By Chris Kain
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Two Republican lawmakers are renewing their effort to repeal the DC Home Rule Act that has provided limited political autonomy over the past five decades via a locally elected mayor and 13-member council.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles yesterday announcedthe reintroduction of the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act, pointedly named after DC’s three-term mayor, Muriel Bowser. The one-page bill — previously introduced in the House in 2023 and the Senate in 2024, each with three co-sponsors — would repeal home rule one year after passage, without spelling out how the DC government would be administered and governed.

“The corruption, crime, and incompetence of the D.C. government has been an embarrassment to our nation’s capital for decades,” Lee said in a press release. “It is long past time that Congress restored the honor and integrity of George Washington to the beautiful city which bears his name.”

“The radically progressive regime of D.C. Mayor Bowser has left our nation’s Capital in crime-ridden shambles,” Ogles said in the release. “Washington is now known for its homicides, rapes, drug overdoses, violence, theft, and homelessness. Bowser and her corrupt Washington City Council are incapable of managing the city.”

News of the bill’s reintroduction, initially reported by the Daily Caller, elicited outrage among advocates of DC statehood and autonomy. Even under the Home Rule Act, Congress has authority to review legislation passed by the DC Council, and the president appoints judges subject to Senate confirmation.

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