Democrats divided as Congress stops D.C. crime bill
What happened
Congress blocked Washington, D.C.’s controversial Revised Criminal Code Act this week, as Democrats sought to balance support for D.C. home rule with fears of being seen as soft on crime. The bill had become a flashpoint in debates over crime, and an increasing number of Senate Democrats voiced opposition. President Biden said that he would not veto efforts to reverse it, breaking with the party’s history of supporting D.C.’s self-determination. With homicides up 40 percent and carjackings increasing, opponents argued this is not the time for revamping a 122-year-old code by reducing sentences for violent crimes. Even D.C.’s Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser, vetoed the bill. The D.C. Council overrode her veto, but last month, 31 House Democrats joined Republicans in voting to overturn the bill, and the Senate was expected to follow suit. “I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule,” President Biden tweeted, “but I don’t support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections—such as lowering penalties for carjackings.”
The D.C. bill aimed to modernize an archaic document, making penalties more consistent, eliminating almost all mandatory minimums, and giving judges the ability to enhance sentences by stacking charges. It would go into effect in 2025, but Bowser has suggested revisions that include delaying it to 2027. Despite concerns about the code, she condemned Senate intervention for infringing on the right of D.C. residents to make their own decisions. “Until we are the 51st state,” she said, “we live with that indignity.”
What the columnists said
“If Democrats really believed in D.C. home rule, they would not be debating the merits of this bill,” said Mark Joseph Stern in Slate. The first time since 1991 that Congress has exercised its power to block D.C. legislation, this “sets an extraordinarily dangerous precedent.” Democrats are only doing it “for cynical political reasons,” but Biden’s decision “will, perversely, make the District less safe.” He and Congress “are telling D.C. residents that we are not allowed to protect our communities by enacting a criminal code that is coherent and consistent enough to work in the real world.”
This debate is “exposing a deep fissure right down the middle of the Democratic Party,” said Jim Geraghty in National Review. Turning aside demands that he stand by D.C. home rule, Biden has left progressives “hanging out to dry.” But with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot losing re-election after being perceived as soft on crime, it’s clear voters are worried about violence. Biden made the right decision, even if it caused his party to “melt down.”
“Despite our grave concerns about the law, it shouldn’t have come to this,” said The Washington Post in an editorial. District leaders “should have acted on their own,” but “now that the city is in this regrettable place,” it has an opportunity to prove that safety and home rule aren’t “incompatible values.” The council should “go back to the drawing board” and write a new code that doesn’t reduce sentences. It’s “what their constituents want.”