Anti-DC Congressional Bills Attempt Federal Takeover of DC Criminal Justice and Home Rule

The U.S. House of Representatives has advanced a wave of bills targeting the District of Columbia’s criminal justice system and democratic self-governance. Framed as “public safety” measures, these proposals would roll back years of local reforms, override decisions made by DC’s elected officials, and further erode Home Rule by shifting authority from District residents to Congress and the federal executive branch.

Together, these bills represent one of the most aggressive congressional interventions in DC affairs in decades.

Rolling Back Police Accountability and Transparency

Several House-passed bills would significantly weaken police accountability in the District.

H.R. 2096 – Protecting Our Nation’s Capital Emergency Act rescinds key elements of DC’s 2023 police discipline reforms. The bill reinstates a strict 90-day deadline to initiate disciplinary actions against Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers, regardless of when misconduct comes to light. It also allows officer discipline to be negotiated through collective bargaining agreements, removes the police chief’s authority to increase penalties recommended by trial boards, and eliminates public notice requirements for termination hearings. Collectively, these changes reduce transparency and make meaningful discipline harder to achieve.

H.R. 5107 – CLEAN Act of 2025 goes even further by fully repealing DC’s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022. This repeal would revive outdated policies and undo reforms that restricted dangerous neck restraints, strengthened body-worn camera requirements, and expanded public access to police disciplinary records.

H.R. 5143 – District of Columbia Policing Protection Act of 2025 removes limits on high-speed police pursuits, replacing current safety-focused standards with a presumption in favor of vehicle chases. This shift raises serious concerns about public safety, particularly for pedestrians and bystanders, while disregarding the reforms enacted in response to past pursuit-related injuries and deaths.

Harsh Sentencing and Youth Criminalization

A second group of bills focuses on expanding incarceration and mandatory sentencing, with particularly severe consequences for young people.

H.R. 4922 – DC CRIME Act of 2025 strips DC of its authority to modify criminal sentencing laws, freezing current penalties in place. The bill reduces the age of eligibility for youth offender sentencing relief from 24 to 18 and eliminates judicial discretion to impose sentences below mandatory minimums for youth offenders—even when rehabilitation prospects are strong.

H.R. 5140 lowers the minimum age at which youth may be tried as adults for certain offenses from 15 or 16 down to just 14 years old, exposing children to adult prisons and lifelong consequences.

H.R. 5172 – Strong Sentences for Safer D.C. Streets Act of 2025, currently awaiting a full committee vote, dramatically increases mandatory minimum sentences for a wide range of crimes and reinstates life without parole sentences for people convicted of first-degree murder before age 18. These policies run counter to decades of research showing that mandatory minimums do not improve public safety and that youth have a heightened capacity for rehabilitation.

H.R. 5214 – District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act of 2025 mandates detention and cash bail for broad categories of offenses, effectively criminalizing poverty and reversing reforms designed to ensure people are not jailed simply because they cannot afford bail.

H.R. 5242, also pending committee action, repeals DC’s Second Chance Amendment Act and Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act—laws that allow record sealing, expungement, and sentence review based on rehabilitation. Eliminating these measures would remove pathways to employment, housing, and successful reentry, increasing recidivism rather than reducing it.

Direct Attacks on DC Home Rule

Beyond criminal justice, several bills represent direct assaults on the District’s right to self-govern.

H.R. 884 overturns DC’s locally enacted law allowing non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, despite the fact that non-citizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections.

H.R. 5179 – DC Attorney General Appointment Reform Act of 2025 would end the election of DC’s Attorney General and instead allow the President to appoint the position without Senate confirmation—immediately terminating the current AG’s term.

H.R. 5183 – DC Home Rule Improvement Act imposes a new 60-day congressional approval period for all laws passed by the DC Council, further entrenching congressional veto power over local governance.

Federal Control Disguised as “Public Order”

Additional proposals extend federal oversight into everyday life in the District.

H.R. 5103 – Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act establishes a federal commission focused on criminal and immigration enforcement and creates a federally managed program to oversee the cleanliness and maintenance of public spaces—mirroring a recent executive order by President Trump.

H.R. 5163 – Clean and Managed Public Spaces Act criminalizes camping on public property, imposing fines and jail time on unhoused individuals rather than investing in housing and supportive services.

H.R. 5181 – SOAR Act Improvements Act expands the federally run DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, further diverting public resources from DC’s public school system while loosening accountability standards for participating private schools.

What’s at Stake

Taken together, these bills signal a clear strategy: weaken local authority, roll back accountability, expand incarceration, and centralize power over the District of Columbia in Congress and the White House. They undermine evidence-based public safety reforms, ignore the voices of DC residents, and treat the nation’s capital as a political proving ground rather than a community of more than 700,000 people.