force, de- escalation, and mental and behavioral health and suicidal crises.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, S. 4003, the Law Enforcement De-Escalation Training Act of 2022, is bipartisan legislation that would improve training for law enforcement officers, including using alternatives to force and de- escalation tactics. It also includes training and support for officers working with mental health professionals and crisis intervention teams. This bill would empower police and the mental health professionals working with them to link individuals to services in their community. Law enforcement officers are often the first responders to individuals in crisis. While we have worked to develop and implement non-law-enforcement crisis response services, there continues to be a need to train and equip law enforcement officers to de-escalate interactions and divert individuals to appropriate mental and behavioral health services. Additionally, there is a need to provide officers and crisis response teams the tools they need to understand and respond to individuals with disabilities. One study found that disabled individuals make up one- third to one-half of all people killed by law enforcement officers. Reforms to law enforcement, including de-escalation training, both improve public safety and reduce crime. A study of the Louisville, Kentucky, police department found that de-escalation training reduced use-of-force incidents by 28 percent and community member injuries by 26 percent. Officer injuries were reduced by an even larger margin of 36 percent. S. 4003 will require the Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services to consult with a broad range of stakeholders in developing the training curriculum, including law enforcement and behavioral health groups, as well as civil rights and civil liberties groups and associations that represent individuals with disabilities. This bill also requires the National Institute of Justice and the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the implementation of the program and the effect of the training to ensure that the curricula have a tangible impact on law enforcement encounters with people in crisis and to identify possible changes that would further improve outcomes. This bipartisan bill improves public safety by developing and implementing evidence-based de-escalation training for law enforcement officers. I thank Senator Cornyn for introducing the bill and Congresswoman Karen Bass for leading the House version of this important legislation. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a member of the committee.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. S. 4003 is bipartisan legislation that would improve training for law enforcement officers, including using alternatives to force and de- escalation tactics. This training will reduce use-of-force incidents and improve officer and community safety. I cannot imagine how anybody can think this will somehow increase crime. Senator Cornyn, who is not known to be soft on crime, is the major Senate sponsor. I urge all Members to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on S. 3846.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, S. 3846, the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Reauthorization Act of 2022, is bipartisan legislation that would reauthorize and make necessary improvements to the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program, or JMHCP, within the Department of Justice. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, communities across the country have grappled with worsened mental health. There continues to be a need to adequately address the mental health needs of our communities and to redirect people in crisis away from the criminal justice system and into the healthcare system. State and local governments use JMHCP grants for critical services to address the mental health needs of their communities, including by establishing diversion programs, creating or expanding community-based treatment programs, supporting the development of curricula for police academies and orientations, and providing in-jail treatment and transitional services. Additionally, grant funds are used to train law enforcement on identifying and improving their responses to people experiencing a mental health crisis. This program, which was first created in 2004, was reauthorized in 2008 and again in 2016 with bipartisan support. S. 3846 will make needed improvements to the grant program by strengthening support for mental health courts and crisis intervention teams; supporting diversion programming and training for State and local prosecutors; strengthen support for co-responder teams; and supporting the integration of the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system into the existing public safety system. This bill will also increase allowable uses for grant funds to include suicide prevention in jails and clarify that crisis intervention teams can be placed in 911 call centers. This bipartisan bill improves the efficacy of the JMHCP grant program and is supported by a wide range of stakeholders, including the Addiction Policy Forum, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, Major County Sheriffs of America, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and many others. I thank Senator Cornyn for introducing the bill and Congressman Bobby Scott for introducing the House version of this important legislation. I urge all of my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program funds a variety of essential services to support the mental health needs of communities across the country and redirect people in crisis away from the criminal justice system and into the healthcare system. This legislation would reauthorize and strengthen this important program so that it can continue to serve those in need of its services. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5455) to amend the First Step Act of 2018 to permit defendants convicted of certain offenses to be eligible for reduced sentences, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 5455.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5455, which would clarify that the retroactivity provision of section 404 of the First Step Act of 2018 is available to all offenders who were sentenced for a crack offense before the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 became effective, including individuals convicted of offenses involving small quantities of crack. After decades of unfair sentences that swept too broadly, most often applied to low-level dealers and impacted minorities disproportionately, Congress has worked to right some of the wrongs of the misguided war on drugs, often on a bipartisan basis. This legislation continues that important effort. In 1986, in response to a surge in the use of crack cocaine and several high-profile cocaine-related deaths, Congress passed the Anti- Drug Abuse Act, which created mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses and introduced a 100-1 sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses. This meant that a person who distributed 5 grams of crack cocaine received the same 5-year mandatory minimum sentence as a person who distributed 500 grams of powder cocaine, and the person who distributed 50 grams of crack cocaine received the same 10-year mandatory minimum sentence as the person who distributed 5,000 grams of powder cocaine. It soon became evident that this sentencing disparity had also created a significant racial disparity. Four years after Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the average Federal sentence for African-American defendants was 49 percent higher than the average for White defendants. In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which did not eliminate the disparity but which significantly reduced the ratio from 100-1 to 18-1. Unfortunately, that legislation applied only to pending and future cases, leaving thousands of inmates without a path to petition for relief. In 2018, the bipartisan First Step Act made the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive if an inmate received ``a sentence for a covered offense,'' as defined in section 404 of the Act, providing a pathway to relief for some but not all individuals affected by the sentencing disparity. Three years later, after roughly 4,000 motions for sentence reductions had been granted, the Supreme Court, in Terry v. United States, limited the availability of sentence reductions under the Fair Sentencing Act, contrary to the intent of Congress. Based on a narrow reading of the meaning of ``covered offense,'' the Court held that individuals convicted of crack offenses are only eligible for a sentence reduction under the First Step Act if their convictions triggered mandatory minimum penalties. That means that individuals like Mr. Terry, who possessed less than 4 grams of crack, are unable to seek sentence reductions, while individuals convicted of sentences involving much larger quantities of crack can seek a sentence reduction, and many have already done so, which is simply absurd and unfair. The First Step Act was meant to make retroactive sentencing relief available to all individuals sentenced for crack cocaine offenses before the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 took effect. As Justice Sotomayor's concurring opinion in Terry reminds us, Congress has numerous tools to correct this injustice, and H.R. 5455, the Terry Technical Correction Act, is one of these tools. The bill provides a new, expanded definition of ``covered offense'' that includes a list of drug offenses in the criminal code that do not trigger mandatory minimum sentences. The bill also ensures that no person seeking a sentencing reduction under section 404 will be barred from filing a new petition on the grounds that a judge had previously denied relief based on a determination that the offense of conviction was not a ``covered offense'' under the meaning provided in the First Step Act. I thank Crime Subcommittee Chairwoman Jackson Lee, Representatives Cicilline, Jeffries, Owens, Massie, and Delegate Holmes Norton for introducing this important bipartisan bill. I urge all of my colleagues to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman.

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a member of the committee.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I rise along with my colleague, Rep. Henry C. Johnson, Chair of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, to thank Matthew Robinson for his service to the Committee on the Judiciary, Matthew came to the Committee after first entering public service as a Judiciary Clerk for Senator Russ Feingold, and then spending five years at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Don LLP. Matthew received his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from the New York University School of Law. Matthew first joined the Committee in 2019 as a Counsel for the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. For three years in this position, he played a critical role in reforming our courts system. Matthew spearheaded a courts agenda to promote transparency and accountability in the ``Third Branch'' of government with the goal of strengthening and supporting the rule of law and equal justice. Matthew also helped manage hearings that addressed the need for ethics reforms. Building off these hearings, he assisted in leading the passage of the Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act, which became law in May 2022, Matthew also helped in the introduction of a comprehensive set of reforms for the Supreme Court in the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusai, and Transparency Act. Matthew continued his dedication to reform in several additional efforts to create a courts system that truly works for all Americans. Matthew developed two hearings that highlighted the critical need for stronger workplace protections for courts employees, which led to the introduction of the Judiciary Accountability Act. He also worked on investigations on the state of the judiciary's information technology systems, and on the passage of the Open Courts Act, a bill aimed at overhauling the judiciary's electronic case management systems and making court records free to the public. In addition to this portfolio, Matthew was always willing to go above and beyond by helping other efforts. In particular, he assisted the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law on bankruptcy matters, as well as on its 16-month investigation into the state of competition in the digital economy that focused on the challenges presented by the dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Lastly, Matthew worked diligently on the first impeachment of former President Donald J. Trump, including assisting in the compilation of the Committee's Report. Recognized for his dedicated service, Matthew was named as Senior Counsel to the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet in February 2022. Throughout all of his work, Matthew brought his tireless worth ethic and commitment to excellence. Our Committee, Congress, and the American people greatly benefited from his service. While we are sad to see Matthew go and he will certainly be missed, we are happy that he will continue to serve the public interest as senior counsel for oversight at the U.S. Department of Education. We thank Matthew Robinson for his service to the Committee and wish him the best of luck with this new chapter.

Mr. NADLER

Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, this bill goes so far; the gentleman from North Carolina tells us, this bill goes too far. It goes so far, in fact, that every Republican Member of the Senate voted for it. What a bunch of radicals. Madam Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Jayapal), a member of the committee.