On Thursday the House approved a pair of resolutions that would block the District of Columbia’s bill that allowed noncitizens to vote, as well as disapproved of its criminal code.
This is meant to help stop the nation’s capital from enforcing measures such as these.
The D.C. The Home Rule Act states that Congress has the right to block city laws from being enacted, but that can only occur through a disapproval resolution that passes through both the House and the Senate. The resolution would also require the President’s signature.
The measures just passed through the House are unlikely to be successful in the Senate. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who represents D.C. in Congress, criticized the GOP for their effort calling it “profoundly undemocratic, oppressive, paternalistic disapproval resolutions are an unfortunate byproduct of D.C.’s lack of statehood.” Her statement was released shortly after the vote took place.
The first of the two resolutions focused on D.C.’s Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act, which gave noncitizen residents the right to vote in local elections. The measure was first approved by the D.C. Council in November. However, on Thursday the House voted 260-162 on the bill to disapprove the measure.
Forty-two members of the Democratic party joined the Republicans in the vote despite Democratic Whip Katherine Clark’s (D-Mass.) call to stop Democratic members from supporting the bill. The House proceeded to disapprove D.C. ‘s revised criminal code, which had been previously approved in November by the D.C. capital council.
