This Republican senator wants Congress to have more oversight of D.C.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) filed a bill Wednesday that would expand the federal government’s ability to flex its muscles over D.C. affairs by adding a new mechanism for congressional oversight on local laws enacted even in an emergency.

The proposal would alter the Home Rule Act — the decades-old law that offers D.C. residents some semblance of self-governance — by requiring the city to send short-term, emergency legislation to Congress within three days after enacting it. It comes at a time when the city is fielding numerous threats from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to undermine local autonomy.

Because of D.C.’s lack of statehood and unique status as a federal enclave, legislation passed by the D.C. Council then goes to Congress for both the House and Senate to review. During that period, Congress can pass what is called a joint disapproval resolution, rebuking the act. If the president agrees, the act doesn’t become law.

Currently, however, the council can enact legislation on an emergency basis that goes into effect immediately for up to 90 days and without congressional review. Lee’s proposed legislation would change that, offering Congress a path to pass disapproval resolutions on emergency legislation, too.

“America’s capital city should be the envy of the world, not a national embarrassment,” Lee, a frequent critic of D.C. policies who has proposed repealing the Home Rule Act, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “If the Council is not willing to tackle crime, clean up the city, and cooperate with federal law enforcement, it makes sense that they would want to operate in the shadows — but sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

His bill joins a slew of measures proposed by Republican members of Congress, increasingly eager to exercise their significant authority over the District on issues including police reform and automated traffic enforcement.

The prospects of Lee’s bill making it to Trump’s desk are unclear.

“If this actually got enacted, it would be truly damaging to the District’s ability to govern,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said in a statement to The Post. “And it’s not as if Congress is speedy in its considering the needs of the District. Exhibit A: they couldn’t get 15 judges confirmed for our courts, which currently have almost a quarter of the seats vacant. Exhibit B: we’re still waiting for the House to take up the Senate-fix to the Continuing Resolution debacle. And of course, nothing could go through Senator Lee’s proposed process, right now, with a House suddenly on recess until September.”

Some members of Congress are increasingly eager to exercise authority over the District on issues including police reform and automated traffic enforcement. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post)

The office of Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming) said she is sponsoring the same legislation in the House and, like Lee, appears motivated by a step taken by the D.C. Council this year to shut the public out of many of its meetings, including any sessions with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D).

“The American people deserve transparency, not backroom deals and political scheming,” Hageman said in a statement to The Post. “The City Council and Mayor of the District of Columbia attempting to bypass open meeting laws is a clear partisan effort to hide their agenda and undermine President Trump’s mission to restore safety and order in our nation’s capital.”

The Council first enacted the privacy changes on an emergency-legislation basis.

The push from local elected officials to give themselves broader latitude to conduct business in secret came as the council and mayor face accelerating incursions into local affairs by the GOP-led Congress, which this year passed a spending bill that prompted deep cuts to D.C.’s budget — matters that council members argue require them to be able to quickly meet as a group without worrying about violating open-meetings rules.

The move raised concerns about transparency, with the D.C. Open Government Coalition urging officials to vote against it. In a letter to council members, the coalition agreed that “the city is facing unprecedented attacks on our right to self-determination” but said the local legislation posed “a substantial threat to the right of D.C. residents to see and hear about what their government is doing on their behalf, and to fulfill their duty as part of an informed electorate.”

After the emergency measure passed, Lee filed a bill to repeal it, saying the council should conduct its business in public while the city is in the federal spotlight.

Meanwhile, the council advanced a temporary version of the same bill in an effort to extend their changes to the city’s Open Meetings Act. That temporary bill passed last month, enacting a 225-day version of the initial emergency legislation.

On Wednesday, Lee also filed a joint resolution to quell that version. (Temporary bills still have to go through congressional review.)

In 2023, both chambers of Congress flexed their power over D.C. by voting to block the District’s major police accountability legislation. While Republicans led the push, seeking to frame the legislation as “anti-police,” some Democrats in the House and Senate joined them. But President Joe Biden vetoed the effort, saying the local legislation contained “common-sense” changes aimed at enhancing public trust.

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser speaks at an event unveiling plans to host the 2027 NFL draft in Washington, with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday.

This week, House Republicans 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.

And earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order establishing a task force focused on making D.C. “safe and beautiful,” directing a panel of federal advisers to study matters such as cleaning up federal parklands in D.C. and cracking down on illegal immigration in the region.

Meagan Flynn and Jenny Gathright contributed to this report.