“The corruption, crime, and incompetence of the D.C. government has been an embarrassment to our nation’s capital for decades. It is long past time that Congress restored the honor and integrity of George Washington to the beautiful city which bears his name.”

~ Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), speaking on the BOWSER Act

“It is a point of national disgrace that Washington, D.C., has a violent crime rate that is higher than some of the most dangerous places in the world. It is my duty to our citizens and Federal workers to secure the safety and the peaceful functioning of our Nation, the Federal Government, and our city.”

~ President Donald Trump

President Trump Restores Law and Order to the Nation’s Capital

President Trump made waves last month when summoning the National Guard to address rampant crime in the nation’s capital. Within one week, Trump reversed Washington DC’s unchecked crime spree, instituting a bold law and order mandate for local authorities to uphold. Trump’s brief rescue period provided a glimpse of how better run DC’s police can be under federal control.

The week following Trump’s federalization of the DC police force, the city experienced something it hadn’t enjoyed in a long time: zero homicides. For one week, there were no murders in the capital for 12 days since the federal takeover. Not only that, carjackings plummeted by 83%, robberies declined by 46%, and violent crime overall dropped by 22%. In only 10 days, federal law enforcement made 630 arrests and confiscated 86 illegal guns, apprehending as many as 77 criminals in a single day.

Rather than celebrate this rare period of peace, many on the Left, including DC local officials, decried Trump’s National Guard support. They claimed that crime was relatively low and that the city had become much safer than 2023 when there were record-level car-jackings. While some of DC’s crimes have marginally declined over the past year, the capital still suffered from elevated homicide rates that were nearly double what they were 10 years ago. The city was in clear need of federal intervention.

DC’s government has resisted federal assistance during past emergencies. Recall in late December 2020, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser joined former Speaker of House Nancy Pelosi in rejecting President Trump’s offers to send National Guard troops. Despite reasonable suspicions about untenable protests following the controversial November 2020 election, Bowser initially opposed federal assistance.

Only a day before the January 6 protests did Bowser request several hundred unarmed National Guard troops to come. However, they would only facilitate traffic, not to keep the peace. This was a far cry from Trump’s original request for armed troops to reinforce DC’s police.

In addition to DC-area resistance, recently revealed transcripts show that Pentagon officials and Capitol Police leaders deliberately delayed the deployment of National Guard troops over “optics” concerns.

Congress should reassess DC’s local autonomy under the Home Rule Act of 1973. The Home Rule Act enables DC to operate as a local city, rather than a federally controlled district, capable of passing and enforcing its own laws. This legislature takes the form of a council with 12 voting members and 1 non-voting member who serve four-year terms, eight of whom represent DC’s wards. Each ward is an electoral subdivision that allows residents in those areas to elect representatives on the Council.

DC’s Home Rule Act is the culmination of 170 years of activist efforts to clinch self-government. Similar to many US cities, DC operates on the mayor-council system, where DC’s mayor and staff are separately elected from the city’s council members.

President Trump invoked section 740 of the Act to take temporary control DC’s local police force during periods of emergency. In justifying the intervention, Trump cites to the alarming figures on crime elevation in DC.

According to his executive order, “The District of Columbia now has a higher violent crime, murder, and robbery rate than all 50 States, recording a homicide rate in 2024 of 27.54 per 100,000 residents. It also experienced the Nation’s highest vehicle theft rate with 842.4 thefts per 100,000 residents — over three times the national average of 250.2 thefts per 100,000 residents.”

Trump’s 2025 National Guard intervention swiftly reduced DC’s crime spree in mere days to levels unseen in decades. Had the Home Rule Act not provided an emergency clause, DC residents would still be grappling with a wave of violent crimes. One could argue that the commander-in-chief of America’s armed forces is better suited to manage safety in DC than its local police force.

The Framers’ Vision for a Federally Controlled DC

The Constitutional Framers always envisioned DC as a federally controlled city. This is unsurprising given that DC at its core is the home of the federal government. When one thinks of DC governance, the first thing that comes to mind is not local government, but rather DC as the seat of federal power for Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. DC’s unique identity as the nation’s capital supersedes its more recent and limited identity as a local city.

Based on the Enclave Clause of Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution, DC’s proposed laws are subject to congressional review. This enables both houses of Congress to oversee and vote on all DC legislative proposals. Congressional resolutions of approval or disapproval of DC bills are passed from a simple majority vote in each house. This was later reinforced by the Organic Act of 1801, formally placing DC under direct congressional control.

James Madison, constitutional Framer and the architect of the US Constitution, voiced his intentions for the federalization of Washington DC. This is outlined in Federalist No. 43, where Madison envisioned the federal government to exercise supreme control over the newly established district. After citing the Enclave Clause as justification for federal control, Madison states:

“The indispensable necessity of complete authority at the seat of [DC] government, carries its own evidence with it. It is a power exercised by every legislature of the Union, I might say of the world, by virtue of its general supremacy. Without it, not only the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity; but a dependence of the members of the general government on the State comprehending the seat of the government, for protection in the exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence, equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy.”

Madison was cautioning against the notion of DC being governed by or like one of the state governments in the Union. “The indispensable necessity” describes an imperative to uphold the Enclave Clause as the constitutional vehicle for governing DC. To govern DC like a city or to grant it statehood would invite the sort of dishonor and dissatisfactory governance that Madison was cautioning against in the above passage.

Congress Should Pass the Bowser Act and Repeal DC’s Home Rule

To this day, Congress continues to exert legislative authority over DC policies in accordance with the Constitution. However, the Home Rule Act carves out partial autonomy, allowing DC to elect a mayor and legislative council. All DC laws are still subject to congressional review.

The problem is that the Home Rule Act obstructs the Framers’ vision of DC as a federal district. DC’s affairs are overwhelmingly federal in nature. One can observe this from the many federally run agencies, museums, military operations, and courts that make DC what it is. Why should DC officials adopt an artificial legal identity as a local commune apart from its true purpose as the nation’s capital? The Framers never gave credence to DC autonomy.

As a resident of DC, I encourage members of Congress to consider legislative proposals that restore full control of DC to the federal government. Specifically, Rep. Andy Ogles and Senator Mike Lee’s proposed legislation, “Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident” (BOWSER) Act would repeal the Home Rule within a year of passage.

Ogles and Lee cite a slew of concerns that have continued to undermine sensible governance in DC. This includes the beforementioned crime epidemic on residents, assaults and robberies on members of Congress and their staff, a former Councilman facing bribery charges, and the city allowing illegal aliens to vote. Not mentioned in the press release were the tragic assassinations of the Jewish Embassy staffers in May, the congressional intern who was fatally shot near the White House in June, and the DOGE staffer who was mercilessly beaten in the supposedly “safe” Logans Circle neighborhood.

It’s time for Congress to reclaim full control over governing Washington DC and restore the Framers vision for a federally run capital. We can no longer risk the dissolution of sensible governance in our nation’s capital. We need to heed the warnings of Madison in Federalist No. 43 and encourage lawmakers to adopt the BOSWER Act into law so that all legislation governing DC properly originates from Congress and federal resources direct DC’s police force.