Norton Highlights Biden Administration Statement Opposing D.C. CRIMES Act on House Floor Today, D.C. Officials’ Opposition to the Bill, Releases Floor Remarks

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) highlighted the Biden Administration’s Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) opposing the D.C. CRIMES Act, which the House is considering today. The SAP stated that the bill was “a counterproductive and destructive invasion of the District’s right to self-governance and would impede public safety and crime reduction.” D.C.’s three top local elected officials, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, and Attorney General Brian Schwalb, also oppose the bill.

“Thank you, President Biden, for your strong statement opposing the radical, undemocratic and paternalistic bill on the House floor today,” Norton said. “The bill, introduced by a member of Congress who was not elected by D.C. residents, would remove D.C.’s ability to increase criminal penalties for violations of its own local laws. It could even be construed to prevent D.C. from creating any new crimes in the future, impeding the District’s ability to respond to new threats. And thank you to D.C.’s local officials for supporting home rule.

“The bill is an egregious violation of D.C. residents’ right to self-governance, and as the Biden Administration rightly states, it highlights why D.C. needs statehood.”

Norton is expected to speak on the House floor today at approximately 4:15 p.m. opposing the bill. Her floor remarks follow, as prepared for delivery.

Floor Statement of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton

H.R. 7530, the DC CRIMES Act of 2024

May 15, 2024

I strongly oppose this radical, undemocratic and paternalistic bill, as do the three top local elected District of Columbia officials: Mayor Muriel Bowser, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb.  I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record their joint letter opposing this bill.

Before I discuss the substance of this bill, I want to discuss democracy, and the lack of it in D.C.  D.C. residents, who have all the obligations of American citizenship, have no voting representation in Congress, and Congress has the ultimate say on local D.C. matters.

While my Republican colleagues are correct that Congress has the constitutional authority to legislate on local D.C. matters, their assertion that Congress has a constitutional duty to do so is wrong.  Legislating on local D.C. matters is a choice.  As the Supreme Court held in 1953, “there is no constitutional barrier to the delegation by Congress to the District of Columbia of full legislative power.”

D.C.’s local legislature, the Council, has 13 members.  The members are elected by D.C. residents.  If D.C. residents do not like how the members vote, they can vote them out of office.  That is called democracy.

Congress has 535 voting members.  The members are elected by residents of their states.  None are elected by D.C. residents.  If D.C. residents do not like how the members vote on local D.C. matters, they cannot vote them out of office.  That is the anthesis of democracy.

The merits of this bill should be irrelevant, since there is never justification for Congress legislating on local D.C. matters.  However, I will discuss this bill.

This bill would be the biggest rollback of D.C. self-government in a generation.  This bill says the D.C. Council may not “enact any act, resolution, or rule to change any criminal liability sentence in effect on the date of the enactment of the DC CRIMES Act of 2024.”  This provision, which does not define the term criminal liability sentence, is as poorly drafted as it is offensive.  It takes away D.C.’s authority to increase or decrease statutory criminal penalties.  If D.C. wanted to increase penalties for violent crime, it could not do so.  This bill could even be construed to prevent D.C. from establishing any new crimes at all.

This bill also reduces the maximum age of eligibility for D.C.’s Youth Rehabilitation Amendment Act of 1985.  D.C. is not the only jurisdiction to have such a so-called young adult offender law.  Alabama, Florida, Michigan, New York, South Carolina and Vermont have such laws.  The sponsor of this bill is from one of those six states.

The Revolutionary War was fought to give consent to the governed and to end taxation without representation.  Yet, D.C. residents cannot consent to any action taken by Congress and pay full federal taxes.  Indeed, D.C. pays more federal taxes per capita than any state and more total federal taxes than 20 states.

If House Republicans cared about democratic principles or D.C. residents, they would bring to the floor my D.C. statehood bill, H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would give D.C. residents voting representation in Congress and full local self-government.  Congress has the constitutional authority to admit the State of Washington, D.C.  It simply lacks the will.

The nearly 700,000 D.C. residents, a majority of whom are Black and Brown, are worthy and capable of self-government.

I urge members to vote NO on this bill and to keep their hands off D.C.

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