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The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “criminal” as “one who has committed a crime.” The people sworn to represent you and your interests, on the other hand, want to use the newly introduced House omnibus bill to define juveniles or adults charged, convicted, incarcerated, or even sentenced to ankle bracelet monitoring for crimes as a “justice-involved individual.”
The 1,547-page legislation representatives led by GOP Speaker Mike Johnson hope to pass to fund the federal government through March 2025 is packed with oodles of pork that guarantees the survival of many of federal bureaucrats’ favorite pet projects. In addition to throwing taxpayer dollars at the state department program known for demanding the censorship of free speech champions like The Federalist, the lengthy legislation aims to revise widely accepted terms in favor of ones often championed by Democrat revisionists.
For years, federal laws have accurately branded people who break the law as “criminal offenders.” The passage of the newly introduced House omnibus would change that by marketing the outlaws — specifically those in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act — with vocabulary that seeks to not only downplay their criminal reputations, but words that could easily be mistaken as descriptors for superheroes.
It’s only on page 1400 of the omnibus that the euphemistic term “justice-involved individual” is formally defined as someone “who has been adjudicated delinquent or convicted of a crime and imprisoned under Federal or State law.”
The buck doesn’t stop there. If the omnibus passes, “out-of-school youth” become “opportunity youth,” “low-skilled adults” become “adults with foundational skill needs,” “homeless individuals” and “homeless children” become “individuals experiencing homelessness” and “youth experiencing homelessness,” and “welfare dependency” turns into “foster care status, school status, education level, highest grade level completed, low-income status, and receipt of public assistance.”
Repackaging language with negative connotations as ambiguous or even painting it in an optimistic light is a common tool used by Democrats to disguise and advance their radical policy proposals. When it comes to “justice-involved individuals,” leftists champion their soft-on-crime agenda, which aims to put violent criminals back on the streets instead of punishing them.
Changing “offenders” to “justice-involved individuals” may not seem like a big deal to the GOP legislators backing the omnibus but it should be. Words that have no roots in reality but instead seek to reshape narratives in favor of radicalism don’t belong in bills.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.
