House plans vote on resolution to block DC police reform law next week
Samantha-Jo Roth
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The House Rules Committee is planning to tee up floor action next week on another resolution that would overturn local police reforms in Washington, D.C., a second attempt to nullify another law passed by the District of Columbia and rein in the district’s autonomy.
The latest resolution intends to target laws passed by the D.C. Council last year to reform the Metropolitan Police Department and the district’s justice system in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of law enforcement in 2020. The reforms included prohibiting the use of neck restraints, increasing access to body camera footage, and revisiting officer discipline procedures.
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The proposal, introduced by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), comes after the House passed another one of his resolutions that repealed the district’s recently revised criminal code, which would have reduced or eliminated mandatory minimum sentences for carjacking and some other violent crimes. The measure passed in the Senate, and President Joe Biden signed it into law.
Republicans continue to deploy a congressional maneuver called a resolution of disapproval to target policies they oppose and force Democrats to either embrace Biden’s positions or buck their party. The procedural tool has forced Biden to confront bills he opposes, which is somewhat unusual when his party controls the upper chamber since the majority leader often can prevent controversial legislation from being voted on, sparing the president from having to veto a bill or make a politically charged decision to sign it instead.
The vote exposed deep divisions within the party over how to confront concerns over crime and public safety. Before the Senate vote, 173 House Democrats voted with what they thought was the White House stance that Biden would veto the resolution in an effort to stand up for the district’s “home rule.”
“Now that Congress has effectively used its constitutional authority to strike down the D.C. Council’s dangerous Revised Criminal Code Act, we must now move to swiftly block this anti-police measure to ensure our nation’s capital city is safe for all Americans,” Clyde told the Washington Examiner in early March.
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If the measure were to pass in the House and the Senate, the White House has confirmed Biden intends to veto the resolution, which would include a chokehold ban and a restriction on police union involvement in the disciplinary process. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing in late March that the president does “not support every provision” in the Washington law, but also “he will not support congressional Republicans’ efforts to overturn common sense police reform.”
The House Rules Committee also plans to consider legislation that would prohibit transgender and intersex girls and women from participating in sports.