'You Didn't Do Jack Crap!': Andy Biggs Assails Dan Goldman, Who Then Fires Back

Forbes Breaking News

At Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Dan Goldman's (D-NY) criticisms of President Trump's prisons policies led to a rebuke from Rep. Andy Biggs (D-NY).

Transcript

00:00From New York, Mr. Goldman.

00:02Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I would ordinarily appreciate this hearing very much

00:07because the Bureau of Prisons is a critical component of the Department of Justice

00:12that is woefully underfunded and struggling to implement their mission.

00:17But we must be living in fantasy land.

00:20We're trying to have a normal hearing doing oversight of the Bureau of Prisons

00:26when the President and Elon Musk are taking a hatchet to the Bureau,

00:33canceling the collective bargaining agreement for all of the correctional officers,

00:39eliminating retention bonuses for the correctional officers,

00:43while making sure that every masked undercover Gestapo agent with ICE gets a $40,000 bonus.

00:53In fact, the bill you passed last week, the Republicans passed last week,

00:59would give $12 billion in pay increases and bonuses to ICE and CBP

01:06and nothing to the Bureau of Prisons.

01:09And yet my colleagues sit over there acting as if they're really interested

01:14in correcting the Bureau of Prisons and all the problems that we have there.

01:19Then put some money where it is because we all know that's how you correct the problem.

01:26That's how you implement the First Step Act.

01:28That's how you implement and fund the Federal Prison Oversight Act,

01:31a bipartisan bill that we passed last Congress that has not been funded and can't do anything.

01:38You're passing a partisan reconciliation bill.

01:41Bill, you have the purse strings.

01:43And yet we're supposed to sit here thinking that you're really serious about making sure

01:48that we're helping the corrections officer.

01:51It's just bogus.

01:54And let's take the Metropolitan Detention Center in my district in Brooklyn.

01:58Since 2020, there have been 17 inmates that have been killed.

02:04And the staffing shortages are devastating and have been devastating.

02:11There have been numerous, numerous lockdowns simply because there is not enough staff.

02:15So inmates are kept in isolation for multiple days at a time because of staffing shortages.

02:23There was a crackdown by the FBI and the Department of Justice in March.

02:2725 inmates were arrested for all sorts of various smuggling efforts, violence, violent assaults

02:38with scalpels and, as my colleague from Florida said, smuggling cell phones.

02:45There's not enough staff to actually monitor what is going on.

02:50So what did they do at MDC?

02:52Well, under President Biden, they implemented a retention bonus of 35%.

02:58That enabled them to hire 87 additional people for that one location, the most in years and years.

03:09And it decreased lockdowns.

03:11Since August of 2024, there have only been three days of lockdowns due to staff shortages.

03:17So you would think that's a productive way of boosting employment, boosting staffing,

03:25which I think every single one of our witnesses has said is an essential part of addressing the problems in the Bureau of Prisons.

03:36So what does President Trump do?

03:39Gets rid of the retention bonuses.

03:42Gone.

03:43Gets rid of the collective bargaining agreement.

03:45How on earth do you think you're going to increase staffing by taking away all of the correction officers' benefits,

03:54by taking away their retention bonus, which proved to be successful and is necessary,

04:00and yet we're here talking about implementing recidivism programs?

04:06It's a joke.

04:08So, Mr. Biggs, you asked for some action items.

04:11I'll give you some action items.

04:13Can I ask you a question, Mr. Green?

04:15After I give you the action items, I'm happy to have a colloquy.

04:18One, restore the retention bonuses so that we can hire more corrections officers to implement all of the laws

04:24that we want to implement in a bipartisan way and so we can keep the inmates safe.

04:30Two, restore the collective bargaining agreement rather than unilaterally canceling a negotiated collective bargaining agreement

04:37that gives the corrections officers very important protections.

04:42And three, let's fund the First Step Act.

04:45Let's fund the Federal Prison Oversight Act, which has not been funded.

04:48There are three action items that you can take back to Mr. Trump to try to actually address the issues at the Bureau of Prisons,

04:56and I am happy to yield to you.

04:58Yeah, can you tell me, you mentioned that the Brooklyn facility had 17 homicides among inmates from 2020 till what?

05:062024.

05:08What administration controlled BOP that entire time?

05:13Did you do anything?

05:14You didn't do jack crap.

05:16You'll bet.

05:17You have no idea what I did.

05:19Time has expired.

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