[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 143 (Tuesday, September 2, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E802]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA POLICE HOME RULE ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 2, 2025

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the District of Columbia 
Police Home Rule Act, which would repeal section 740 of the District of 
Columbia Home Rule Act (HRA). Section 740 allows the president, in the 
case of an emergency, to direct the D.C. mayor to provide the president 
the services of D.C.'s police department, the Metropolitan Police 
Department (MPD), for federal purposes. Senator Chris Van Hollen is the 
sponsor of this bill in the Senate.
  Under the HRA, ``whenever the President . . . determines that special 
conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the 
MPD for Federal purposes, he may direct the Mayor to provide him, and 
the Mayor shall provide, such services of the MPD as the President may 
deem necessary and appropriate'' for 30 days, unless Congress 
terminates or extends the emergency declaration.
  On August 11, 2025, President Trump declared a crime emergency in 
D.C. pursuant to section 740, even though violent crime reached a more 
than 30-year low in D.C. in 2024 and is down 27 percent this year 
compared to the same period last year. President Trump is the first 
president to invoke section 740, but his invocation is unlawful. While 
one crime is too many, there is no emergency or federal purpose that 
allowed President Trump to invoke section 740.
  Section 740 is inconsistent with the main purpose of the HRA, which 
is to ``grant to the inhabitants of the District of Columbia powers of 
local self-government.'' Giving the president the power to direct the 
services of MPD is a violation of D.C. home rule. MPD's first 
responsibility is to protect D.C. residents and visitors, and it must 
always remain under the authority of the D.C. mayor, who knows D.C. 
better than the president, to accomplish its mission.
  Section 740 is also unnecessary. In the case of a true federal 
emergency in D.C., the president can deploy federal law enforcement 
officers and the Armed Forces, and can request the support of MPD, as 
the Capitol Police did during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 
6, 2021, and as the Federal government does on a regular basis.
  At my request, the House's fiscal year 2022 and 2023 D.C. 
appropriations bills blocked the president from carrying out section 
740.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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