Congresswoman Nancy Mace has introduced the Preventing Prosecutors from Protecting Predators Act of 2026, a bill aimed at increasing accountability for prosecutors who receive federal funding to protect women and children but decline to prosecute violent offenders.
The legislation responds to concerns that some prosecutors are not charging individuals accused of serious crimes such as rape, child abuse, and sex trafficking. According to Mace, these decisions are often made without public explanation or transparency, resulting in perpetrators remaining free and victims not receiving justice.
Mace cited findings from Dorchester County, South Carolina, where records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request showed that more than 92% of child sexual exploitation cases between 2019 and 2022 were dismissed with no jury convictions. In October 2025, she requested statewide data on similar cases from Attorney General Alan Wilson after learning about these statistics.
“We’ve already seen the consequences of prosecutorial negligence,” said Rep. Mace. “In South Carolina, records obtained through FOIA show under Attorney General Alan Wilson, violent sexual predators are walking free and terrorizing our communities. In Dorchester County alone, 385 child sexual exploitation cases were reviewed between 2019 and 2022, where more than 92% were dismissed, only 7.5% resulted in conviction, and not a single case was decided by a jury. This is a systemic failure, and no one in charge was held accountable.”
The proposed law would apply to prosecutors in jurisdictions with populations over 100,000 who receive grants from the Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women. These offices would be required to submit annual reports detailing their handling of sex crimes, domestic abuse, and sex trafficking cases—including referrals, charging decisions, defendant histories, bail outcomes, plea agreements, trial results, sentencing recommendations and imposed sentences.
Penalties for failing to comply include reductions in federal grant funding by up to half or suspension of eligibility for up to two years if an office declines prosecution in more than half its cases. All collected data would be publicly available and reported to Congress.
“As a survivor, this bill is personal,” Mace continued. “When serious crimes are covered up by soft-on-crime prosecutors behind closed doors, women and children are denied justice and predators are empowered. This is unacceptable.”
The act covers offenses such as rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, sex trafficking and related crimes.
“Victims deserve justice. Families deserve safety. And taxpayers deserve accountability,” Mace said. “If prosecutors abandon victims and shield predators, they will be exposed. Do your job or lose your funding.”
Nancy Mace has represented South Carolina’s 1st district in the U.S. Congress since replacing Joe Cunningham in 2021 (https://mace.house.gov/about). Before her congressional service beginning in 2021 (https://ballotpedia.org/Nancy_Mace), she served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 2018 to 2020. Born in Fort Bragg in 1977 (https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/M001212), she currently lives in Charleston and graduated from The Citadel with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1999.
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