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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC), Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Congressman Tony Cárdenas (D-CA) introduced the Youth Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support, and Education (“Youth PROMISE”) Act (H.R. 2197). The Youth PROMISE Act will provide resources to communities to engage in comprehensive, evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies to decrease violence, gang crime, illegal drug activity and other crime. Under the Youth PROMISE Act, communities facing the greatest youth gang and crime challenges will each form a local council of representatives from law enforcement, court services, schools, social service organizations, health and mental health providers, the business community, and other public and private community-based organizations, including faith-based organizations. The council will develop a comprehensive plan for implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies for young people who are at-risk of becoming involved, or who are already involved, in gangs, or the criminal justice system to redirect them toward productive and law-abiding alternatives.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA) and U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the Raise the Wage Act, legislation that would increase the minimum wage to $12 by 2020. The Raise the Wage Act would also index the federal minimum wage to the median wage, and gradually eliminate the subminimum tipped wage. The legislation would raise wages for nearly 38 million American workers. “Raising the minimum wage to $12 by 2020 will give hardworking, underpaid workers a pay raise that has been long overdue,” said Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). “Bigger paychecks for working families not only help them make ends meet, it also increases consumer demand and grows our economy. No one working full-time should live in poverty, and we can’t build a strong economy on the backs of impoverished workers. America deserves a raise.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) met with William Sabol, Ph.D., Director of the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), on the measures that BJS is taking to implement the reauthorization of the Death in Custody Reporting Act, which was signed into law by President Obama on December 18, 2014. The Death in Custody Reporting Act requires federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to report deaths of individuals that occur in their custody or during the course of an arrest. It is the only post-Ferguson federal legislation to be enacted by Congress to date. Congressman Scott issued the following statement in response to yesterday’s briefing with Director Sabol and other officials from the Department of Justice:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement on his No vote on H.R. 1105, the “Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015”: “Budgeting responsibly often requires making tough choices but that is not what the Republican Majority has done today. Current law exempts $5.4 million in assets for individuals and $10.9 million in assets for couples from the federal estate tax. As if the current law wasn’t generous enough, the Republican Majority has made the choice to repeal the estate tax entirely and add $269 billion to the deficit over the next decade in order to give 0.2% of the wealthiest deceased Americans a tax break.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA) released the following statement today on the passage of the Every Child Achieves Act by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: “Today's unanimous passage of the Every Child Achieves Act by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions should serve as an example of bipartisanship for the House of Representatives to follow. While today represents another step in a long deliberative process to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a bill worthy of the President's signature will only be achieved when both Democrats and Republicans in both chambers are engaged in finding a bipartisan solution to the real challenges that students, families, teachers, and communities face across this country.