Press Releases

Washington, D.C. (May 7, 2025)—Today, Rep. Lucy McBath, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, delivered opening remarks at a hearing on the overcriminalization of federal statutory and regulatory offenses.

Below are Ranking Member McBath’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at today’s hearing.

WATCH  Ranking Member McBath’s opening statement.

Ranking Member Lucy McBath
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance 
Hearing on “Criminalizing America: The Growth of Federal Offenses and Regulatory Overreach”
May 7, 2025

Mr. Chairman, I thank you and our witnesses for having this hearing on overcriminalization. 

Our criminal justice system has many important purposes, including laying out the laws that—if followed—prevent us from harming one another and make our country safer. Our criminal laws prohibit murder, drug trafficking, and fraud—and impose harsh penalties for those who harm others, whether physically or financially. 

Many of our laws are written clearly to achieve this goal, and many of our law enforcement officers and our prosecutors use their judgment to prioritize cases in which they can address the gravest injustices. 

But unfortunately, some of our laws are not well-written at all. And some actors in our justice system do not have their priorities in order. Whether due to misguided leadership or a lack of resources, charges are sometimes brought against those who are the easiest to prosecute, rather than those who have caused the greatest harms. Often, this results in the disproportionate incarceration of people of color, people with limited financial resources, immigrants, people suffering from addiction, and even people who are actually victims of crime, such as those who commit crimes while being victims of human trafficking.

Overcriminalization—the proliferation of federal crimes that cover more and more conduct—exacerbates this problem. It leads to more surveillance, profiling, and targeting within minority communities. It allows for people to face multiple charges for one criminal act, lengthening their sentences and increasing mass incarceration. Minorities are already subjected to harsher penalties for committing the same crimes, and the variations of potential charges brought on by our laws allow for even more variability, increasing the potential for discrimination in a system that is supposed to be impartial.

Because of this, communities have lost trust in public safety and the overall system. Many don’t feel safe or supported enough to call the police when they witness a crime or provide a tip that might break open a case, for fear of facing arrest or prosecution themselves. Which in turn, making it even harder to prosecute serious crimes.

This problem is especially troubling given this Administration’s stated priorities. President Trump has repeatedly vowed to use the criminal justice system for his own interests—rounding up nonviolent immigrants and people who “look like” immigrants, pursuing his political enemies, exonerating grifters, and even mass pardons for those who violently assaulted our police officers on January 6, just because they did so in the name of Trump. This is an incredible abuse of our criminal justice system, which should be focused on preventing and prosecuting violent crime, preventing theft of families’ hard-earned savings, and holding corporations accountable when they harm workers and consumers.

We need a return to evidence-based policies that actually use our limited resources to make us safer. That’s why I am proud to co-lead—along with Congressman Roy, Ranking Member Biggs, and Congressman Cohen—the Count the Crimes to Cut Act. This bipartisan bill would require the Attorney General to provide us with a report detailing all federal crimes, including the elements, the potential penalties, and the number of prosecutions in the last 15 years, and the mens rea requirement—which asks what the mental state of the person was at the time the crime was committed. This will help us look for places where we might eliminate penalties that simply don’t make sense, so we can make sure our criminal justice system is focused on what really matters.

I look forward to hearing more from our witnesses about this bipartisan bill that directly addresses overcriminalization and other ways that we might address this ongoing problem.

Thank you. I yield back.