Fast-Track Procedures Spell End of DC Crime Bill

Summary:

• The veto of the DC crime bill is possible because of House & Senate Rules embedded into DC Home Rule Act, one of 36 laws having them.

• Sect. 604 of the Act has “shot clock” for committees to report, and the motion to proceed is “highly privileged and not debatable” = filibuster immunity.

• The DC Home Rule Act allows Congress to decide more quickly the fate of the municipal laws of the District because of expedited parliamentary procedures.

• This stands in stark contrast with most other legislation where parliamentary process yields deliberately slow and careful consideration.?

Crime Home Rule & Fast-Track Parliamentary Procedures

George Robb Rogers

March 3, 2023

DC Metro Police stats show 1,049 cars have been stolen in the first two months of 2023, an 111% increase over 2022. While some categories of crime are lower, homicides are up by 25% and sex abuse by 108%. In most communities across America, a spike in crime would fall on the mayor, the chief of police, and the city council to fix. Washington, DC is unlike any other city in America because the fate of its laws falls to the Congress and the President. Soon the city will witness a crime bill passed, vetoed, and overridden by city leaders that is considered by Congress under rarely used “fast track” procedures.

The District has been regulated in one form or another by Congress for most of the nation’s history. Indeed, the District did not have the power to participate in the Electoral College until the states ratified the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution in time for the Presidential election of 1964. Subsequently in 1973, Congress enacted the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which restored local government to the District but retained Congressional approval and veto powers over its budget and laws.

The District City Council recently passed sweeping changes to its criminal code, which Mayor Bowser vetoed, saying the “bill does not make us safer.” Yet the DC City Council overrode her veto. Now under the DC Home Rule Act, the Congress has triggered “fast track” procedures putting the matter directly in front of the Congress and potentially the President.

In 1981, the House voted on a bipartisan basis to disapprove of a revision of the DC criminal code, while in 1987, it voted to table the disapproval of another change to the DC criminal code. In both cases, the proponents of the disapproval resolutions discussed their concerns with reducing the sentences of convicted criminals.

For the first time since 2015, the House passed a disapproval of a District law.?By a vote of 250-173, the House adopted H.J. Res. 26, Disapproving the action of the District of Columbia Council in approving the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022. While the Republican-held House may pass many measures that go to a legislative graveyard in the Democratic-controlled Senate, the H.J. Res. 26 will get a vote in the Senate because of parliamentary rules embedded within the DC Home Rule Act.

These procedures provide for privileged action that expedites committee and floor consideration of resolutions of disapproval. The DC Home Rule Act is not unique in these fast-track provisions. The House Rules and Manual lists 36 laws containing these expedited legislative procedures, ranging from the "Congressional Review of Agency Rulemaking" to "War Powers Resolutions." In a high-profile recent usage, the Congress used “fast track” reconciliation procedures to pass the Inflation Reduction Act.

Section 604 of the DC Home Rule Act provides the fast-track procedures, including:

(1)???mandatory referral to the committees, rather than holding at the desk;

(2)???20-calendar day “shot clocks” for committees to report;

(3)???highly privileged discharge provisions if committees do not act; and

(4)???the motion to proceed to consideration of the resolution is “highly privileged and is not debatable.”?This means the resolution is immune to filibusters in the Senate.

With only a 51-vote requirement in the Senate, it is very possible the resolution will be sent to the President. After all, 31 House Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the resolution in the House. At the Democratic retreat in Baltimore, and subsequently by tweet, the President has indicated he will sign the measure if presented to him. At time of writing, it appears several Democratic Senators will vote for the measure. The President may have angered some Progressives, but he is providing cover for many more Democratic Senators to vote for the joint resolution. With crime in DC spiking, now is not the time for sweeping criminal code changes that Bowser says will not make the nation’s Capitol safer.

The city of Washington D.C. is unique in the limitations on power of its city leaders. The DC Home Rule Act allows Congress to decide more quickly the fate of the municipal laws of the District because of expedited parliamentary procedures. This stands in stark contrast with most other legislation where parliamentary process yields deliberately slow and careful consideration.?This session, the public will get a rare opportunity to see this process play out to its constitutional conclusion.

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