Feb. 10 (UPI) — The Republican-controlled House voted to block a pair of laws passed by the D.C. Council that would have updated the capital’s criminal code and allowed non-citizens to vote in local elections.
Votes to disapprove of the bills, which were passed by the D.C. Council in October and November, passed on Thursday with large majorities and substantial numbers of Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with their Republican colleagues.
The D.C. Home Rule Act, passed almost 50 years ago, grants Congress powers to block D.C. city laws from being enacted by passing disapproval resolutions in both the House and Senate, as well as a sign-off from the president.
The House voted 250-173 in favor of blocking the revision to the criminal code, which does away with most mandatory minimum sentences, decreases maximum penalties for violent crimes, and extends the right to a jury trial to most misdemeanor defendants, was vetoed by Mayor Muriel Bowser but the council overrode it in November.
The resolution to disapprove a law that would have extended voting rights to non-U.S. citizens — a law enacted in a dozen or so other cities — passed by a 260-162 vote.
“Today the House took the first step to prevent two of the D.C. Council’s irresponsible and dangerous laws from going into effect,” Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., wrote in a statement.
“These misguided efforts would allow crime to run rampant and disenfranchise American citizens in our nation’s capital.”
It is unclear how the Senate versions of resolutions will fare — despite Democrats’ control of the upper house — as they only require a simple majority to pass.
However, even if one or both of the resolutions move in the Senate, Biden has signaled he will not sign either into law.
In a statement earlier this week, the White House said it opposed both resolutions calling them “clear examples of how the District of Columbia continues to be denied true self-governance and why it deserves statehood.”
The row has added fresh fuel to an ongoing conflict between city representatives, who want more control over how the capital is run, and Congressional Republicans who want to maintain the status quo under which Congress has the final say.
The snub from Capitol Hill sparked an angry response from city leaders with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., the district’s non-voting representative, telling ABC News, “I think these resolutions are emblematic of why D.C. needs statehood.”
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb accused the House of “interfering with local D.C. self-governance,” in a way that should worry every American.
“Today’s move to overturn our laws is not about making the District safer or more just. Today’s actions are political grandstanding and highlight the urgent need for D.C, statehood,” he wrote in a statement.
“District residents are on notice that lawmakers seek to undermine our democratic process to gain political favor and are substituting uninformed politics for the views of those impacted most, D.C. residents,” added Schwalb.
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