[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4878 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4878
To help end crime and disorder on America's streets.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
August 5, 2025
Mr. Carter of Georgia (for himself, Ms. Tenney, Mr. Moore of Alabama,
and Mr. Steube) introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on
Energy and Commerce, and Financial Services, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To help end crime and disorder on America's streets.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Make Our Streets Safe Again Act'' or
the ``MOSSA Act''.
SEC. 2. ENDING CRIME AND DISORDER ON AMERICA'S STREETS.
(a) Restoring Civil Commitment.--The Attorney General, in
consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall
take appropriate action to--
(1) seek, in appropriate cases, the reversal of Federal or
State judicial precedents and the termination of consent
decrees that impede the United States policy of encouraging
civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose
risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets
and cannot care for themselves in appropriate facilities for
appropriate periods of time; and
(2) provide assistance to State and local governments,
through technical guidance, grants, or other legally available
means, for the identification, adoption, and implementation of
maximally flexible civil commitment, institutional treatment,
and ``step-down'' treatment standards that allow for the
appropriate commitment and treatment of individuals with mental
illness who pose a danger to others or are living on the
streets and cannot care for themselves.
(b) Fighting Vagrancy on America's Streets.--
(1) Priority in discretionary grant programs.--The Attorney
General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the Secretary
of Transportation shall take immediate steps to assess their
discretionary grant programs and determine whether priority for
those grants may be given to grantees in States and
municipalities that, to the maximum extent permitted by law--
(A) enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use;
(B) enforce prohibitions on urban camping and
loitering;
(C) enforce prohibitions on urban squatting;
(D) enforce, and where necessary, adopt, standards
that address individuals who are a danger to themselves
or others and suffer from serious mental illness or
substance use disorder, or who are living on the
streets and cannot care for themselves, through
assisted outpatient treatment or by moving them into
treatment centers or other appropriate facilities via
civil commitment or other available means, to the
maximum extent permitted by law; or
(E) substantially implement and comply with, to the
extent required, the registration and notification
obligations of the Sex Offender Registration and
Notification Act (34 U.S.C. 20901 et seq.),
particularly in the case of registered sex offenders
with no fixed address, including by adequately mapping
and checking the location of homeless sex offenders.
(2) Duties of attorney general.--The Attorney General
shall--
(A) ensure that homeless individuals arrested for
Federal crimes are evaluated, consistent with section
4248 of title 18, United States Code, to determine
whether they are sexually dangerous persons and
certified accordingly for civil commitment;
(B) take all necessary steps to ensure the
availability of funds under the Emergency Federal Law
Enforcement Assistance program to support, as
consistent with sections 609M through 609Y of the
Justice Assistance Act of 1984 (34 U.S.C. 50101 et
seq.), encampment removal efforts in areas for which
public safety is at risk and State and local resources
are inadequate;
(C) assess Federal resources to determine whether
they may be directed toward ensuring, to the extent
permitted by law, that detainees with serious mental
illness are not released into the public because of a
lack of forensic bed capacity at appropriate local,
State, and Federal jails or hospitals; and
(D) enhance requirements that prisons and
residential reentry centers that are under the
authority of the Attorney General or receive funding
from the Attorney General require in-custody housing
release plans and, to the maximum extent practicable,
require individuals to comply.
(c) Redirecting Federal Resources Toward Effective Methods of
Addressing Homelessness.--
(1) Duties of hhs secretary.--The Secretary of Health and
Human Services shall take appropriate action to--
(A) ensure that discretionary grants issued by the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration for substance use disorder prevention,
treatment, and recovery fund evidence-based programs
and do not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate
outcomes, including so-called ``harm reduction'' or
``safe consumption'' efforts that only facilitate
illegal drug use and its attendant harm;
(B) provide technical assistance to assisted
outpatient treatment programs for individuals with
serious mental illness or addiction during and after
the civil commitment process focused on shifting such
individuals off of the streets and public programs and
into private housing and support networks; and
(C) ensure that Federal funds for federally
qualified health centers and certified community
behavioral health clinics reduce rather than promote
homelessness by supporting, to the maximum extent
permitted by law, comprehensive services for
individuals with serious mental illness and substance
use disorder, including crisis intervention services.
(2) Duties of attorney general.--The Attorney General shall
prioritize available funding to support the expansion of drug
courts and mental health courts for individuals for which such
diversion serves public safety.
(d) Increasing Accountability and Safety in America's Homelessness
Programs.--
(1) Accountability in grants for homelessness assistance.--
The Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development shall take appropriate actions to
increase accountability in their provision of, and grants
awarded for, homelessness assistance and transitional living
programs. These actions shall include, to the extent permitted
by law--
(A) ending support for ``housing first'' policies
that deprioritize accountability and fail to promote
treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency;
(B) increasing competition among grantees through
broadening the applicant pool; and
(C) holding grantees to higher standards of
effectiveness in reducing homelessness and increasing
public safety.
(2) Requirement for substance abuse treatment and mental
health services.--The Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development shall, as appropriate, take steps to require
recipients of Federal housing and homelessness assistance to
increase requirements that persons participating in the
recipients' programs who suffer from substance use disorder or
serious mental illness use substance abuse treatment or mental
health services as a condition of participation.
(3) Duties with respect to drug sites and distribution.--
With respect to recipients of Federal housing and homelessness
assistance that operate drug injection sites or ``safe
consumption sites'', knowingly distribute drug paraphernalia,
or permit the use or distribution of illicit drugs on property
under their control--
(A) the Attorney General shall review whether such
recipients are in violation of Federal law, including
section 416 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C.
856), and bring civil or criminal actions in
appropriate cases; and
(B) the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development,
in coordination with the Attorney General, shall review
whether such recipients are in violation of the terms
of the programs pursuant to which they receive Federal
housing and homelessness assistance and freeze their
assistance as appropriate.
(4) Stopping sex offenders.--The Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development shall take appropriate measures and revise
regulations as necessary to allow, where permissible under
applicable law, federally funded programs to exclusively house
women and children and to stop sex offenders who receive
homelessness assistance through such programs from being housed
with unrelated children.
(5) Data collection.--The Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development, in consultation with the Attorney General and the
Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall, as appropriate
and to the extent permitted by law--
(A) allow or require the recipients of Federal
funding for homelessness assistance to collect health-
related information that the Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development identifies as necessary to the
effective and efficient operation of the funding
program from all persons to whom such assistance is
provided; and
(B) require those funding recipients to share such
data with law enforcement authorities in circumstances
permitted by law and to use the collected health data
to provide appropriate medical care to individuals with
mental health diagnoses or to connect individuals to
public health resources.
(e) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed--
(1) to impair or otherwise affect the functions of the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to
budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals; or
(2) to create any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party
against the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other
person.
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