A bipartisan House voted Thursday to block the District of Columbia’s new plan to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, with lawmakers saying the city was crossing dangerous lines in trying to expand its pool of voters.

Washington is the latest big city to try to grant voting rights to noncitizens, but its plan goes further than the others, allowing virtually anyone — including potentially Russian or Chinese diplomats — to vote in city affairs.

“These elections can set the laws that cover the White House, Congress, and even government agencies. If we set this precedent other cities will follow, and faith in our elections will plummet,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican.

The 260-162 vote to slap down the District was bipartisan, with more than 40 Democrats joining the GOP.

So was a second vote minutes later to derail a rewrite of Washington’s criminal laws, reducing maximum sentences for some major crimes. The House voted 250-173 to stop that legislation, with more than 30 Democrats linking arms with Republicans.

Both measures would still need approval by the Senate and the signature of President Biden to halt the District’s plans.

The White House has signaled Mr. Biden’s opposition, saying Congress should butt out and let the city manage its own affairs.

Republicans said Congress has generally taken a hands-off approach to the nation’s capital, but they said when the city veers this far into radical experiments the feds must pump the brakes.

“Congress does not act on D.C. legislation unless it is absolutely necessary,” said Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, which has jurisdiction over the District.

The voting bill would grant the ballot to those who have resided in the city for at least 30 days ahead of an election, and who are not also registered in another state, territory or country. There is no requirement that someone have a legal presence.

They can cast ballots in city elections such as for mayor or school board but are in theory not supposed to vote in federal elections.

Republicans doubted the city will be able to manage two different sets of voting rolls, so they feared noncitizens will end up voting in federal races too. And analysts said it will be hard to verify whether someone is already registered in another country.

That opens the door to foreign diplomats voting.

“This bill is an insult to the residents of D.C., particularly its black voters, who struggled in the civil rights movement to achieve the ability to vote. Yet this bill will dilute the value of their votes by allowing foreigners to vote,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission and now a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

The Washington Times reached out but did not hear back from D.C. Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau, a Democrat and the chief sponsor of the city’s legislation, for comment.

Allowing noncitizens the right to vote has become a surprising and contentious battleground in recent years.

While the practice was common in the 19th century, it died out in the 20th century, and indeed a federal law now requires that only citizens vote in federal races.

Several states have recently adopted provisions barring noncitizen voting, with Louisiana and Ohio acting late last year.

On the other side of the debate, Takoma Park in Maryland has allowed noncitizen voting in its local races for decades, and other small jurisdictions in Maryland have followed suit.

In recent years, bigger cities have also become interested. San Francisco and Oakland have both adopted policies allowing noncitizen voting in school matters, and New York City attempted a noncitizen voting policy but it has been blocked by a state court.

The jurisdictions that have conducted elections with noncitizen voters say interest from those populations has generally been low.

But the District would represent the most expansive experiment yet, with an estimated 50,000 potential noncitizen voters casting ballots in all manner of local elections.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser didn’t support the city’s new voting plan. It cleared the city council and was submitted to Congress without her signature.

Ms. Bowser also opposed the new crime law, but the council overrode her veto.

That proposal would cut maximum sentences for serious crimes. The penalty for illegal possession of a gun would drop from 15 years to four years, Ms. Bowser said.

Backers counter that maximum sentences are rarely given out and the new penalties align more closely with sentences judges actually deliver. Backers also say the new code allows prosecutors more opportunity to stack charges together, so the potential penalty for any given incident might be higher under the new plan.

That puts more power in the hands of those prosecutors to decide how tough — or lenient — to be.

“You can’t call D.C. soft on crime,” said Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat and the city’s non-voting member of Congress.

On Capitol Hill, those nuances were lost in a more blunt debate, with Republicans accusing the city of dangerous social experiments and Democrats saying the GOP was picking on the heavily Democratic city for no good reason.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat whose home stands just yards from the boundary with the District, pointed out that Bakersfield, in Mr. McCarthy’s California district, has a higher crime rate than Washington.

And he said the crime bill’s sponsor, Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde, defended people in the mob that invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Now he dares to lecture the people of Washington, D.C., about keeping Washington, D.C., safe,” Mr. Raskin said.

He also complained about the unique situation that gives Congress the power to block D.C. legislation.

That stems from the city’s status as the federal district envisioned in the Constitution for the seat of the national government. It wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that D.C. residents gained the power to vote in presidential elections, and it wasn’t until the 1970s that the city had its own elected mayor.

Congress retains the power of review over legislation that clears the city council and can stop something from becoming law through an affirmative vote.

Mr. Raskin said for both the crime and voting rights bills, Congress should grant the District statehood, or at the very least butt out of its attempts at home rule.

“We are headed now for a mini culture war between the dominant MAGA wing of the Republican Conference today and the people of the District of Columbia,” he said.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.