Two Republican members of congress have proposed legislation to strip the D.C. government of its powers – including the mayor and D.C. Council. News4’s Mark Segraves reports.
Legislation proposed by two Republican members of Congress would strip the D.C. government of its powers – including the mayor and D.C. Council.
The new bill, called The BOWSER Act, is named for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and it comes as the District also braces for impacts from policy changes made by the Trump administration.
Those Trump administration impacts include the possibility of federal workers being forced back to the office, while thousands more face potential layoffs.
But the "Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident" Act originates from Utah Sen. Mike Lee, and Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles. Both Republican congressmen have been highly critical of Bowser and the D.C. Council in the past.
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If the act does become law, it would repeal home rule in one year. But the legislation says nothing about who would run the city or how a transition would take place -- it only eliminates the current system.
Lee and Ogles give a short list of reasons they want to repeal D.C.'s home rule charter. The list includes:
- The federal bribery charge against former Councilmember Trayon White, who has not yet been convicted of a crime and who was removed from the Council earlier this week.
- Crime in the District, including carjackings and homicides. While D.C. saw an increase in homicides for the first time in a while, overall violent crime continues to go down.
- The two congressmen call D.C. "soft on crime." That reference is to the 2022 crime bill overturned by Congress and former President Biden.
- They also point to D.C. allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections. That law is in effect, but faced challenges from the Senate Parliamentarian and the U.S. House of Representatives.
With President Trump's multiple threats to D.C. home rule on the campaign trail, D.C. has to take any threat to its self-determination seriously.
Trump could also effectively eliminate home rule without Congress's help by reinstating the Control Board.
However, Lee introduced the same bill last year, and it died in committee.
Bowser's office declined to comment on the bill.
That may be because of the fine line that D.C.'s mayor has to walk with Trump back in office.
On the one hand, Bowser has supported Trump's efforts to bring federal workers back to their offices, telling News4 it's vital to D.C.'s downtown economy.
But on the other hand, Bowser lamented what she described as "an illogical approach" to closing federal agencies like USAID, saying the president needs to follow the law when eliminating congressional approved agencies or jobs.
"We all have to hold the administration to account," Bowser said.
