For 17 years, the Washington, D.C., city council had wrestled with reforming their criminal code, which many people in the city felt had become antiquated and outdated. For instance, cash bail for serious offenses? Who does that anymore?
Congress has the power to repeal any law passed by the Washington D.C. city council, and Republicans, eager to flex their newfound political muscle, decided to challenge a recently passed sweeping revision of the D.C. criminal code by voting to send it back to the council for a rewrite.
How extensive a rewrite is another question. Even Mayor Muriel Bowser thinks the bill went too far. Her own veto was overridden by the council.
Congress rarely interferes in the local affairs of the D.C. city government. It’s been over 30 years since Congress last stepped in to repeal a city statute, but now, Republicans want to hit the Democrats for being soft on crime. They see the D.C. bill as a perfect vehicle.
Even Biden says the reforms go too far and, at a meeting of Senate Democrats, said he’d sign a bill repealing it,
After the meeting, Biden tweeted that he supports D.C. statehood and local autonomy but does not “support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections — such as lowering penalties for carjackings. If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did — I’ll sign it.”
Senate Democrats have squirmed for two-plus weeks over the vote, which Republicans plan to force to the floor as soon as next week and would be the first congressional override of local D.C. affairs since 1991. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) predicted that “there will be substantial bipartisan support for a resolution to reject the proposed changes.”
Unless he wants to go to war with his own party members — many of whom support repeal — the crime bill will ultimately go back to the city council for a rewrite.
The House passed the bill by a large, bipartisan majority last month, 250-173, with 31 Democrats joining the Republicans. With Republicans making Democrats squirm over the crime issue, many Democrats are acknowledging the wrongheaded policies that got them in this political mess in the first place.
How wrongheaded? According to Yahoo News, “The revisions were supposed to end mandatory minimum sentences, lower the maximum number of years people can be sentenced for certain crimes and bring back jury trials for suspects in misdemeanor cases.” This was a recipe for mayhem, and even some radical Democrats didn’t want to be saddled with the consequences of the bill.
And they’re absorbing the lessons of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s stinging rebuke — she’s the first sitting mayor in 40 years to be defeated.
“I guess [Biden] thinks it’s too far — a bridge too far, which it really is. I’m glad he said that,” West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said, leaving the meeting. He added that he clapped loudly when Biden disclosed his view to his fellow Democrats.
Manchin is number one on the GOP 2024 Senate hit list, and with Trump winning 68.62% of the West Virginia vote in 2020, Manchin needs to clap a lot louder to survive.
House Republicans first teed up the bill in February, amid a highly public clash between D.C.’s council and its mayor over the sweeping crime bill. In the House, the GOP-led bill won support from 31 Democrats, many of them moderates who have already called for stronger action on nationwide rise in crime since the pandemic. One swing-seat Democrat who backed the bill, Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), voted for it mere hours after she was assaulted in her D.C. apartment building.
Rep. Craig was literally hit upside the head by reality — or whatever the mugger who attacked her used until Craig splashed some Starbucks coffee in his face. The perp had collected no fewer than 25 warrants. That’s what being a criminal in Washington, D.C., actually means.
The D.C. crime bill would have made it even easier for criminals to get away with their crimes — all in the name of equity” and “fairness.” Is there any reason you can’t have fairness and a low crime rate? The D.C. city council should be asking themselves that question when they go to rewrite the bill.
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