DC Crimes Act of 2025

What is this bill?

• HR 4922, sponsored by Byron Donalds (R-FL-19)

The DC Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe (DC CRIMES) Act would amend the District of Columbia’s Youth Rehabilitation Act of 1985 in order to lower the youth offender status from 24 to 18. This act would also order DC to create a website to track juvenile crime statistics and ban the DC City Council from “…enacting changes to existing criminal liability sentences.”

What makes this bill fascist?

At the top, I think it’s important to note the context of the federal government’s attempts to remove the sovereignty of DC. Back in June, the House passed a set of anti-DC & anti-immigrant laws that revoked bills passed by the DC City Council. These bills have yet to get a vote in the Senate. I’m not really sure how much of an appetite the Senate has for revoking DC laws and home rule powers, but these actions only give credence to the Trump administration’s push to bring the District under heel.

Now, onto the bill. According to the Justice Policy Institute, the Youth Rehabilitation Act created a program for younger offenders in DC that would seal sentences if the person “…successfully completes their sentence.” Initially, the act was available to anyone between 15 and 22, but in 2018 the city council amended the act to raise the maximum age to 24. Also should note that this program is not available for people found guilty of murder, 1st & 2nd degree sexual assault, or 1st degree child sexual abuse.

The goal of the act is to give younger offenders a greater opportunity for rehabilitation and not have a prior sentence harming them when searching for work or housing. Also, the act gives DC judges discretion on whether to sentence someone under this law, to eschew confinement for probation, and requires judges to submit a written statement if they choose not to sentence an eligible offender under the act.

So, with this bill, all of that would be gone. And to make sure the DC City Council doesn’t get any bright ideas, HR 4922 closes with an amendment to Sec. 602(a) of the DC Home Rule Act that would ban the Council from enacting “…any act, resolution, or rule to change any criminal liability sentence…” once the bill is passed.

The combination of revoking further rights of the DC City Council to create their own laws and destroying a system that experts note has led to an increase in youth rehabilitation, not just in DC, but the six other states that have similar programs, make this bill fascist. When you add in the fact that crime is down in DC, this bill is very clearly ‘action for action’s sake’ and clearly has fascist intent.

What Dems voted for this bill?

• House (31 Dems)

  • Jake Auchincloss (MA-4)

  • Herb Conaway (NJ-3)

  • Luis Correa (CA-46)

  • Jim Costa (CA-21)

  • Henry Cuellar (TX-28)

  • Sharice Davids (KS-3)

  • Don Davis (NC-1)

  • Laura Gillen (NY-4)

  • Jared Golden (ME-2)

  • Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34)

  • Maggie Goodlander (NH-2)

  • Josh Harder (CA-9)

  • Marcy Kaptur (OH-9)

  • Bill Keating (MA-9)

  • Susie Lee (NV-3)

  • Stephen Lynch (MA-8)

  • John Mannion (NY-22)

  • Dave Min (CA-47)

  • Jared Moskowitz (FL-23)

  • Jimmy Panetta (CA-19)

  • Chris Pappas (NH-1)

  • Marie Glusenkamp Perez (WA-3)

  • Josh Riley (NY-19)

  • Pat Ryan (NY-18)

  • Kim Schrier (WA-8)

  • Darren Soto (CA-9)

  • Greg Stanton (AZ-4)

  • Norma Torres (CA-35)

  • Derek Tran (CA-34)

  • Eugene Vindman (VA-7)

  • George Whitesides (CA-27)

Did this bill pass?

• Passed the House by a vote of 240-179 on 9/16/25