Congress eyes more than a dozen bills taking direct aim at D.C. and home rule

While the crime emergency in D.C. is set to expire this week, there is no end in sight to the surge in federal law enforcement officers in D.C. and deployment of the National Guard on D.C. streets

But the federal surge is not the only intervention by the federal government facing D.C. residents — there are also the 13 bills that will be marked up Wednesday when the House Oversight Committee meets.

These bills address everything from taking away D.C. residents’ right to elect their own attorney general, to giving police more discretion when it comes to car chases. Another bill would make it illegal to camp in public places, clearly aimed at criminalizing homelessness, and creating a federal program within the Department of the Interior charged with beautifying D.C.

Each of the 13 bills would have significant impacts on D.C. residents, businesses and visitors, but several of them — if passed — would directly impact home rule.

The biggest is the Attorney General Appointment Reform Act. If passed by the House and Senate, it would immediately fire D.C.’s current elected attorney general, Brian Schwalb, and give the president the power to appoint D.C.’s attorney general.

Another bill that would give the president more authority over D.C. would terminate the judicial nominating committee charged with providing the president a list of potential judges from which to nominate. This would allow the president to nominate whomever he wants as judges.

Two other bills take aim at how D.C. handles juveniles in the criminal justice system, including lowering the age a juvenile could be tried as an adult from 16 to 14 years old.

What’s the likelihood these bills will be come laws?

They will almost certainly pass the Republican-controlled house.

In the Senate, where Republicans have a slimmer margin, it would take seven Democrats to join with Republicans, so it would be much tougher threshold to get to. However — while a few years ago that would have seemed unlikely — these days, D.C. cant rely on congressional Democrats like they used to. Even before President Donald Trump took office, President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats joined Republicans to overturn D.C.’s crime bill.

What else should DC residents be paying attention to?

These bills aren’t the only threat to D.C.

Later this week, the D.C. Council will send the 2026 budget — which includes the funding for the new RFK football stadium — to the hill for congressional review. That will be an opportunity for Republicans to add riders to that bill, as they have done in the past.

Then, there’s the threat of another continuing resolution at the end of the month. The most recent continuing resolution took hundreds of millions of dollars out of the D.C. budget.

The White House sent to Congress a list of items, including restoring to D.C. its ability to spend local funds should a CR be passed.

So there’s a lot to watch as Congress returns to work, and that doesn’t include anything else the president might choose to do in D.C.