Yesterday, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) led several of his Republican colleagues in a press conference to shine a light on rising crime rates across the country. Noting that “violent crime is very much on the rise,” Grassley pointed to soaring homicide rates and carjackings doubling or tripling in several cities.
“Violence is up in the blue cities due to de-policing, progressive prosecutors and failed bail reforms. Can you imagine prosecutors saying we aren’t going to prosecute this crime or that crime? Now, we all know there has to be prosecutorial discretion, but you don’t tell people what crimes you aren’t going to punish,” Grassley said.
Grassley also expressed frustration that Democrats are pushing back against his effort to schedule fentanyl drugs, after a new report released yesterday found that the U.S. reached a record 100,000 overdose deaths in 2021 – largely driven by fentanyl drugs. Grassley is also leading a bipartisan bill to implement penalties for producing counterfeit pills that contain deadly fentanyl and fentanyl analogues.
