119-hr4878

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4878 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

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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