H.R. 5625 – Cashless Bail Reporting Act; H.R. 6260 – Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act of 2025; H.R. 8365 – Monitor Accountability Act; H. Con. Res. 96 – Expressing support for law enforcement officers.; H.R. 8469 – Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2027
12 May 2026
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House Rules U.S. House of Representatives
Follow its sittings02:53 - 08:35
Speaker 1
Good afternoon. The committee will come to order without objection. The chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. Today, the rules committee is convening to consider five separate measures, H Congress 96, H R 5625, H R 6260, H R 8365, and H R 8469. First, we'll turn to H. Congress 96, a concurrent resolution expressing con support for law enforcement.
This week marks National Police Week, a week dedicated to honoring law enforcement officers who've made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty, as well as to recognize those who continue to serve. This resolution honors the hard work, personal sacrifice, and often unacknowledged efforts carried out by law enforcement officers. It recognizes the undeniable reduction in crime that comes when law enforcement departments are respected and fully funded. Today and every day, we should honor the brave men and women who work around the clock to keep our communities safe. HR 5625, the cashless bail reporting act, would bring necessary and timely transparency for the American people by requiring publication of the jurisdictions that have cashless bail policies and laws, so Americans are aware of policies that affect their communities.
Americans have the right to know if they're living in or near a community that permits people accused of certain violent crimes to be released pending trial, personal recognizance, or nonsecured appearance bond. HR 20 HR 62 60, the Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act, reins in the Democrat soft on crime cashless bail policy by requiring bail bondsmen, including so called, quote, charitable bail bonds, end quote, to adhere to common sense accountability measures. Charitable bail bonds are organizations that use money from donations to help pay cash bail for defendants. Charitable bail bonds regularly post bail for individuals charged with violent felonies and with previous convictions. This legislation amends the federal criminal statute dealing with insurance-related crimes to include the posting of bail by a corporate entity, nonprofit entity, or for-profit entity as being, quote, engaged in the business of insurance.
Therefore, if a charitable bail bond is posting bail, it will be subject to the state licensing requirements and oversight by state insurance commissions to ensure accountability for charitable bail bonds that break the law. HR 8365, the Monitor Accountability Act, would set a series of defined terms and expectations for federal court monitors. Court monitors are independent oversight officials appointed through agreements between a government agency and a public or private entity, often in response to concerns involving civil rights violations, fraud allegations, misconduct, or regulatory violations. Although court monitors are intended to operate independently from both the government and the monitored entity, this independence has raised concerns in practice, particularly regarding cost, duration, and accountability in long running consent decree regimes. In some cases, monitorships have remained in place for more than a decade, prompting debate over whether their role is to ensure compliance or to sustain managerial control of agency operations.
The reforms contained within this legislation set clear expectations for time-limited oversight, ensuring that federal monitorships are not indefinite. Finally, H.R. 8469, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2027, provides a total discretionary allocation of $157,000,000,000, which is nearly $4,000,000,000 above the FY 26 enacted level. In addition, the bill provides $323,900,000,000 for mandatory programs, for a total of $469,490,000,000 in overall funding. This package allocates $90,000,000 in additional funding for design of barracks and child development centers vital for the quality of life for service members and their families to address barracks deficiencies identified by the government accountability office. Further, it provides $450,290,000,000 for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is $83,600,000,000 above the FY enacted level, to fully fund veterans' medical care and to fully fund veterans' benefits and toxic exposure related needs.
We can and should pass this legislation on a bipartisan basis to support the nation's veterans and their families. With that, I now yield to the ranking member, Mister McGovern, for any comments he wishes to make.
08:35 - 11:07
Speaker 2
Well, thank you, madam chair. Today, we are considering the military construction and veterans affairs funding bill, as well as a package of bills that Republicans are advancing that pays lip service to law enforcement but does nothing to address their actual concerns. These bills are simply a half-assed attempt to paint Democrats as soft on crime while advancing lousy legislation that will not make our cities and our towns safer. Now here's how you know that this is all political theater. There is a resolution on the floor right now to honor law enforcement officers and commemorate those killed in the line of duty.
It has broad bipartisan support from Democrats and Republicans. But that is not the resolution we're considering here in the rules committee tonight, because apparently, for the radical right, it wasn't good enough to honor the police in a bipartisan way. So now we also have to advance a separate partisan resolution filled with lies attacking Democrats. That's the resolution before the rules committee right now. And I think that just says so much about what this place has turned into.
Partisanship for the sake of partisanship. It's pathetic. And I would just say to my friends on the other side, people don't like it when you use them. And that is exactly what Republicans have turned Police Week into. You drag out support for law enforcement once a year, you use the police like props, and then you discard them once you're done with all the photo ops and the press conferences.
Nothing in these bills, not a thing, will actually address the public safety concerns that I hear about back home, like more funding for cities and towns to hire more cops. You guys wanna spend a billion dollars on a ballroom, and you come up here talking about supporting the police, and you come up with a bunch of bills that do nothing to actually support the police, no additional funding to hire police or to provide communities with the funding to be able to get state of the art equipment. Let me tell you something. Talk is cheap, and nothing in these bills deals with the number one thing I hear about back home, and that is the issue of affordability. Just this morning, The Wall Street Journal reported that inflation is rising thanks to Trump's policies, the highest rate in three years, because of the tariffs and because of the war.
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