The U.S. House Oversight Committee is expected to take up 14 proposed bills this week that are aimed at changing the way D.C. is governed. One bill threatens to make the D.C. attorney general appointed by the president and not elected by residents.
The House will consider the measures as President Donald Trump’s 30-day crime emergency is set to expire Wednesday.
Trump seized additional federal control over the District on Aug. 11. Hundreds of arrests made by a surge of federal officers have followed.
Mayor Muriel Bowser is keeping an eye on a new threat to Home Rule. At an event on Monday in Northeast D.C., Bowser said she’ll have more to say later this week about the end of the crime emergency. She emphasized one specific change.
“MPD is not compelled to provide MPD services as directed by the president, that’s what changes,” she said, referring to D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.
The mayor ordered an indefinite coordination with federal law enforcement, noting in an executive order that violent crime had “noticeably decreased.”
“It’s laid out what federal agencies we work with. It’s not confusing. So, I am not going to turn this into a re-explainer of my mayor’s order. I’ve done it,” she said to applause in the room.
The bills that the House Oversight Committee will consider could turn Home Rule upside down.
The District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act would require cash bail or bail bonds for all defendants charged with certain enumerated public safety and order crimes.
Another bill would repeal D.C.’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act of 2016 and the Second Chance Amendment Act of 2022, which allows people convicted of serious crimes before they turned 18 to petition the court for a sentence reduction after serving at least 15 years.
A third bill, called the District of Columbia Attorney General Appointment Reform Act, would make the D.C. attorney general appointed by the president and not elected by residents.
“All of them would be an affront to Home Rule. We believe that our laws affecting the District should be made by the District,” Bowser said.
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