House Republicans eye restrictions on D.C. traffic safety, abortion and more

Washington Post

22-07-2025

House Republicans on Monday advanced a hulking effort to overwrite a swath of D.C. laws and restrict local spending, touching facets of city life from health care to public safety in a move that frustrated local leaders who have few options to stave off federal intervention.
The federal spending bill would ban the city from enforcing traffic laws with automated cameras, cutting off a key source of revenue as D.C. is grappling with the Trump administration's sweeping cuts to the federal workforce and continues to struggle with traffic deaths and serious injuries. It would also prevent the city from funding its major police accountability legislation and prohibit enforcement of a local law protecting employees from discrimination based on their reproductive choices.
'In my long career representing D.C. residents in Congress, I have rarely seen a bill as unreasonable and patronizing to the more than 700,000 people who live in the nation's capital as this one,' Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting delegate in the House, said in a statement.
The bill, facing a long path through Congress, arrives on the heels of President Donald Trump again publicly musing about taking over the city. He has repeatedly derided the nation's capital — which overwhelmingly voted against him three times — as dangerous, filthy and ruined by liberal policies.
The House Financial Services and General Government subcommittee considered the bill Monday evening. The bill extends a pair of long-standing budgetary restrictions — known as riders — that D.C. leaders have for years tried to remove. One restricts the city from using local funds to subsidize abortions for low-income residents. Another restricts D.C. from setting up a recreational marijuana market.
It also adds a slew of additional funding blockages. Among them is a provision prohibiting D.C. from using local funds to carry out automated traffic enforcement and from stopping motorists from making right turns on red. When asked about the pair of provisions at a news conference earlier Monday, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said: 'Obviously, they're local issues. How you operate the street is a local issue.'
Still, the mayor was hopeful that her administration's lobbying could prevent it.
'We were able to beat it back before and I'll have my teams doing a full-court press on it,' she said, adding the provisions would take the 'untenable' step of unbalancing the local budget.
According to Bowser's office, the traffic enforcement rider would blow a $180 million hole in the fiscal 2026 budget, which D.C. government federal affairs officials said was deeply concerning.
'It causes a budget crisis when we don't need one,' said council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large).
If enacted, the legislation would also prohibit D.C. from spending local funds to enforce vehicle emission standards. It includes a provision that would prevent the District from allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections and would repeal the Death With Dignity Act, a 2016 measure permitting physicians to help terminally ill patients die. And it allows people with a concealed carry permit from any state or territory to carry a concealed weapon in D.C. and on public transportation.
Republicans have proposed many of these riders before, although some were new — including one to restrict funding to implement a bill imposing new requirements on health care insurers involving vasectomies or gender-affirming care; and another that would restrict enforcement of a consumer protection law against oil and gas companies.
'This proposed budget is a billboard for D.C. statehood,' said Ankit Jain, a shadow senator for D.C., lambasting members of Congress for 'this level of micromanagement of D.C. municipal affairs.'
He added: 'Don't they have better things to do?'
The District has a larger population than Vermont and Wyoming but has no voting representation on the floor in Congress, which the Constitution gives authority over D.C.'s laws and budget. The city won limited self-government when Congress passed the Home Rule Act in 1973, giving D.C. residents the power to elect their own mayor and city council.
Another rider would prohibit enforcement of a D.C. law protecting employees from discrimination based on their reproductive health care choices. Two years ago, eight Republicans raised concerns about the provision, a large enough bloc to threaten the entire financial services appropriations bill. Their pushback surprised D.C. officials not used to seeing Republicans defend the deep-blue city.
The legislation will next go before the House Appropriations Committee and must pass both the House and a filibuster in the Senate, which requires some Democratic support.
Among the barrage of restrictive measures, 'there are a number of victories for residents of the nation's capital,' Norton said in a Sunday statement. Under the bill, the DC Tuition Assistance Grant, which helps pay the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition for D.C. residents, the yearly cap increases $10,000 to $15,000. The lifetime award cap would increase from $50,000 to $75,000.
The bill would maintain the provision to exempt the D.C. government from a federal government shutdown in fiscal 2026 and would approve D.C. to spend under its next fiscal local budget.
The bill also includes $70 million for the Emergency Planning and Security Fund to help cover the cost of local support for activities associated with the federal government — a perennial issue for D.C., which routinely spends more money than Congress appropriates to manage national events and demonstrations. That is more than double the $30 million Trump proposed in his budget request, leaving D.C. government federal affairs officials breathing a sigh of relief and thankful to the committee for the bump.
Meanwhile, Trump has threatened to derail the plan to build a new stadium for the Washington Commanders unless the team changes its name.
While campaigning, Trump singled out the nation's capital, pledging to 'rebuild our cities, including Washington, D.C., making them safe, clean and beautiful again.' Earlier this month, he again mused about a federal takeover of the city — a move he could execute with the help of a GOP-led Congress. He told reporters: 'We could run D.C.'