WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX) led a full Committee on Small Business hearing titled “Crime on the Rise: How Lawlessness is Impacting Main Street America.” Chairman Williams issued the following statement after today’s hearing.

“We must stop allowing criminals to get away with their crimes while small businesses are left picking up the pieces.”  said Chairman Williams. “We heard stories from business owners and law enforcement on the negative impacts within their communities when crime goes unpunished. It shouldn’t be the norm to force small businesses to hire private security, or shorten operational hours to keep their employees and customers safe. This Committee will keep working towards solutions that allow Main Street – and all Americans – to operate and live in a safe environment.

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Watch the full hearing here.

Below are some key excerpts from today’s hearing:

Chairman Williams: “Following the October 7th attack on Israel, we've seen reports that anti-Semitic incidents have increased by nearly 400 percent. We've heard that earlier. Ms. Rez, your organization StopAntisemitism tracks and exposes these incidents and we've seen some high-profile businesses being harassed for their religious beliefs. But we all know that there are many more that go unreported. So, my question to you is, can you talk about some of the most common forms of harassment that the Jewish businesses and employees are facing and how these business owners and individuals are responding to these hate crimes?” Ms. Rez: “Thank you for the question, Chairman. Oftentimes, Jewish business owners are reporting mob type protests outside of their establishments. This is deterring traffic to these establishments. It's causing a direct drop in revenues and it's subsequently requiring more security measures on these business owners, which, again, is dropping their bottom line.”

Rep. Molinaro: “Let's be very clear. It is without question that small businesses are cynical, and they have lost faith in their elected officials. Certainly, that couldn't be any more true than in the state of New York, where overall 83 percent of small business owners believe that crime is a major issue and they have lost faith in their elected leaders. I would offer out loud two things having spent the last 20 years in local government where some of my colleagues know in my home county, we led a transformational effort in criminal justice prior to New York's disastrous cashless bail policy, where we saw a 50 percent reduction in violent crime and a 40 percent reduction in an inmate population. Why? Because we were given the tools to invest early. Chief Roach knows this. He's implemented these tools and cashless bail is eliminated… Chief Roach, could you speak specifically to the impact that you've experienced and are small businesses have experienced, at least in upstate New York first prior to cashless bail, during cashless bail, and then post cash cashless bail implementation. Chief Roach: “Thank you, Congressman. Yeah, so, our local business owners, 40 of them, created a coalition. They meet weekly or biweekly at the Commerce Board, and they're lobbying heavily with the Common Council to create nuisance laws to try to correct this problem with bail reform and the loitering and the drug use and the damage it's doing to their businesses. A lot of them say we need something with teeth. And it's unfortunate that it has to be a criminal nuisance to legislation at the Common Council level because there probably won't be a lot of teeth in that. Unfortunately, it'll be a no ticket, which is a fine essentially, and potentially down the road quite a long ways down the road, potentially jail time. But that doesn't fix the problem that they're facing every day as they're losing business and losing customers.”

Rep. Meuser: “Now, along with the lack of public safety and fear and issues and that all of this creates here in D.C., in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, elsewhere, you know, crime causes costs to go up as you've mentioned Mr. Scott, right? Obviously. So costs go up, profits go down. Right. Less customers means less sales, less revenues. This is just the economic aspects of it... In Philadelphia, for instance, and in Washington, D.C., the prosecution rate for crime is under 30 percent, for crimes, all right? In San Diego and Miami, it's over 65 percent. And guess what? The crime in those cities is one tenth that of similar sized cities like Philadelphia, one tenth. So, there are answers to this. So let me just I'd like to just ask you, as business owners, because it's so and this raises your and I'd like to just start with you and just go down the line. What would you like to see done in the community's fight against this crime? Resources, police, expanded prosecutions, whatever.” Mr. Scott: “Thank you, Congressman. You know, I mentioned, I'm not a criminologist. However, in speaking with responding law officers, detectives, they all say the same thing. There are, there are a number of criminals. The main problem is the same criminals keep doing the same crimes over and over.”

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