Democrats accuse GOP of racism after House votes to overturn DC laws
Cami Mondeaux
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House Democrats denounced their Republican counterparts for voting to overturn a pair of local laws in Washington, D.C., accusing GOP lawmakers of being motivated by racism.
The House voted on Thursday to overturn two laws passed by the D.C. Council last year softening penalties for crimes ranging from murder to carjackings and giving noncitizens the right to vote in local elections. The lower chamber’s measures were passed with bipartisan support, angering local lawmakers who called the move an attack on their self-governance.
HOUSE VOTES TO OVERTURN DC LAW SOFTENING PENALTIES FOR MURDER, CARJACKINGS
“By scheduling this vote, I can only conclude that the Republican leadership believes that D.C. residents, a majority of whom are black and brown, are either unworthy or incapable of governing themselves,” D.C. Del. Eleanor Norton said before the vote.
Republicans introduced the measures shortly after taking control of the House last month, seeking to assert control over the already limited self-government currently permitted in Washington. Although the city council can pass local legislation, all laws are subject to congressional approval because Washington is not a state.
One of the laws the House voted to overturn was an overhaul of Washington’s century-old criminal code that lowers the punishment for homicide, robberies, and carjackings. The D.C. Council overwhelmingly approved the bill last year, completing a project district lawmakers have been working on for 16 years.
Several House Republicans denounced the bill, arguing it amounted to “insanity.”
“The radical D.C. Council has chosen to prioritize legislation that will turn this crime crisis into a catastrophe,” said Rep. James Comer (R-KY). “The D.C. Council’s progressive soft-on-crime legislation eliminates almost all the mandatory minimum sentencing requirements for violent crimes, and it drastically reduces the maximum penalties allowable to the courts.”
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The House also voted to overturn a Washington law that would grant noncitizens the right to vote in local elections, prompting an outcry from some Democrats who called the move “disenfranchisement.”
“[Republicans] claim they believe in the sacred right to vote while denying that right to vote to an overwhelmingly black city,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said on Wednesday. “They’re singling out the residents of the District of Columbia and expanding in the history of disenfranchisement that goes all the way back to the legacy of slavery.”
Both bills now head to the Senate for a vote, where they’re unlikely to pass the Democratic-led chamber.