The following statement is from DC Councilmember Charles Allen (Ward 6) as the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recessed before voting on 14 bills later tonight, weakening or repealing DC’s local laws and self-governance.

“Today, over the course of six hours and counting, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is headed toward advancing 14 bills to weaken or outright repeal DC’s local laws. These bills are uninformed and will make us less safe.

If they are advanced – either standalone or in other measures - they will literally upend our current criminal justice system, including by removing our locally-elected independent Attorney General and installing a hand-picked Trump proxy. The bills will increase recidivism by eliminating proven opportunities for second chances that make us safer. They will tie the hands of our Chief of Police in holding her officers accountable for serious misconduct and allow officers to violate residents’ individual liberties and undermine criminal cases through wide-ranging searches and seizures. They will continue the failed policies of the past by reinstating the extreme sentencing practices – particularly for children and young people – that the U.S. Supreme Court itself has found unconstitutional. And the bills will allow the President to directly install his picks for local judges by repealing our independent nominating commission, further attempting to cement the President’s anti-democratic control over the District’s branches of government.

The Committee’s actions today are not about safety, or the Members would not be so willing to jeopardize the significant gains the District has made in driving down crime while these very laws have been on the books. Their actions are about power, control, and installing an authoritarian regime in the Nation’s Capital – all to justify the President’s staggering abuse of the federal government’s authority against US cities he perceives to be “against him.”

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is one of the most powerful in the US House of Representatives. With its investigative and oversight powers, it serves as a check on egregious federal government overreach. Instead, the Committee is attempting to stand in for a local Mayor and legislature. The Committee and Congress should use their authority to improve safety in DC by:

• Conducting oversight on any number of authoritarian actions by the federal government, including whether masked agents are detaining residents without warrants or due process, and the cost to federal taxpayers of armed members of the National Guard occupying DC streets and parks with long guns and trash grabbers;
  
  
• Ending the firings of federal workers and contractors, who stand up our regional economy;
  
  
• Confirming qualified judges for the DC Courts, which will reduce case backlogs and ensure justice for victims and the accused;
  
  
• Stabilizing and properly resourcing the US Attorney’s Office for DC and increasing case papering rates for serious crimes;
  
  
• Stopping illegal guns from flowing across our borders from source states like Georgia and the Carolinas; and
  
  
• Improving federal agencies’ supervision and conditions of incarceration of people in the justice system under their jurisdiction.”