WASHINGTON – The House voted 233-190 on Wednesday night to approve a measure that repeals a 2022 District of Columbia policing law that limited how officers conduct stops, use force and document interactions, a change Republicans lawmakers say will support the Metropolitan Police Department’s ability to address violent crime.
Democratic lawmakers voted against the measure, called the Clean DC Act, because they said the bill would favor the will of Congress over the judgment of District officials and residents.
“The people best positioned to make decisions about local officials and local communities are local government officials,” said Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Virginia, during a Tuesday press conference at the U.S. Capitol. “They don’t know the history of the District of Columbia, and they shouldn’t be making decisions that impact the lives of residents.”
The vote comes as Washington city officials expand youth-curfew enforcement for 90 days to address public safety concerns, creating a conflict between local efforts to increase police–youth encounters and attempts by GOP lawmakers in Congress to reverse the District’s locally enacted accountability rules.
The Clean DC Act, introduced in September by Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Georgia, would remove key accountability features imposed by the 2022 law, restoring the ability of officers to use previously banned neck restraints, loosening the rules on body-worn camera disclosure and review, and limiting expanded access to police disciplinary records.
District leaders argue that those changes should be decided locally, not by Congress.
“D.C. residents have all the obligations of American citizenship, including paying federal taxes, serving on juries and registering with the Selective Service, yet Congress denies them full local self-government and voting representation in Congress,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-District of Columbia. “They deserve full control of their own local affairs.”
Norton, who serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform but cannot vote on the floor, opposed the bill and said that the repeal allows lawmakers from “far-away districts” to override decisions made by the elected D.C. Council, calling the intervention “paternalistic and condescending.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office shared a similar stance.
“We are united in our forceful opposition to the bills recently advanced by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,” Bowser, District Attorney General Brian Schwalb, and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said in a joint statement. “These bills are an affront to Home Rule and the principles of democracy and local self-governance on which this country was founded.”
The Home Rule Act of 1973 gave the District authority over its day-to-day affairs while still allowing Congress to block or overturn local laws.
Republican lawmakers said the root of violent crime in the District falls on the Democrats’ “political and ideological” decisions.
“Those decisions included passing and trying to lock in anti-police measures such as the Orwellian-named Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022, which undermined police morale, weakened officer retention, and contributed to a still-ongoing public safety disaster,” Clyde said.
The DC Police Union and the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Clyde’s measure.
“This new repeal effort is a critical step toward restoring common-sense law enforcement in our Nation’s Capital,” said Chairman of DC Police Union Gregg Pemberton in a statement. “The Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act has not reformed anything, it has enabled lawlessness, endangered officers and their families, and driven away the very professionals needed to keep D.C. safe.”
The Metropolitan Police Department did not issue its own position on the bill and instead referred Capital News Service to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s statement opposing the repeal.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where it would need to pass before heading to President Donald Trump’s desk. The Trump administration supports the bill.
“Together these bills would hold criminals accountable and empower law enforcement officers,” a White House position statement said. “Their reforms would help make America’s Federal city more safe, free and critically advance the President’s broader law and order agenda.”