Congressman Roy applauds House Judiciary Committee passage of bipartisan criminal justice bill

Press Release

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee passed the Criminal Judicial Administration Act of 2021, a bipartisan bill that Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) was proud to co-lead with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8) and a bipartisan group of members, to provide greater resources for federal judges while protecting civil rights of American citizens.

American citizens are innocent until proven guilty. Yet, under current law, an indigent citizen who is charged with a crime may be faced with insurmountable costs in simply getting the court to defend themselves. A federal judge who must ensure a defendant's presence in court should have other options besides incarcerating them in pretrial detention for what could be months on end.

HR 2694, also known as Criminal Judicial Administration Act of 2021, would provide small, but significant modification to existing law. This legislation would allow federal judges the discretion to fund the cost of travel, not merely to court, but home from court as well, ensuring their attendance without incarceration. This bill also eases overworked federal district courts by granting magistrate judges the authority to rule on post-judgement motions in cases for which they had trial jurisdiction.

This bill is also a fiscally responsible as it would likely save tax dollars. Currently, it costs about $2,220 a month to hold someone in pretrial detention, while it costs taxpayer 10 times less to supervise someone on pretrial release. It can take anywhere from 6 months to over a year to resolve a criminal case.

Full text of the bill is available here and the full clip of his remarks are here.

Some key quotes from Congressman Roy are below.

I know full well what magistrate judges are capable of and to be able to carry out the duties that this bill contemplates which will I think will improve our judicial system significantly, and I'm glad to support that.

When you're talking about due process, when you're talking about the rights of those, using the power of the state to deprive people of liberty even in the pursuit of justice. I think it is critical that we have these kinds of resources available to make sure that justice is carried out fairly and impartially.

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