Councilmember Robert White Denounces Congress’s Assault on DC Residents, Public Safety, and Home Rule

Last night, members of Congress, who don’t live in DC and have no accountability to the people who do, overturned our laws, our judgment, and our right to govern ourselves. They voted to reduce our safety, destabilize our communities, and disrespect every resident of Washington, DC.

The District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act of 2025 is an attempt to drag DC backward into a system we rejected over 30 years ago because it was unjust and ineffective. Cash bail criminalizes poverty. It tells our residents that freedom belongs to those who can afford it. It tears parents away from children and jeopardizes jobs and housing, all without improving public safety. We left that system behind for a reason and bringing it back would devastate thousands of families.

The second bill, the Common-Sense Law Enforcement and Accountability Now in DC Act of 2025, is an outright dismantling of local accountability. Congress wants to reduce transparency, weaken oversight, and strip authority from our Chief of Police to discipline officers who break the law. Let me be clear: a system without accountability is not a system that keeps people safe. It is a system that erodes public trust, undermines reform, and puts communities at risk.

What is most disturbing is that Congress is attempting to undo the very progress we’ve made locally. We have already strengthened our public safety strategy with targeted, evidence-based solutions that focus on violent crime, community stability, and accountability. We already give judges the tools they need to detain dangerous individuals. This move by the House of Representatives will increase mass incarceration and hurt public safety.

Congress is not doing this to help the District. They are doing it because they can/ because we are the only jurisdiction in the country that can have our laws overturned by people who don’t answer to us. That is not democracy, it’s colonial oversight.

I’m calling on the Senate to reject these bills and stand with the 700,000 Washingtonians whose voices have once again been ignored. We will continue fighting, not only to stop these attacks, but to protect our fundamental right to determine our own future.

This is our home. We will not sit quiet while Congress treats DC like a political football at the expense of our safety and our people.