Democrats introduce bill to block Trump DC police takeover

A band of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation to thwart President Trump’s takeover of the Washington, D.C., police department, arguing the White House is exceeding its authority.

The resolution would terminate Trump’s Monday order, something the lawmakers say comes as “the President has concocted a false narrative around the city’s crime rates” which have been declining for two years, while violent crime has reached a 30-year-low.

“Under the D.C. Home Rule Act, Congress has given the president the power only to direct the Mayor to make the Metropolitan Police Department available for a specific federal purpose but has given him no power simply to take over the Department. In any event, there is no federal emergency justifying such a takeover even if Congress sought to use its lawmaking power to effectuate it,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.

“Trump has made clear that his efforts in D.C., where 700,000 taxpaying American citizens lack the protections of statehood, are part of a broader plan to militarize and federalize the streets of cities around America whose citizens voted against him,” Raskin added, calling it a “hostile takeover.”

Trump also sent National Guard troops to the nation’s capital, and tensions flared earlier in the week as officers set up checkpoints in the city.

The Trump administration on Thursday escalated its takeover of the Metropolitan Police  Department (MPD), with Attorney General Pam Bondi installing Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole as Washington’s “emergency police commissioner,” while rescinding policies that limited officers from taking policing actions purely for immigration enforcement purposes.

“President Trump’s incursions against D.C. are among the most egregious attacks on D.C. home rule in decades," Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said.

“Our local police force, paid for by D.C. residents, should not be subject to federalization, an action that wouldn’t be possible for any other police department in the country. No emergency exists in D.C. that the president did not create himself, and he is not using the D.C. police for federal purposes, as required by law.”

The legislation was co-sponsored by House Oversight ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) but cannot be taken up during the August recess. Once lawmakers return, it's unlikely the GOP-controlled body would bring the legislation to the floor.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) sponsored a companion bill in the Senate.

The lawmakers argue Trump’s police takeover is only the latest in a string of actions they say undermine effective governance of the city, including on crime, though D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) budget fully funded MPD.

Earlier this year, Congress failed to include in its stopgap funding bill language that would allow D.C. to continue spending its local budget at fiscal 2025 levels — restricting $1 billion in city coffers.

“While Trump claims that federal control of D.C. is necessary to combat crime, the President’s own actions are what is jeopardizing public safety in the District. He and his allies in Congress refuse to allow the District to access the $1 billion in locally-raised revenue that would have funded D.C. police, fire and emergency response services, and other public safety efforts,” the lawmakers said in a joint release.

“He fired and demoted dozens of D.C.’s most experienced career prosecutors, contributing to a larger backlog of criminal cases being held up in court and longer wait times for crime victims to obtain justice.”  

Van Hollen said Trump was absent when D.C. “actually needed support from the National Guard” on Jan. 6. 

“His current takeover is an abuse of power and nothing more than a raw power grab,” he said in a statement.

“The District of Columbia has made important progress on public safety in recent years, and can do more if Trump and House Republicans get the hell out of their way and stop blocking D.C. from accessing $1 billion of its own funds to strengthen policing and provide other public services.”