The House passed two D.C. crime bills on Wednesday that would give President Donald Trump the sole authority to nominate local judges and allow officers to pursue fleeing suspects.
The District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Reform Act, introduced by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), would eliminate the District’s Judicial Nomination Commission, in turn giving the power to the president. The District of Columbia Policing Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), would allow the Metropolitan Police Department to make vehicular pursuits of suspects by repealing restrictions that were established by the D.C. Council in 2022.
The first bill passed with bipartisan support 218-211 along party lines, while the second bill passed 245-182, with 29 Democrats voting with all Republicans.
“The current system, where the president is restricted to nominating only those candidates put forward by the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission, inappropriately limits the president’s authority,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said on the House floor Wednesday.
Both bills are opposed by Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), a nonvoting delegate for the District of Columbia. In a Wednesday press release, she called them “anti-D.C. home rule bills” and urged her colleagues to vote “no” when she spoke on the floor ahead of the votes.
“Congress has 535 voting members,” Holmes Norton said. “None are elected by D.C. residents. If D.C. residents do not like how members vote on local D.C. matters, residents cannot vote them out of office or pass a ballot measure. That is the antithesis of democracy.”
“The substance of this bill is irrelevant, since there is never justification for Congress to legislate on local D.C. matters. Nevertheless, I will discuss it,” she continued.
The House passed two separate bills related to D.C. crime a day earlier with some bipartisan support: the D.C. Crimes Act and the D.C. Juvenile Sentencing Reform Act. The first bill would lower the age of a youth offender in Washington from 24 to 18 and require criminal sentencing to be at least as long as the mandatory minimums for adults. The second bill would lower the age at which children who are accused of certain violent crimes can be tried as adults from 16 to 14.
HOUSE PASSES BILLS OVERHAULING YOUTH PROSECUTION IN DC
The bills came to the floor after Trump placed the Metropolitan Police Department “under direct federal control” and deployed National Guard troops in the capital to reduce crime. Alongside the federalization of the DC police force, Comer announced his committee would investigate allegations that Metropolitan police leadership “deliberately” manipulated crime data. The committee is requesting documents, information, and transcribed interviews with District Commander Michael Pulliam and the District Commanders of all seven patrol districts.
The National Guard remains deployed in the district after Mayor Muriel Bowser signed an executive order approving cooperation between local police and federal forces through the end of November, though Trump’s window to federalize the local police has expired.
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The crime legislation that passed Tuesday is part of a larger batch that the House Oversight Committee marked up last week. Comer will again focus on D.C. crime on Thursday when Bowser and other local officials are slated to testify before his panel.
Local crime statistics have shown a decrease in violent crime since 2023, down 35% in 2024 from 2023. But city crime remains higher than many other major cities.
