The House passed two bills to repeal policies set by the Washington, D.C., Council dealing with noncitizens voting in local elections and police reform that made it easier to fire officers in the district.

Congressional Republicans’ efforts to overturn the D.C. policies come after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March that established the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force to monitor Washington’s sanctuary status and compliance with federal immigration law.

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The Protecting Our Nation’s Capital Emergency Act passed 235 – 178, with 30 Democrats voting yes and 4 Republicans voting no, to repeal some changes from the D.C. Council’s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act that aimed at improving accountability and transparency with D.C. police through prohibiting the use of neck restraints, increasing access to body camera footage, and revising officer disciplinary procedures. These changes make it easier to fire officers for misconduct. 

The second bill, which passed 266-148, with 56 Democrats voting for it, bars noncitizens from voting in the district’s elections, an issue that has been a high priority for Republicans over the last year. The SAVE Act, which has been part of this initiative, passed the House last Congress and again in April of this year. It prohibits noncitizens from voting in U.S. elections, but is unlikely to pass the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold. 

“The right to vote is a defining privilege of American citizenship,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said on the House floor during the one hour of debate on the bill.

When talking about the bill to bar noncitizens from voting in local D.C. elections, Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) told the Washington Examiner that “common sense should prevail” during the vote. 

Democrats were divided over whether to support the bill to bar noncitizens from voting; however, those opposed to the legislation argued the district’s policy does not impede federal law and advocated for D.C. to be granted statehood. 

“The DC law does not allow noncitizens to vote in federal elections, which is a crime under federal law,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) argued during the allotted one hour of debate on the House floor. 

“Republicans have fought tooth and nail to defeat legislation that would give the American citizens who reside in D.C. voting representation in the House and the Senate,” Frost later added. “We of course continued to push for D.C. statehood.”

While the Protecting Our Nation’s Capital Emergency Act also received some bipartisan support, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) expressed her opposition to the legislation, saying that the bill “has its facts wrong.”

“This bill says it is necessary to combat rising violent crime in D.C. and to improve the retention and recruitment of D.C. police officers,” she said in remarks on the House floor. “This bill has its facts wrong. Last year, violent crime in D.C. reached a more than 30-year low. This year, violent crime in D.C. is down 22% compared to the same period last year. Police departments throughout the country, in both red and blue states, are struggling to retain and recruit officers, and they have been for many years.”

HOUSE GOP PLANS VOTES ON DC, BUT NOT THE ONE WASHINGTONIANS WANT

While these bills just passed the House, Senate-passed legislation has still yet to be picked up by House GOP leadership to reverse the over $1 billion cut in D.C.’s budget. The stopgap bill passed earlier this year, to avert a government shutdown, reverted the city to its 2024 budget until Congress finishes its next appropriations process. Leadership has not indicated when it will take up the funding fix. 

A third bill is headed for the House floor Thursday to require the district to comply with all immigration laws from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and remove the city’s sanctuary jurisdiction laws.