District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser urged the House Oversight Committee to reject 13 proposed bills this week aimed at how the district is governed.
In a letter to Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA), Bowser pointed to some of the city’s progress on crime and public safety and argued the proposed legislation would make the city “less safe.”
Bowser said the city has “worked collaboratively with this Committee on shared priorities,” but that she now asks that the committee “reject 13 of the DC bills before you today that encroach on DC’s Home Rule.” The city’s home rule allows residents to elect the mayor and the D.C. Council.
The mayor specifically objected to House Rule 5183, the District of Columbia Home Rule Improvement Act, which would impose a 60-day congressional review for D.C. Council legislation, and H.R. 521, the District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act, which would mandate pretrial detention and cash bail for those charged with public safety offenses.
Bowser argued that the Home Rule Improvement Act would “make the District less efficient, competitive, and responsive to the needs of a highly complex unique local government that serves local, county and state functions.” On the proposed cash bail reform, Bowser said the city’s “recent changes to our laws related to pre-trial detention [helped] to drive down violent crime in the last two years.”
The mayor also asked the committee not to end the district’s education-funding Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act. The committee has not yet released exact details on what it would end, but Bowser said she has been a career advocate of funding public, private, and charter schools.
“Mayoral control, council oversight, and deep, targeted investments in our students, teachers, and buildings made these remarkable achievements possible,” she wrote.
Members of the D.C. Council, including Chairman Phil Mendelson, have condemned the legislation, calling it a direct assault on the city’s home rule and local democracy.
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“Today’s House Oversight Committee markup will hurt public safety and is a direct affront to the District’s autonomy. Lawmakers who have not been elected by DC residents and have slim knowledge of DC laws have NO place trying to legislate for us. These bills are WRONG for DC!” Mendelson said in a social media post.
The bills come as President Donald Trump’s 30-day federal crime emergency ends Wednesday at midnight. The mayor has said that coordination with federal law enforcement will continue, but the Metropolitan Police Department will no longer be taking direct orders from the White House.