Congressional Republicans advanced more than a dozen bills to limit self-governance in the District Wednesday as President Donald Trump’s federal takeover reached its 30 day limit.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform passed 14 bills for full votes Wednesday afternoon to increase the federal government’s oversight over the District that if passed, will allow the president to appoint D.C.’s attorney general, increase mandatory minimum sentences, codify certain federal executive orders related to public safety, expand the Congressional review over D.C. laws and other changes to D.C.’s criminal code and home rule authority. Though National Guard troops and other federal officers will remain in the District after Trump’s “crime emergency” order allowing the president to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department for 30 days expired on Sep. 10, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s order passed last week provides a framework for the federal and District government to collaborate.
Congress’ targeting of home rule serves as an indication of the District’s continued vulnerability to federal intervention even after Trump’s crime emergency expires. Meanwhile, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine became the first to announce plans to wind down the state’s National Guard presence in the District Wednesday. DeWine said the 150 military police he dispatched to D.C. on Aug. 16 at Trump’s request will leave the District on Nov. 30.
Congress granted the District an elected mayor and council through the D.C. Home Rule Act of 1973. The act granted local control over aspects of public life like policing and regulating businesses, but created caveats allowing the president to exercise authority in emergencies and Congress to review certain local laws. On Aug. 11, Trump invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act, authorizing him to federalize MPD for 30 days, a measure which expired Wednesday.
One of the key measures the committee advanced Wednesday was a bill seeking to replace D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb with a presidential appointment.
“The Attorney General would serve at the pleasure of the President with a term aligned with the President’s,” the bill’s sponsor, Texas Representative Pat Fallon, said at the hearing Wednesday.
76 percent of D.C. voters approved a referendum in 2010 to amend the D.C. Charter — subject to Congressional review, like all D.C. laws — to create the position of an elected attorney general. Schwalb, elected in 2022, is the second elected attorney general in the city’s history. Prior to the referendum, the city’s attorney general was chosen by the mayor.
D.C.’s Delegate to the House of Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton said the bill posed the largest threat into D.C.’s autonomy since Congress passed home rule.
“This bill effectively makes President Trump D.C.’s chief law enforcement officer, giving control of all prosecutions for violations of D.C. law,” Norton said.
The bills also include measures eliminating the locally and federally staffed commission responsible for producing a set of judicial candidates for the president to choose from and giving Congress sweeping powers to modify legislation passed by the D.C. Council. Federal lawmakers could strip individual provisions and modify legislation from the D.C. Council outright if the bill is enacted.
“It expands Congressional review to line-item provisions of D.C. laws, mayoral executive orders and regulations,” Arizona Representative Paul Gosar said of the bill he sponsored.
Chairman of the D.C. Council Phil Mendelson released a statement Wednesday criticizing the committee’s actions, saying the measures would “grind” local government functions “to a halt” and described the Congressional interference as “unprecedented assault” on the city.
“Today’s House Committee markup will hurt public safety and is a direct affront to the District’s autonomy,” the statement reads. “Lawmakers who have not been elected by District residents and have slim knowledge of District laws have no place trying to legislate for our residents.”
The committee passed multiple bills altering criminal procedures in the District at a time when Republicans, most prominently the president, have railed against Democratic cities for being soft on crime. The bills include provisions making it easier to try juveniles as adults in the District, increasing mandatory minimum sentences, mandating pretrial detention for anyone charged with a violent crime and returning cash bail to the city for certain crimes.
Trump deployed the National Guard and federalized MPD due to an alleged “crime emergency” in the District — in 2024, crime in D.C. actually reached a 30-year low. Bowser announced at a press conference last month that since the takeover began, overall crime had decreased by 15 percent. The Trump administration has claimed 2,300 arrests have been made in D.C. since the start of the takeover, with 40 percent being immigration related.
Representatives also passed bills to repeal D.C. laws that curtailed the D.C. Police Union’s ability to negotiate disciplinary measures and make police records subject to public information requests. They also passed legislation to enable vehicular pursuits by D.C. police.
The Committee passed a bill advancing Trump’s goal of removing unhoused people from the District by criminalizing camping outside, subjecting violators to fines and imprisonment. Local law enforcement cleared several unhoused encampments in Foggy Bottom on Aug. 15, days after Trump demanded unhoused residents “immediately” move out.
“We are here today at this hearing because D.C.’s reckless policies make our jobs inconvenient,” Gosar said. “We are here as friends, parents, and grandparents in my case, to address violence in the city.”
