Congress Wants to Block New D.C. Criminal Laws: Too Soft, They Say

On the morning of the last day of February at Columbia Heights in D.C., sirens were wailing on the 14th and Meridian Place, NW. One incident happened in the area around 11:30 p.m. on Monday night, and police were involved in a shooting. According to the DC Police Department’s Twitter, Police shot at a suspect who was said to be armed, and the suspect fled, shot, and killed himself. On its Twitter account, “Assistant Chief Parsons provides an update on the officer-involved shooting in the 1400 block of Park Road NW.” Additional information is not yet available.

Recent Criminal code reformation in DC is bringing more attention to the lawmakers in the Capitol. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the House said that “D.C.’s radical local government” has failed to control crime in the city. According to DCist.com, Congress blocked the bill from taking effect.

“The D.C. Council has responded to the crime wave, listen to this, with a new bill to make the city even softer on crime. It lowers maximum penalties for violent crimes and creates new ways to shorten the sentences of incarcerated felons. Well, the good news is the Constitution actually gives the Congress final say over issues in our nation’s capital,” Rep. McConnell added.

“When the soft-on-crime local government has become this completely incompetent when members of Congress cannot go about their daily lives without being attacked and families cannot come [to] visit our Capitol in safety, then it’s about time our federal government provides some adult supervision,” he added.

United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said on February 14 about this bill,

“Carjackings have increased consecutively five years year over year. In the past three years, the number of carjackings in the District of Columbia has tripled. Homicides— 200 homicides in the past two years. And today, in February, we’re running 20 percent ahead of where we were last year in terms of the number of homicides committed here in the District of Columbia. Sexual abuse is up 82 percent, motor vehicle theft [is] up 96 percent, and property theft, in general, is up 19 percent.

I implore my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join this effort. Let’s send our resolution of disapproval to President [Joe] Biden’s desk. I can’t believe that President Biden wants to encourage more crime here in the District of Columbia. Combating crime should not be a Republican or a Democrat issue— it should be a commonsense issue, a bipartisan issue.” The House passed this resolution and it will be debated and voted on the Senate floor in early March, according to Sen. Hagerty’s office website.

Both chambers are working to block D.C. City Council from implementing the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 (RCCA) from taking effect, considering the laws within to be too liberal and too “dangerous.”

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