Republican lawmakers have threatened to repeal D.C.’s home rule for decades, but under a newly Republican-led House, Senate, and presidency, some D.C. advocates are taking threats to the District’s autonomy more seriously.
On Feb. 6, 2025, Utah Senator Mike Lee and Tennessee Representative Andy Ogle introduced the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident—or BOWSER—Act, which would repeal the D.C. Home Rule Act.
Congress enacted the D.C. Home Rule Act in 1973, granting D.C. residents the ability to elect a mayor and a council to govern the District’s local affairs. While the act gave D.C. historic levels of self-governance, Congress still reviews all legislation passed by the Council, including the District’s annual budget, and D.C. has no voting representation in Congress.
The BOWSER Act is not the first time Congress has taken aim at the Home Rule Act. Most recently, Republicans introduced a similar bill to end home rule in 2023, but it did not pass the House or the Senate.
But now, following President Trump’s support of greater federal control over D.C.—Trump told reporters that he thought the federal government should “take over” the District at a February press conference—local advocates are more worried about threats to home rule.
“A year ago, I didn’t take the bills to repeal Home Rule seriously,” Josh Burch, founder of the D.C. statehood advocacy group Neighbors United for Statehood, said. “I’m less confident these days. I think insanity is the standard operating procedure right now in this new administration and how Congress is functioning.”
According to D.C. Shadow Senator Ankit Jain, one of the District’s two non-voting representatives in the Senate, while home rule gives the District significant control over local affairs, that independence still hinges on Congress’ approval.
“We have a local government that was established by Congress, and that was a bill called the Home Rule Act that established that local government.” Jain said. “But that government was created by Congress, and it can be removed by Congress if they wanted to.”
The BOWSER Act does not specify an alternative system to D.C.’s home rule—the one-sentence section only states that the Home Rule Act will be repealed a year after the BOWSER Act is enacted.
Lee and Ogle’s offices did not respond to the Voice’s request for comment. In a press release published by Lee’s office, Lee said that D.C.’s local officials had failed to effectively govern the District.
“The corruption, crime, and incompetence of the D.C. government has been an embarrassment to our nation’s capital for decades,” he said in the press release.
However, it is unclear how Congress would take control of the city’s governance and what would happen to its existing infrastructure and local government employees.
Jain said that conservative politicians proposed the BOWSER Act to send a political message rather than out of a genuine desire for Congress to run the city.
“It would completely abolish our government, local government, our mayor, our elected councilmembers, our Attorney General, my office, and then it’s unclear what would happen afterwards,” he said. “The law is very poorly written, but it seems like authority to govern D.C. would fall entirely upon Congress.”
The District has 151 agencies that are independently governed or under the authority of the mayor, employing nearly 36,000 staff members as of 2021. The local government also oversees 117 D.C. public schools and 113 D.C. public charter schools. With the repeal of home rule, Congress could be required to manage these public services and more.
“That means making sure the trash gets picked up, that the trains are running on time, that the leaves are cleaned, all of that would be the responsibility of Congress,” Jain added.
Robinson Woodward-Burns, board member of D.C. political advocacy organization D.C. Vote and associate professor of political science at Howard University, told the Voice that although he believes the BOWSER Act is unlikely to pass into law, Trump’s presidency raises uncertainty over D.C.’s future.
“Congress passed the Home Rule Act in ’73 and one of the reasons they passed was just to get the work out of their own hands. So I don’t know how serious this threat is,” Woodward-Burns said. “Conversely, Donald Trump has proposed to annex Canada. So I wouldn’t say anything is off the table.”
Jain said he intends to partner with D.C. activists to host events like an advocacy day to educate members of Congress about the bill and prevent it from passing. Jain remains confident that the BOWSER Act will not meet the three-fifths majority required in the Senate to overcome the filibuster and pass into law.
“We’re trying to educate them, help them understand, and I will certainly be advocating for them to vote no on the BOWSER Act, and explain to them why that bill is so bad,” he said.
To Jain, there are other areas in the D.C. government where Congress and the President could have a more helpful impact. In particular, D.C. faces 10 judicial vacancies in its local courts since the Senate did not confirm judicial nominees, causing issues for public safety and court backlogs.
“If these members of Congress care so much about the well being of D.C., there are things that they could be doing that they are not doing,” Jain said. “I would encourage them to swiftly nominate and confirm the local judges, because we have a judicial vacancy crisis in our city right now.”
Despite these concerns, Burch is optimistic that the BOWSER Act could open a new window for advocacy, arguing that it could increase traction for D.C.’s long fight for statehood.
“Straight-up revoking the rights of the people of D.C. to elect our own government and essentially dissolve our locally elected government? I have a feeling that that would put us on a course for statehood faster than anyone could have ever anticipated,” Burch said.
Home rule does not grant D.C. residents the same level of autonomy and representation as statehood would. Proponents of D.C. statehood argue that the only way for D.C. residents to fully gain true self-governance is for D.C. to become a state.
D.C. statehood could also become an increasingly important issue for the Democratic Party to address as it seeks to gain a majority in Congress, according to Woodward-Burns.
“We really see Congress flipping back and forth pretty regularly. If Democrats realize that D.C. statehood would probably help them get two extra seats in Congress, I’d say that statehood has a real chance,” Woodward-Burns said.
Burch said that amidst worries about D.C.’s future, residents—including students—can take action to show support for the District’s autonomy.
“If there are situations where D.C. is being used as a scapegoat, or you see a member of Congress picking on a law in D.C. or threatening to overturn Home Rule, we’re going to need people to speak up and stand up and join protests and become active,” Burch said. “I think if we are passive and we sit back on our hands, we’re in a lot of trouble. We need to be loud. We need to be active. We need to be engaged.”
