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Senate Republicans have updated their push to federalize Washington, DC following attacks on former government efficiency (DOGE) staff and threats from President Donald Trump.
Senator R-Utah has long sought Washington’s control to Congress, introducing oversight and safety oversight to all residents (Bowser) Act, named after Mayor DC Muriel Bowser, and has long sought Washington’s control to combat district crime.
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The bill Lee introduced alongside Rep. Andy Ogles has not escaped from the committee since it was cancelled in February. But Trump’s highlights of his offense against former clumsy staffer Edward Colistine, also known as “big ball,” revived the debate.
“The Constitution already federalizes DC,” Lee said in X. “The mere need of Parliament to do its job will reaffirm the power of the law over the country’s capital.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Lee for further comment.
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Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah. arrives for Senate Republican leadership elections at Capitol on November 13, 2024 (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Lee’s bill effectively repeals the District of Columbia Home Rules Act, a law passed in the 1970s that established the city council and mayor and reduced the amount of oversight the council had on the city and its issues.
However, over the years, there has been an increasing number of calls by lawmakers to increase the oversight of Congress. This focuses heavily on concerns over the rise in crime and criticism of district attempts to rewrite criminal law.
And Trump also jumped into the discourse. “If DC doesn’t put that action together, they have no choice but to quickly take control of the city’s federal government,” he threatened.
“It would have probably been that long ago that this incredible young man, and many other young people, had to go through the horrors of violent crime,” Trump told Truth Social, his social media platform. “If this continues, I will put my strength into my own way and federalize this city.”
Fox News contacted the Bowser office for comment but did not immediately respond.
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DC Mayor Muriel Bowser will speak at a press conference on Capitol Hill, Washington on March 10, 2025 (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former prosecutor, told Fox News Digital in the past that DC Council has pushed “policies that have made it more difficult for prosecutors to do their jobs and keep their citizens safe.”
For several years, Bowser and the DC Council have been working to update the district’s criminal law. But the code change that significantly lowered the verdicts of various crimes initially rejected by Bowser was a cliff where Congress and former President Joe Biden became law before he over-restrained reforms.
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Smith means that Congress still has the power to legislate the district, meaning that lawmakers and the federal government are “still backstops,” and that both Trump and Lee are right to “seeks to reassess the district’s status.”
“That’s why Congress was able to reverse the proposal to radically rewrite the criminal law,” he said. “So what the Bowser Act actually does is, if we remove the home rules, it will essentially change the way local DC government functions.
“I think there’s a broad and bipartisan consensus in some respects that DC’s current system is not functioning in nature,” he continued.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital, which covers the US Senate.
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