President Trump ‘s announcement yesterday that he is federalizing the Washington D.C. police force and deploying the National Guard to fight crime and lawlessness in the nation’s capitol is drawing anger from some D.C. City Council members.

The move has also prompted Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) to call for Congress to repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act which grants residents of the District of Columbia the ability to self-govern by electing their own mayor and city council.

Lee is urging passage of the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act to repeal the Home Rule Act and to restore federal oversight over the District.

In a post on X, Lee shared a video clip of D.C. City Council members reacting with outrage to the president’s decision and accused them of tolerating “lawlessness and violent crime in the District of Columbia.

The president’s announcement about his plan to take control of public safety in the District follows a highly publicized attack last week on a former Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE) worker who was attacked and beaten by a mob in Washington’s Logan Circle.

President Trump invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act which gives the president emergency power to federalize D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department for “federal purposes” that he “may deem necessary and appropriate.”

That emergency control will expire in 30 days unless it is extended by the House and Senate enacting a joint resolution to extend it.

The move puts Attorney General Pam Bondi in charge of D.C.’s police force and seeks, in Trump’s words, “To rescue our nation’s capitol from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.”

Reaction among D.C. residents is mixed with some agreeing that crime has become an unavoidable problem yet also expressing concern over the prospect of National Guard troops patrolling the nation’s capitol.

On X, Senator Lee said, “The Constitution already federalizes D.C. We just need Congress to do its job — and reassert its lawmaking power over our nation’s capital city. My bill, the BOWSER Act, would do that.”