Local advocates in Washington, D.C., are pushing back against Congress’ latest attempt to block a local law, this time related to the District’s taxes.
The House is preparing to vote on a disapproval resolution this week sponsored by Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas. It would reverse a recent measure passed by the D.C. Council that separates some local tax policies from the revamped federal tax code.
“This Congress is doing so much to interfere in our autonomy that I encourage all D.C. residents to treat every congressperson as your personal congressperson,” said Michelle Chappell, a volunteer organizer with the advocacy group Free DC. “They are spending more time trying to overturn D.C. laws than they’re doing with a number of pressing issues.”
Majority Leader Steve Scalise argues that the District is trying to wriggle out of parts of the signature domestic policy and tax law Republicans passed last year because it “doesn’t want to help working families.”
But if Congress moves ahead with the disapproval resolution, it could blow a sizable hole in the local budget, said Christina Henderson, an at-large member of the D.C. Council. In her view, the District needs to decouple from some of the new federal policies — like “no tax on tips” and a special depreciation allowance for qualified property — to safeguard its finances.
“They view choosing to decouple as sort of a rebuke of their tax policy. I don’t view it that way. I view it as our ability to say no, the local tax code and the federal tax code are different,” Henderson said.
Many state tax codes and D.C.’s are tied to the federal level. But states can choose to reject changes, or decouple, when the federal government enacts tax laws that reduce revenue in ways they may not have anticipated.
In the District, however, Congress has more power. While the 1973 law known as the Home Rule Act granted local self-governance, Congress reviews all local legislation before it becomes law and can vote to overturn it, despite what local leaders may want.
Congress has been tightening the leash on the District in recent years, according to local advocates.
Gill, the Texas Republican sponsoring the disapproval resolution, also sponsored a bill passed by the House in September that would make it easier to impose criminal penalties on young offenders.
“Under President Trump’s bold leadership, Washington D.C. is being rapidly restored from decades of being a crime-riddled hellhole,” Gill said in September.
In total, more than a dozen bills pertaining to D.C. advanced out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last year. And in 2023, some Democrats helped Republicans squash a sweeping overhaul of D.C.’s criminal code passed by the Council.
Chappell said she’s concerned about the long-term budget implications of congressional action — if D.C.’s finances get into bad-enough shape, Congress can institute a control board for D.C. to manage the city’s finances.
“By taking away revenue sources, they’re pushing us closer to that potential outcome,” she said.
As part of its push to decouple from the federal tax code, the D.C. Council also created a local child tax credit and expanded its earned income tax credit. Chappell pointed to an analysis by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute finding those two items could reduce child poverty locally by 20 percent.
“Those changes would have the effect of lifting 1 in 5 D.C. children out of poverty, so it was really a change to make the tax system here locally more equitable,” Chappell said.
Activists with Free DC said they planned to make their voices heard on the Hill this week. After the House Rules Committee tees up consideration of the disapproval resolution on Monday, it is expected to hit the floor later this week. Meanwhile, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is set to mark up its version on Wednesday.
“This isn’t about public safety. This is literally to say, ‘D.C., you can no longer control taxation locally,’” Henderson said.
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