EXCLUSIVE – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is reviving a GOP push to undo the District of Columbia’s police reforms, offering President Donald Trump a legislative avenue to expand his federal takeover of Washington.
On Monday, Cruz introduced the CLEAN DC Act, a two-page bill that would overturn the district’s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act. Congress voted in 2023 to repeal the law, which bans chokeholds and increases public access to body camera footage, but President Joe Biden blocked the repeal with a rare presidential veto.
The legislation marks the latest attempt by congressional Republicans to clamp down on Washington after Trump took control of the Metropolitan Police Department in August, citing crime statistics that remain high relative to other major cities. The president has separately asked Congress to devise a “comprehensive crime bill” and wants his police takeover, which expires after 30 days, to be extended.
“Violent crime has become endemic in Washington DC as a direct result of political and ideological decisions made by Democrats,” Cruz, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “Those decisions included passing and trying to lock in anti-police measures such as the Orwellian-named Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022, which undermined police morale, weakened officer retention, and contributed to a still-ongoing public safety disaster. The CLEAN D.C. Act will reverse that decision, and I call upon my colleagues in Congress to pass it.”
Cruz is co-sponsoring the legislation with Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Jim Risch (R-ID), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL). Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), who spearheaded the original repeal effort, will introduce a House version on Tuesday.
“Congress must once again exercise our constitutional authority to repeal the D.C. City Council’s anti-police law that has recklessly put criminals first and our men and women in blue last,” Clyde said in a statement. “Unlike Joe Biden, who vetoed this commonsense legislation in 2023, President Trump stands for law and order.”
The district’s attorney general called the 2023 effort at repeal invalid, arguing that it fell outside of a 60-day federal review period, but Republicans proceeded anyway, finding enough Democratic support for it to clear both the House and Senate.
The district has the freedom to pass its own laws under the 1973 Home Rule Act, but that autonomy is subject to congressional oversight.
At the time, Biden argued that Congress should defer to local legislators on measures that “improve public safety and public trust,” with the district reforms passed in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020. Republicans, meanwhile, said the law presented an undue burden on police and would hamstring their ability to conduct law enforcement.
TRUMP STOKES CONGRESSIONAL SHOWDOWN OVER DC CRIME
The CLEAN DC Act has the endorsement of the DC Police Union and the Fraternal Order of Police.
Republicans succeeded in rolling back a separate district crime bill in 2023 that lowered the penalties for carjacking and other offenses. Biden declined to veto the measure, allowing Congress to rescind a local law using the disapproval process for the first time in decades.