The US House of Representatives has passed two harmful bills: H.R. 5214, the District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act of 2025, and H.R. 5107, which would dismantle the District’s 2022 police accountability reforms. The bills now move to the Senate for further consideration by Congress. While presented as public safety measures, these proposals would in fact undermine D.C.’s right to self-govern, disproportionately harm Black, poor, and marginalized communities, and weaken democratic principles the Presbyterian Church (USA) has long upheld. Restoring cash bail would place a price on human liberty, and rolling back the district’s transparency measures, such as body-worn camera requirements and limits on masked officers, would erode essential public accountability. Together, these bills represent yet another instance of federal interference that undermines D.C.’s autonomy and reverses local efforts to build a more just, equitable, and transparent community.
For decades, the PC(USA) has spoken clearly and consistently about the moral urgency of criminal justice reform. Our General Assembly has condemned cash bail as a system that effectively criminalizes poverty, traps people in cycles of debt and detention, and denies the poor equal access to justice. According to Presbyterian News Agency, “The PC(USA) has a long history of advocating for alternatives to incarceration. The General Assembly of 1910 and 1915 issued statements calling for the criminal justice system to adopt a restorative approach to justice. The General Assembly of 1984 also took up the issue, urging all synods, presbyteries and sessions to study and advocate for alternatives at every level of government. In 2003, the General Assembly spoke strongly against for-profit prisons, saying that there are some things in a humane society that should not be for sale.”
PC(USA) Social Witness policy teaches that God calls the church to stand with those who are oppressed and to resist systems that prioritize punishment over repair. At the General Assembly of 2018 in St. Louis, MI, hundreds of Presbyterians marched calling for the elimination of cash bail. In partnership with the Bail Project and the St. Louis Action Council, the Stated Clerk, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, presented a check for over $47,000 to the detention center to bail out people charged with misdemeanors who had been prescreened for release. The following year, a similar march occurred as staff and local Presbyterians marched in downtown Louisville to protest the injustices of cash bail.
H.R. 5214 directly contradicts this long-standing denominational witness by reinstating a punitive system that treats freedom as a commodity rather than a God-given dignity. Likewise, H.R. 5107 seeks to undo police accountability measures designed to protect communities that have endured generations of racial inequity, state violence, and over-policing concerns.
We cannot turn away in this moment. Now is the time to raise our collective moral voice. Join with faith leaders across the nation to tell Congress to oppose H.R. 5214 and H.R. 5107. Together, our moral witness must urge the Senate to reject the use of D.C. as a testing ground for punitive policy experiments and to uphold the District’s right to self-govern and protect the well-being of its residents.
As people called to seek God’s justice, we cannot support or legitimize policies that inflict harm on our neighbors. We must remain steadfast in our commitment to help build a society where every person can flourish, a commitment rooted in the hope, courage, and long-standing Social Witness of the PC(USA).
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