Norton Statement After Rep. Ogles Announces Bill to Allow President to Extend Federalization of D.C. Police Indefinitely

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) announced that he would introduce a bill to amend the Home Rule Act to allow the president to extend the federalization of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) indefinitely, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said, “Rep. Ogles’ bill is another in a series of extreme attacks on D.C. home rule. His strange and unseemly fixation on bullying D.C., a District of more than 700,000 Americans who must tolerate daily intrusions because of their geographic proximity to the federal government, is unacceptable and disgraceful to D.C. and to the Congress where he and I are both members. His bill would allow indefinite federal seizure of D.C.’s local police, which is funded by local D.C. tax dollars. 

“D.C. pays more federal taxes per capita than any state and more federal taxes overall than 19 states, while being denied the same voting representation in Congress or full local self-government accorded to residents of the 50 states. I will do everything in my power to block this bill’s progress and passage and prevent D.C. from suffering additional indignities at the hands of the federal government.”

President Trump federalized the D.C. Police for the first time in history this week and deployed the D.C. National Guard under the auspices of a crime emergency, despite data showing violent crime in D.C. reached a more than 30-year low in 2024 and is down 26 percent this year compared to the same period last year. Republicans have introduced bills in both chambers of Congress to repeal the Home Rule Act, which aim to abolish the D.C. Council and Mayor’s office, and would leave D.C. to depend on members of Congress elected by other jurisdictions to control the District.

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