US capital withdraws criminal justice reform bill

The Washington, DC, city council has issued a letter to the United States Senate to withdraw controversial legislation that raises questions about criminal justice reform and the US capital’s ability to govern itself.

The Senate was expected this week to vote down the bill, which includes a suite of changes to overhaul the city’s local criminal code. The US Constitution grants Congress oversight over the capital’s legislation.

“It’s clear that Congress is intending to override that legislation,” Phil Mendelson, the chairman of Washington’s city council, told reporters at a legislative press conference on Monday. “My letter – just as I transmit bills for their review – withdraws from consideration the review.”

The city’s Democrat-led council passed the reforms in November.

Among the changes approved was the elimination or lowering of mandatory minimum sentences for certain violent crimes, a move that proponents hoped would help address issues like mass incarceration and racial bias in the justice system.

But with crime emerging as a pivotal election issue this year, congressional Republicans and some Democrats have criticised the reforms as evidence that the city is “soft on crime”.

During Monday’s press conference, Mendelson said withdrawing the legislation “means that the clock stops” on any congressional consideration of the reforms.

“This will enable the council to work on the measure in light of congressional comments and to retransmit it later,” he said. “I will say I don’t know that that will stop the Senate Republicans, but our position is that the bill is not before Congress any longer.”

President Joe Biden had signalled last week that, while he supports “DC statehood and home rule”, he would not intervene to stop Congress from overturning the city’s reforms.

“If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did – I’ll sign it,” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday.