Political Quotes

“Republicans regularly introduce legislation to repeal local D.C. laws. What is different about this bill is it also overrides longstanding wishes of the D.C. police department. For at least a quarter century, the D.C. police department has requested increased authority to discipline officers for misconduct. The Council gave the department this authority after the murder of George Floyd. This bill would take away this authority. I will discuss the justification and timing of this bill, though it is always wrong and never the right time for Congress to legislate on local D.C. matters. This bill says it is necessary to combat rising violent crime in D.C. and to improve the retention and recruitment of D.C. police officers. This bill has its facts wrong. Last year, violent crime in D.C. reached a more than 30-year low. This year, violent crime in D.C. is down 22 percent compared to the same period last year. Police departments throughout the country, in both red and blue States, are struggling to retain and recruit officers, and they have been for many years. The timing of the introduction and consideration of this bill is stunning. It was introduced the same day Congress cut the local D.C. budget by more than $1 billion. This fiscal sabotage did not save the Federal Government any money, since the local D.C. budget consists entirely of locally raised revenue. The Senate immediately passed the District of Columbia Local Funds Act to reverse this cut.”