On Monday, standing outside a Las Vegas JC Penney, U.S. Rep. Susie Lee called for Washington to get directly involved in dismantling organized retail theft rings that she says are draining Nevada’s economy and putting shoppers and workers at risk. Lee described the operations as coordinated, multistate crews that can strip store shelves in minutes, then move the stolen goods across state lines to resell them.
Lee is backing a bipartisan bill that would shift part of the investigative and prosecutorial work to the federal level so agencies can better track those networks and take them apart instead of chasing scattered incidents one store at a time.
What the bill would do
The measure, H.R. 2853, the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, would formally designate organized retail crime as a federal offense, create an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center within Homeland Security Investigations, and give federal authorities additional tools to recover stolen merchandise and illicit proceeds. In mid-January, the House Judiciary Committee advanced the bill by voice vote and sent it to the full House, actions that are recorded on Congress.gov. Business groups have urged Congress to stand up the new Homeland Security coordination center, including in a letter to the committee from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Lee's pitch in Las Vegas
Speaking with reporters outside the store, Lee stressed that “this isn’t typical shoplifting” and argued that federal coordination is needed to go after the large, organized networks behind the thefts instead of treating each case as a standalone crime. Her office pointed to state-level estimates that Nevada lost about $466 million in stolen goods and roughly $85 million in tax revenue in 2021.
Lee said the bill is designed to help law enforcement “go after the organizations themselves” rather than only arresting individuals for one-off thefts, framing it as a move to get at the brains of the operation, not just the people running out the door. Her comments were reported by KSNV.
Industry and law-enforcement allies
Retailers and law-enforcement groups have been pressing Congress to act, arguing that organized theft drives other types of crime and lands hardest on consumers and small businesses that cannot easily absorb the losses. The National Retail Federation publicly urged lawmakers to pass H.R. 2853 after the Judiciary Committee vote, while the National Insurance Crime Bureau sent a letter backing the bill as a way to tighten coordination and intelligence sharing between federal agencies and private industry. The stack of industry letters and trade group endorsements has become part of the case that the proposal has bipartisan momentum on Capitol Hill.
Local push and critics
In Nevada, local officials have been sounding similar alarms about organized retail crime, warning that it is hammering small businesses already operating on thin margins. Governor Joe Lombardo has rolled out a Safer Streets and Neighborhoods proposal that would lower the state’s felony threshold for theft, a move supporters say is aimed at deterring repeat offenders.
Some advocates, however, worry that ratcheting up penalties without matching investments in prevention and support programs could fuel over-incarceration, especially in communities that are already heavily policed. Those debates over thresholds, penalties, and prevention were detailed by KOLO 8 News Now.
What's next in Congress
H.R. 2853 has been reported to the House and placed on the Union Calendar, where it is waiting for the full chamber to decide whether to take it up. On the other side of the Capitol, a companion bill, S. 1404, has been reintroduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, with a similar blueprint for a federal coordination center and new tools for prosecutors handling these cases.
Backers say the next steps are a House floor vote and continued outreach to senators in both parties to move a bicameral package toward passage, according to Sen. Cortez Masto's office.
