Battle over DC statehood collides with politics of crime

Like other major U.S. cities, Washington has seen a spike in crime over the past three years. So when the city council recently overhauled its century-old criminal code – including reducing maximum sentences for offenses like carjacking – the timing struck even some Democrats as poor. Washington’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser vetoed the legislation, but the council overrode it. 

In any other city, that would have been the end of the matter. But not in Washington, where the rules over who governs this 69-square-mile plot of land are complicated. 

Acting on a clause in the Constitution that gives Congress “exclusive power” over the district, Republicans in the U.S. House, along with 31 Democrats, voted to block the revised criminal code. Now the Senate is poised to follow suit.

The whole episode represents a setback for the D.C. statehood movement, which won a majority vote in the U.S. House just two years ago. And it’s a measure of how politically perilous the issue of public safety has become for Democrats.

Elinor Hart, an organizer for the D.C. Statehood Coalition, calls the congressional resolution an abuse of power. But she recognizes the political calculus at play. 

“If you accuse someone who is up for reelection as being ‘soft on crime’ that’s terrifying for them,” says Ms. Hart.

An effort to update Washington, D.C.’s criminal code, which ballooned into a national tussle involving the president and Congress, has dealt a serious blow to the city’s long-standing fight for autonomy – while underscoring just how politically potent the issue of crime is likely to be in 2024.

If the U.S. Senate votes, as expected, this week to prevent Washington’s criminal code reforms from taking effect, it will be the first time in three decades that Congress has directly blocked a measure passed by the city council. Already, a significant number of Democrats have criticized the D.C. bill – including President Joe Biden, who announced last week that he would sign the measure to block it. A last-ditch effort by the council to withdraw its own legislation on Monday, to avoid the humiliation of being big-footed by Congress, appears to have failed.

Like other major U.S. cities, Washington has seen a spike in crime over the past three years. So when the city council recently approved an extensive overhaul of its century-old criminal code – including expanding the right to jury trials for misdemeanors and reducing maximum sentences for certain violent offenses like carjacking – the timing struck even some Democrats as poor. Washington’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser vetoed the legislation, but the council overrode the mayor’s veto. 

In any other city, that would have been the end of the matter. But not in Washington, where the rules over who governs this 69-square-mile plot of land are complicated. 

Acting on a clause in the Constitution that gives Congress “exclusive power” over the district, Republicans in the U.S. House began pushing to block the revised criminal code. The GOP-led measure passed the House last month with the support of 31 Democrats – including Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig, who had been attacked in the elevator of her D.C. apartment building earlier that same day.