Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) on Monday introduced legislation to cement President Donald Trump’s executive order ending cashless bail nationwide, by blocking federal funds from jurisdictions that release violent offenders without requiring bail.
The package includes two bills — one specific to Washington, D.C., and another applying nationwide — that mirror legislation introduced last week in the Senate by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
“Today, Sen. Marsha Blackburn and I are working alongside President Trump to end the cashless bail disaster. We can’t allow arrested individuals who are awaiting trial to be released back onto the streets to commit more crimes against their communities,” Stefanik, who chairs House Republican Leadership, said in a statement.
Blackburn, in her own statement, said cashless bail has “empowered violent criminals across our country, putting the lives of law-abiding citizens at risk.”
“President Trump is leading the charge to restore law and order by ending these failed policies, and Congresswoman Stefanik and I are backing his efforts by introducing two bills to end cashless bail and keep violent offenders behind bars,” she added.
Studies suggest that suspects released under cashless bail are significantly more likely to reoffend. A 2023 analysis by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office in California found that individuals freed under such policies committed 163% more crimes overall — and 200% more violent crimes — than those who posted bail.
In Washington, D.C., for instance, a Jewish man was assaulted over the summer by a suspect who had been released on cashless bail just one day after an altercation with Capitol Police.
In New York, which scrapped cash bail in 2019, Stefanik pointed to the recent case of a Guatemalan national who was released without bail last month despite facing four felony and two misdemeanor charges for allegedly selling drug-laced gummies that hospitalized 12 high school students.
“Under Kathy Hochul’s [D., N.Y.] failed leadership, cashless bail policies in New York pose a clear and present danger to the Nation and must be terminated,” Stefanik, whose bill comes two weeks after Trump issued an executive order barring cashless bail, said.
