McCollum Votes on D.C. Home Rule legislation (H.R. 884, H.R. 2056, H.R. 2096)

This week the Republican Majority in the House of Representatives decided that they know better than the residents of the District of Columbia what their local government needs. 

All Members of Congress are sent here by our constituents to represent their interests, and to vote on matters of federal importance. We aren’t sent here to rule on specific local ordinances or funding decisions made by the cities and counties in any of our districts. Yet Republicans have brought three bills to the floor—H.R. 884, H.R. 2056, and H.R. 2096—to do exactly that. They want to tell the District of Columbia’s 700,000 residents that the laws and policies they have voted for, and that were crafted by their local elected officials, are null and void. 

Mr. Speaker, none of us ran for or were elected to serve as D.C. City Council members. I’ve been a city council member. It’s a very different job, with a direct line of responsibility to the residents who elect you to deal with everything from potholes to public safety. That local representation and local responsiveness is a key part of our democracy, and Republicans are proposing to strip that local self-governance away from the residents of the District of Columbia. 

If Republicans want to take steps to address an issue with national importance, they can bring forward a bill that enforces it nationally. I will not vote for these attempts to decide those issues for a single district at the local level, whether in the District of Columbia or in the districts of any Member here.

One of the bills before us this week, H.R. 884, would repeal D.C.’s local law that allows noncitizens to vote in local elections. I have serious concerns with allowing noncitizens who do not hold a green card to vote in local elections, but this is the wrong way to go about addressing that. I voted present because I can’t support repealing a local D.C. law, but I do support having a conversation about how we define voter eligibility nationwide. 

I voted No on H.R. 2096, the Protecting Our Nation’s Capital Emergency Act, because it would repeal part of a local D.C. law to give the police department increased authority to address incidents of serious misconduct and discipline officers. I voted No on H.R. 2056 because we shouldn’t be nullifying a local law to tell an individual police department where they must divert their resources and how they can best serve their community, including residents who are immigrants. 

Mr. Speaker, I respect the will of D.C. residents to shape their local government through their local elections, and that is why I will not support H.R. 2096, H.R. 2056 or H.R. 884.

I yield back.