On Monday, Washington, D.C., Council chairman Phil Mendelson wrote to the U.S. Senate attempting to withdraw the widely-criticized D.C. crime bill before the Senate has the chance to vote on a disapproval resolution that would block the bill.
Last month, the council overrode D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser’s veto to push through the bill, which would have lightened penalties for crimes such as carjackings and burglaries. Since then, Republicans have shepherded legislation to block the bill in both chambers, as D.C. laws must be approved by Congress.
Thirty-one House Democrats joined Republicans in overturning the criminal-code rewrite last month. With the Senate poised to follow this week, President Joe Biden signaled he would sign a Senate bill overturning the rewrite.
“I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule – 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,” explained Biden in a tweet.
Biden’s announcement angered congressional Democrats who voted against the disapproval resolution and believed Biden would ultimately veto it given his commitment to D.C. self-governance.
In a news conference Monday, Mendelson conceded defeat, blaming the “demagogic rhetoric” he said crime lends itself to.
“It’s quite clear to me that the headwinds that have prevailed in Congress are about the politics of next year’s election and not about the substance of what is in the criminal code,” explained Mendelson. “The fact is the criminal code has hit the headwinds, which is why I pulled it back.”
Mendelson did not know if that would stop the Senate from voting to overturn the legislation.
“I don’t know if that’ll stop the Senate Republicans, but our position is the bill is not before Congress any longer,” Mendelson said.
“I think just pulling it back and assessing what the next step is and looking at some of the issues, explaining better what the legislation does and does not do…will take some time,” he added, explaining he does not expect it will be transmitted to Congress again quickly.
Mendelson said there was nothing in the Home Rule Act that prevents him from withdrawing the crime bill.
Senator Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.), who sponsored the disapproval resolution, fired back against Mendelson’s reasoning, calling it a “made-up maneuver [that] not only has no basis in the DC Home Rule Act, but underscores the completely unserious way the Council has legislated.”
“No matter how hard they try, the Council cannot avoid accountability for passing this dangerous soft-on-crime bill,” Hagerty added.
Additionally, a Senate leadership aide told the Washington Post on condition of anonymity that Mendelson’s move would not prevent the Senate from voting.
“Not only does the statute not allow for a withdrawal of a transmission, but at this point the Senate Republican privileged motion will be acting on the House disapproval resolution, rather than the DC Council’s transmission to the Senate. We still expect the vote to occur,” the aide said.