House GOP bills could build on Washington crime crackdown

Republicans in the House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will consider a slate of bills this week to boost security and adjust criminal law in Washington, D.C. Fourteen separate bills range from a prohibition against camping on public property in the city to establishing a congressional review window for new laws created by the District of Columbia Council. Among the legislation’s most important provisions, the bills would:

• Lower the age standard for a youth offender to individuals below the age of 18, down from 25.

• Repeal the Justice Reform Act of 2022 that the District of Columbia Council passed to increase sentencing leniency.

• Allow life sentences for youth offenders.

• Implement a 10-year mandatory minimum for second-degree murders

• Expand the mandatory minimum sentence for rape by a previously-convicted defendant to 25 years, up from seven years.

• Increase the mandatory minimum for kidnappings to 30 years, up from 10 years.

These and other proposed modifications must successfully make their way through committee before reaching the floor of the chamber for a vote. They are subject to change.

What’s the context? The bills come as questions and challenges to Trump’s deployment of the National Guard threatens long-term plans to continue the administration’s focus on crime in the capital city.

Trump is using powers under the Home Rule Act of 1973 to deploy the National Guard to the streets, arguing that unchecked levels of crime have jeopardized public safety—and the governing responsibilities of its residents. Democrats have pushed back, arguing that the crime levels didn’t rise to the level of the emergency he has used to justify his deployment. Moreover, legal challenges to the deployment argue that Trump has stretched the powers outlined under the Home Rule Act to the point of overreach.

It’s not clear how Trump could legally continue the deployment of the guard beyond the 30-day window outlined by the Home Rule Act. Under its text, the president can only take control of local law enforcement for a month, but arguably, Trump could try to renew that window by simply issuing another order.

Congress, which has oversight over Washington, D.C., has a better opportunity to address Trump’s crime concerns in a way that avoids timing constraints and legal challenges. While the bills proposed by the Oversight Committee would fall short of the military deployment currently in the capital city, they would reinforce Trump’s ongoing efforts to make urban crime a Republican priority.

Dig deeper: What are the legal challenges that Trump’s deployment is facing?Read my reporting on what the Washington, D.C. attorney general believes is wrong with the picture.