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WASHINGTON (CN) — House Republicans on Wednesday rammed through a controversial measure that, if made law, would strip Washington, D.C. of its ability to set its own sentencing guidelines for convicted criminals.
The bill, penned by Florida Representative Byron Donalds and dubbed the D.C. Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safer, or D.C. Crimes Act, would walk back an existing local law allowing judges to hand down lighter sentences for criminal defendants under the age of 25. Donalds’ legislation would restrict that threshold to people under 18 years old.
The measure, which cleared the lower chamber on a mostly party line 225-181 vote Wednesday, was universally panned by Washington’s congressional delegate and city officials.
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s nonvoting House lawmaker, condemned the act as “radical, undemocratic and paternalistic,” and argued that its language would not only prevent municipal authorities from lowering criminal penalties but would block them from hiking sentencing guidelines as well.
Phil Mendelsohn, chair of the Washington City Council, agreed, telling House leadership in a letter Wednesday morning that the bill would prevent the city government from taking steps to address crime, and pointed out that violent crime had decreased by 25% in the capital over the last year.
President Joe Biden has said that he opposes the Republican-led crime bill.
This action by House Republicans to clamp down on Washington’s criminal justice agenda is just the latest in months of legislation. The lower chamber approved two measures in 2023 rolling back a pair of municipal policies aimed at increasing police transparency and lowering sentences for nonviolent offenses.
Republicans have long contended Congress, which oversees the capital city as it is not a state, needs to step in on Washington’s criminal justice system. They have pointed to what they frame as a trend of increasing property crimes and carjackings in the city.
Democrats and municipal officials, though, say the legislation impedes on Washington’s right to home rule.
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