California GOP Rep. Mike Garcia grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland after the latter said he is "pleased" with the Department of Justice's progress in the past year, with the congressman pointing to an increase in violence across the country.

"What disturbed me in your opening statement, your written testimony, there's a line in here where you said that 'I am pleased with the progress that the department has made since I'd appeared before you last June,'" Garcia told the attorney general during a live Zoom meeting Thursday for the House Committee on Appropriations's annual budget request for the DOJ.

Garcia cited a recent survey of 700 small-business owners that found a 54% increase in shoplifting in the past 18 months while also pointing out more grave statistics, including a "43% increase in police officers shot around this country in the line of duty [and a] 59% increase in officers killed since 2021."

"I don't know what is pleasing about that progress," Garcia told Garland, also noting that record inflation, approaching 9% now, and a budget increase of only 6% is "effectively defunding our law enforcement agencies in the grants we give them."

In response, Garland said the rising crime rates across the United States began in 2020, prior to President Joe Biden taking office, emphasizing that the pattern is "enormously concerning to me."

"That is the reason that we have asked each year for more money for grants for state and local law enforcement to fight that violent crime," Garland said, adding that the DOJ has requested $8.2 billion for state law enforcement resources and an additional $20.2 billion for federal law enforcement.

"That's what I'm pleased about: the way in which we are reorganizing ourselves to fight this terrible, violent crime," Garland concluded.