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The House on Wednesday approved two bills addressing crime in the District of Columbia, including one that would give President Donald Trump the power to nominate local judges and another that would allow police to pursue fleeing suspects.
The District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Reform Act, sponsored by Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, eliminates the city’s Judicial Nomination Commission and transfers full nomination authority to the president. The measure passed 218-211 along party lines.
The District of Columbia Policing Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., repeals 2022 restrictions passed by the D.C. Council that limited police vehicle pursuits. It passed 245-182, with 29 Democrats joining Republicans.
“The current system, where the president is restricted to nominating only those candidates put forward by the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission, inappropriately limits the president’s authority,” said House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.
The measures were strongly opposed by Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., the district’s nonvoting delegate. In a statement on Wednesday, she called the legislation “anti-D.C. home rule bills.”
“Congress has 535 voting members,” Norton said on the House floor. “None are elected by D.C. residents. If D.C. residents do not like how members vote on local D.C. matters, residents cannot vote them out of office or pass a ballot measure. That is the antithesis of democracy.”
The House passed two additional crime bills on Tuesday. They included the D.C. Crimes Act, which lowers the age of a youth offender from 24 to 18, and the D.C. Juvenile Sentencing Reform Act, which lowers the age at which juveniles accused of certain violent crimes can be tried as adults from 16 to 14.
The series of votes came after Trump placed the Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and deployed National Guard troops in the capital, citing the need to curb violent crime.
The National Guard remains in Washington after Mayor Muriel Bowser signed an executive order permitting cooperation between local police and federal forces through November. While violent crime in the city fell 35 percent in 2024 compared with 2023, levels remain higher than in many other large U.S. cities.
