Grassley, Rosen Reintroduce Bipartisan Gang Data Reporting Legislation

WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) today reintroduced the Gang Activity Reporting Act to confront violent crime. The bipartisan bill would require the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to resume annual reports to Congress on local, national and transnational criminal gang activity trends, which were discontinued in 2009 and 2012.

"Criminal gangs have been responsible for nearly half of all violent crime. To address this longstanding issue, Congress must have access to accurate, consistent and reliable data on gang activity and membership trends," Grassley said. "This commonsense, bipartisan bill would revive information-sharing between the executive branch and Congress, allowing lawmakers to make more informed and timely decisions to end the scourge of gang violence in America."

"We know that gangs are responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime in the United States. As communities across the country grapple with devastating gang violence, we must ensure they have access to the resources and support to combat it," Rosen said. "With this bipartisan bill's required comprehensive federal report on gang membership data and trends, we can better understand how gangs are contributing to violent crime and take the right steps to support law enforcement and strengthen public safety."

Full text of the legislation is available HERE.

Background:

Despite the DOJ and FBI establishing specified units to address criminal gang activity, reporting to Congress has largely dried up over the last decade. The FBI's National Gang Threat Assessment stopped reporting trends in gang membership to Congress after 2009. The DOJ's National Gang Center stopped reporting trends in the quantity and growth of gangs to Congress in 2012. The last Attorney General's report to Congress on the growth of violent street gangs in suburban areas was submitted in 2008.

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