The House is set to vote soon on several bills related to the governance of Washington, D.C., including two bills hitting the House floor on Wednesday focused on criminal justice reform in the district.
The lower chamber will consider the District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act and the CLEAN D.C. Act on Wednesday evening, two bills introduced by Republicans that have drawn opposition from local Democratic leaders. Each of the bills advanced from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act, introduced by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), targets cashless bail and shores up mandatory pretrial detention for violent crimes. The two initiatives have been touted by President Donald Trump, who passed an executive order cracking down on cashless bail in the district in August, and by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.
The act aims “to require mandatory pretrial and post conviction detention for crimes of violence and dangerous crimes and require mandatory cash bail for certain offenses that pose a threat to public safety or order in the District of Columbia,” according to the text.
Though the Council of the District of Columbia took action in July to extend pretrial detention for young people accused of violent and dangerous crimes until September 2026, this law would amend the district’s code permanently. It also expands upon and makes permanent Trump’s executive order on cashless bail, Stefanik said.
The CLEAN D.C. Act, or the Commonsense Law Enforcement and Accountability Now Act, repeals the council’s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act, which was passed in 2022. This local law prohibits police officers from using chokeholds, expanded access to police body cameras, created a police complaints board, and enacted various other police and criminal justice reforms.
The local act came as part of a broader, national call for police reform following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), who introduced the CLEAN D.C. Act to repeal the local law, called the council’s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022 an “anti-police law.”
“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. “Sending the CLEAN D.C. Act to President Trump’s desk will further bolster his successful efforts to make our nation’s capital safe again for the American people.”
However, local officials have fired back at the Republican lawmakers advocating the bills to change the code of their blue district. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Attorney General Brian Schwalb, and Phil Mendelson, council chairman, issued a joint statement regarding 13 district-related bills passed by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
“We are united in our forceful opposition to the bills recently advanced by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,” Bowser, Schwalb, and Mendelson said. “These bills are an affront to Home Rule and the principles of democracy and local self-governance on which this country was founded.”
“The District is home to more than 700,000 residents who pay taxes and serve in the military,” the local leaders said. “Like all Americans, they deserve the right to elect local leaders who have the authority to determine the local policies that govern them. We urge members of Congress to reject this unprecedented federal overreach and vote against these bills.”
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Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has also criticized her Republican colleagues for “attacking” the district’s autonomy with the 13 district-related bills and renewed her calls for district statehood.
“Republican members of Congress, who are not accountable to D.C., have no business dictating the local laws of a city where 700,000 people live, work, and have chosen their own leaders through the democratic process,” Norton said.