LIVE: GOP Holds Press Conference on Federal Authority Over DC

Hegeman, Pfluger, Timmons, Knott, Lee, Carter, Blavorczyk. We don't want the backdrop that's currently there. No, no, we've got to break that little party up back there. I'll hold up signs behind me. Great to see you. How are you? Good to see you. How are you doing? Good to see you. Can I get a sign? Ready? The pretty people on the sides. Good one. Yeah. Yeah, my brother. So do we get a sign? I'll bring one. Yeah. Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here. The RSC Article I Task Force is leading efforts to restore Congress' constitutional authority as the legislative branch responsible for passing laws in this country. One of Congress' authorities is the constitutional responsibility for overseeing the governance of the District of Columbia. For years now, the D.C. City Council has not only prioritized left-wing policies and programs, but intentionally sought to hide their activities from Congress. It is a new day in D.C., however, and Congress intends to once again assert its authority to ensure that Washington, D.C. rightfully reflects and represents this great nation on the national and international stage. President Trump's unyielding leadership and strength, coupled with proper congressional oversight, ensures that Washington, D.C. will reclaim its rightful place as the shining symbol of American strength and dignity. Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution states that the seat-of-government doctrine grants Congress plenary legislative authority over the District of Columbia as the federal capital. The Founding Fathers wanted the nation's capital to be free from disproportionate influence of any single state and the influence of states generally. In 1973, Congress granted D.C. limited home rule authority through the District of Columbia Self-Government Reorganization Act, also called the Home Rule Act. In the Home Rule Act, Congress reserves the right at any time to exercise its constitutional authority as legislature for the district, which includes the right to review and block local legislation before it takes effect. It has now become necessary for Congress to exercise such authority. Why? Because the D.C. City Council is seeking to exercise its authority not for the best interests of its citizens or the broader community, but for political purposes. Today, the political City Council is using special legislation not for emergencies, but in response to the Trump Administration's effort to bring law and order to D.C. and to circumvent Congress's authority. For example, in March, the City Council enacted a temporary law codifying Chevron deference in D.C. in the city courts in an effort to avoid the effects of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright. I filed H.R. 3766 to repeal the special law and prohibit such future laws. Another example, one month after President Trump signed his E.O. making the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, the City Council implemented a temporary law to amend the open meeting requirements to allow it to meet in secret. The City Councilmen during the hearing indicated that they wanted to meet in secret in response to Congressional and Presidential oversight of their failed city policies. In response, Senator Lee and I introduced two bills, one to exercise Congressional disapproval and block this law, and also one to create an expedited period of Congressional review over special legislation. Section 740, the Emergency Control of Police in the D.C. Home Rule Act, grants the President of the United States the ability to mobilize the Metropolitan Police Force when it's determined that special conditions of an emergency nature exist for federal purposes for a period not to exceed 30 days unless further extended by Congress. President Trump has lawfully exercised this law. On August 11th, President Trump issued a memorandum directing the Secretary of Defense to mobilize the D.C. National Guard. While governors control their state guards, the D.C. Mayor does not control the D.C. Guard, which is under the control of the President. D.C. has seen major improvements in the incidence of crime in the last three weeks with the help of federal intervention. Homicide rates are down by 38 percent. Robbery is down by 62 percent. The total violent crime is down 45 percent, and carjackings are down 78 percent. Other governors and mayors should look at these improvements and welcome support from the government to keep their citizens safe. It is up to the governor of each state to decide if deployment of their National Guard is needed to help decrease violence and prioritize safety. It is important to note that ICE and other federal law enforcement has jurisdiction over illegal alien crimes everywhere in this country, and those governors and mayors do not have the legal right to declare their jurisdictions to be sanctuaries from federal law. I'm Harriet Hageman. I represent the great state of Wyoming. I am the chairman of the Article 1 Task Force, and I now turn it over to Chairman Pfluger of the RSC. Well, I want to start by thanking Congresswoman Harriet Hageman, who is the chairwoman of the Article 1 Task Force, and she's doing a great job, and we're surrounded as well by my colleagues who come from a variety of states but come here to do the right thing, and unfortunately, we're having to turn our attention in Congress on doing what the District of Columbia, its mayor, and their leadership should have done long ago, and that's to keep this city safe. For too long, we have watched liberal activists like those right there parading as politicians to turn our nation's capital into a crime-infested embarrassment. D.C. became one of America's most dangerous cities because of failed soft-on-crime policies that devastated innocent families while coddling the very criminals terrorizing our states, and it made our capital unsafe for residents, for visitors, for members of Congress, and unfortunately, even for our interns and our staff. President Trump has rightfully exercised his authority to restore law and order here over the last few weeks, and what a tremendous job our federal law enforcement officers have done for this city. This is what happens when you have leadership that actually cares about public safety. This is what happens when you have a president and a Congress who are focused on restoring law and order to this great country. Thank the good Lord that we have President Trump back in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now, Congress must take the next step and use our Article I powers. We cannot and will not allow D.C. to fall into a hellscape again. When the local government fails, it's our constitutional duty to act. Congress has a clear constitutional authority over D.C., and we will use it without hesitation to continue making D.C. safe and great again. Criminals should never feel more at home here in this city than the law-abiding residents and visitors and leaders from all over the country, and in fact, all over the world, who come to visit this city. The days of letting the left's failed policies destroy great American cities is over. And again, I want to thank my colleagues for their hard work, especially that of Harriet Hageman on the Article I Task Force. I now turn it over to my good friend from South Carolina, Mr. William Timmons. Thank you. Good afternoon. I got back here on Sunday, and I got to tell you, the difference is truly incredible. I've been working for the last six and a half years to try to keep this city what I know it can be, to work with the mayor, the city council, the chief of police, to help people that need help. Thousands of homeless people in our nation's capital. It has just ripped me apart. It is so sad to see people suffering. We need to help these people. And it's even more sad to see the people victimized by violent crime, whether they're killed, carjacked. I've seen members of Congress that have been mugged. We've had staff that have been killed. Enough is enough. President Trump has saved our nation's capital. I've said for the last six and a half years that a nation's capital in decline represents a nation in decline. We are not in decline. There's a new day in this country, and there's a new day for American leadership in the world, and our capital needs to show that. So thousands of homeless people that put up tents all over this city are now getting help that they need. They're getting food. They're getting showers. They're getting mental health counseling. They're getting drug counseling. And guess what? The criminals know for the first time in decades that if they commit a crime, there will be consequences. Walking around yesterday all over the city and seeing our soldiers from all over the country here keeping us safe. And guess what? They haven't had to do much in terms of law enforcement. They haven't had to protect anybody because deterrent threats matter. And having soldiers that are walking around, criminals know that they're going to be caught. They're going to be held accountable. And they know that this president is not going to let them out tomorrow. That's what we need. That's what we have needed for so long. And I couldn't be more excited for the Washington, D.C., that I see today. And Congress has a huge role to play in this. We must pass laws to further appropriate funds to beautify the city, to make every American proud of this city, to make sure that every American can come here and not be worried about being mugged. For the last six and a half years, I have told people that this is not a safe place and you should not walk around at night. That makes me so unhappy when I have to do that. Not anymore. Not anymore. I am so excited that President Trump has taken these steps, and Congress must now act. We're going to pass a number of additional laws to make sure that we never find ourselves in this situation again. And we're going to give not only the funding they have asked for, we're going to give them much more than the funding they asked for to make this city exactly what it should be. It should represent the greatest country in the history of human civilization, and people should be safe and very excited to come here. That's what we're going to do. It's a new day in this city. It's a new day in our country. It's a new day for leadership in the world. And we're going to do everything we can to help President Trump keep us on the right track. And with that, I turn it over to Representative Brad Knott. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Timmons. My name is Brad Knott. I'm from North Carolina. And before my time in Congress, just a short while ago, I was a federal prosecutor. I investigated violent criminals. I investigated cartels. I investigated human traffickers, wherever they were all over this country. And it became very clear to me when I was working with law enforcement that if you don't fight crime, if you don't attack it, if you don't work hard for long sentences, crime will flourish. And that's exactly what we've seen here in Washington, D.C., for the last couple of years. And from my time as a federal prosecutor, I know some of the federal agents who have been called to serve in Washington as part of the president's initiative. And since their arrival, I have been astounded, as I have stayed in touch with them, at the amount of contraband, the number of dangerous people, whether it's drugs, whether it's gangs, whether it's illegal firearms, whether it's human trafficking, whether it's South American cartels, you name it, it is right here in Washington, D.C. The soft-on-crime policies of the Democrats has unfortunately allowed crime to spiral out of control, whether in D.C. or elsewhere around the country. Unfortunately, we are seeing the Democratic Party and the far-left portions of this country protect the criminals rather than backing law enforcement. We've seen city after city spiral out of control and decay right in front of our eyes, including Washington, D.C. I applaud the president for saying the simple truth, it does not have to be this way. It does not have to be this way. And regardless of who you are, when you come to Washington, it's a safe city now. Businesses are thankful. Families are thankful. Citizens, tourists, we are all thankful. It's time to stop turning a blind eye for crime wherever it is. Wherever it is, we must investigate, we must prosecute, and we must protect the law-abiding citizens of this country. Thank you, and with that, I turn it over to Representative Laurel Lee. Good afternoon. I'm Laurel Lee from Florida's 15th Congressional District, and I want to thank my colleagues on the Republican Study Committee for their leadership on this issue, particularly Representative Hageman and Representative Pfluger. So Washington, D.C., our capital city, is the seat of our democracy and a symbol of freedom around the world. But for too long, it has also been a city that is plagued by violent crime, failed policies, and leadership that refuses to take responsibility for public safety. That is why I am proud to support President Trump and my colleagues who are here today in our efforts to return order and law to Washington, D.C. Together, we will advance common-sense proposals to restore order, to put victims first, to hold violent criminals accountable, and to stop the revolving door of repeat offenders who cycle back onto the streets. In just the past two weeks since President Trump stepped in, we have already seen the dramatic difference that decisive action takes. Carjackings are down. Violent crime is trending down. Federal coordination has strengthened detention and prosecution. And for the first time in a long while, the people of D.C. are beginning to feel safer in their own neighborhoods. That progress proves a simple truth. When you enforce the law, when you keep dangerous criminals off the streets, when you prioritize the safety of families, and when you allow law enforcement officers and prosecutors to do their jobs, you get results. The American people deserve a capital city that reflects the very best of this country, not one that turns a blind eye to lawlessness. Republicans are committed to ensuring that D.C. is safe, secure, and accountable for years to come, and we will not stop until that promise is fulfilled. I now turn it over to my colleague, Representative Fedorchak. Thank you, Laurel. Thank you, Representative Hageman, for your leadership on this really important issue. I'm Julie Fedorchak. I am a representative from North Dakota, the lone member from North Dakota. As my colleagues have said, crime in our nation's capital is out of control. If D.C. were a state, it would have the highest homicide rate in the country, and already this year, nearly 1,600 violent crimes have been reported. I agree with the people here. D.C. is a beautiful city. It's an amazing city, and it's the best capital in the world. But it isn't safe. We all know this. In fact, I felt this myself recently in a small way, but I want to share the story. I was walking down the street in July near my apartment in Navy Yard, not very far from home, and I felt something hard hit me in the back of my head. It was broad daylight. I was very startled. I was on the phone at the time, and just as that happened, a pack of juveniles came rushing by on their bikes, and I turned to look around and see what had happened, and a large, hard, plastic object had been thrown directly at my head. Now, that was a small, a minor incident. I wasn't harmed. But the young people who did it did it with reckless abandon and with zero fear of consequences. They gathered in a circle not far from me after that and sat there and laughed. And it's just an example of how crime is out of control in this city, and there aren't any consequences. America is the greatest country in the world. There's no reason why our capital should have a violent crime rate higher than some of the most dangerous places in the world. Just as President Trump restored order at our southern border, by enforcing the laws on the books, he is stepping in now to help make D.C. safe again. Many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have falsely claimed that D.C. crime stats are at a 30-year low. But let's remember that crime is not just about statistics. It's about people. It's about the mother who sent her child here to intern in one of our offices this summer, never to see him again. It's about all the families who suffer from crime in this very city. It's about the Metropolitan Police Union, who agrees that they're stretched too thin and don't have the resources to take care of crime in this city and to provide a safe environment. It's about staffers, interns, families, and visitors who live with the daily reality of coming to the city that isn't safe. That's why I support President Trump's actions to restore law and order in Washington, D.C. and why I'll continue to stand with my colleagues in demanding real accountability and real solutions to make this city safe again. Thank you, and I'll turn it back over to Representative Harriet Hageman for closing remarks. Oh, sorry, buddy. That's okay. Thank you very much. I'm Buddy Carter. I have the honor and privilege of representing the 1st Congressional District of Georgia, and we're here today to talk about something that Donald Trump promised during the campaign. He promised to make our nation safer and more prosperous. Now, he's already made it more prosperous through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Now he's making it safer. He's making it safer by making our streets safer. You know, our streets need to be safe, all of us. Not just white people, not just black people. Everyone needs safe streets. Democrats, Republicans, we all want that, and President Trump has done that. I've got a piece of legislation. It's called Make Our Streets Safe Again, and what it does is codify President Trump's executive order about ending chaos and disorder on our streets. It does this in a number of different ways, not the least of which is that it calls for law enforcement. It also calls for accountability, and it calls for making sure that we are giving help to those who need it. You know, during the last quarter of the Biden-Harris administration, there were over 274,000 people living on our streets. That was because of weak and ineffective leadership. Now we want to end that, and what this bill will do, through codifying President Trump's executive order, is to make sure these people get the help that they need. Make sure that they get the mental health services they need, the addiction services they need. We're going to do this by making sure that they're held accountable. Now, I've heard the noise. I've heard the noise from the other side about, oh, you're picking on Democratic cities. You know, there was a famous bank robber, Willie Sutton. They asked him, why do you rob banks? And he said, because that's where the money is. Why are we picking Democratic cities? Because that's where the problem is. That's where the problem is. That's why we're picking them. Chicago, the highest homicide rate in the country. Look at Washington, D.C., number four in the country. We've got to end this, and we've got to do it for our citizens, American citizens. You all have the right, your taxpayers, all of us have the right, to be able to enjoy our streets, to be able to walk down the street without fear. Look what has happened here in Washington, D.C. Earlier this summer, we had two interns who were shot and killed at the Israeli embassy. We had an intern here at the Capitol who was shot and killed. We had a member of the administration who was mugged and brutally beaten. That cannot happen on our streets. And I applaud President Trump for what he is doing here in cleaning up our streets. And I want to help him. I want to help him by codifying his executive orders, making it into law to where we will have to follow this. Again, two promises made to make our country safer and more prosperous. Promises made, promises kept. My name is Ron Estes. I'm the congressman from Kansas' 4th Congressional District. We're talking here today about we want to have a safe capital for our country. And right now, that's not what we have. The murder rate in Washington, D.C., about 27.5 incidences per 100,000 residents, is larger than so many other world capitals around the world. You can list off other countries, Bogota, Lima, Islamabad, Madrid, other places around even the United States, the murder rate and the violent crime rate in Washington, D.C. is so bad. And that's why President Trump stepped up, because as members of Congress, we have the responsibility to address and protect and oversee what goes on in the District of Columbia. We didn't want a nation's capital to be in a state where that state would be a special state and get special designation because of that. So we wanted to make sure that it was federal responsibility to make sure that things were addressed there. On June 30th today, or June 30th this year, an intern in my office, Eric Tarpinian-Jackham, was murdered on the streets of Washington, D.C. It was a senseless crime, and to this day it's not been solved by the Washington, D.C. police. We want to make sure that we have a safe capital. That's why I applaud President Trump and the work that he's doing in terms of making sure that we do have a safe capital. Yesterday I was able to walk around the Navy Yard with my daughter, and it was great to see the National Guards out there patrolling around. It was a safe environment for people to hang out. It was nice. There was a family there having a birthday party for one of their children. And we want to make sure that we have a capital that Americans are proud of. It should be a clean capital. It should be a safe capital. We want to be able to have American citizens come here and enjoy their capital. We want to have foreign dignitaries come here and be impressed and enjoy the fact that they've come to America and that we have a nation's capital that we're proud of and want to support. So I applaud the effort that we're working to make sure that we have safer cities, that we have a safer capital, and that we reduce the crime rate that's been so rampant here in Washington, D.C. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate all the comments made by my colleagues. I think that you can see that we come at this maybe from a little bit different perspective. At the same time, we all recognize that the beauty and safety of our nation's capital is important to all of us. So with that, we'd open it up to questions. Please identify. So we need to exercise our legislative authority and oversight over Washington, D.C. I've identified three bills that I have introduced, two with Senator Lee and one as a standalone, to address the lawlessness that you actually see in the city council here as well. I think that all of us working together will be coming up with additional bills to address specifically the crime situation in our nation's capital. And I know that this is our first day back after our August recess. We will be discussing what happens after the expiration of the 30-day period that is allowed for in the Home Rule Act with the president. I know that I will be working with my colleagues here to determine what the next step is in that regard. But I think that so many people, from just the antidotes that I have heard, being here as well as reading in a variety of publications, people feel like they can take their families out on the streets, that they can have picnics, that they can go and do the things that they have been deprived of for many years for fear of the crimes in Washington, D.C. And I think that's an incredible development that we need to build upon. Well, I think that that's the challenge, isn't it? And that's why I indicated in my comments that it's up to the governors and the mayors of those communities as to whether they're going to protect their citizens or they're going to protect the criminals. We are at a crossroads in our country right now, and I think that it is imperative that our political leaders step up and actually recognize that they work for us, they work for the citizens, not the other way around. They shouldn't be coddling the criminals, they should be protecting their citizens. And they have the ability and the wherewithal to do that. We have seen with the surge in the last 30 days in Washington, D.C., that law enforcement on the streets works. We know that. This is common sense. The mayors and the governors need to step up in places like Chicago, L.A., Atlanta, other places. They need to step up and they need to start protecting their citizens and not protecting the criminals. I think that it's up to them to make the decision of whether they're going to protect the criminals or they're going to protect their citizens. I think the burden is on them right now. I think that you definitely see that, that it resonates with Americans, but I think one of the things that I see more than anything in the comments that I receive is that common sense is maybe back in vogue. I think that we all recognize that if you have a police presence and you actually prosecute criminals, you're going to have less crime. You're going to have less people willing to take the risk of either throwing a projectile at a member of Congress or carjack or engage in other nefarious behavior. So, again, what we're talking about is nothing earth shattering. This is common sense that you police areas where you have people who are congregating and perhaps engaging in bad acts. So, again, I think common sense is back in vogue and I think the people in Wyoming, or I know the people in Wyoming across the board, not just on the issue of Washington, D.C., and protecting the citizens here, but I think across the board, we're seeing so many issues being resolved and addressed by the current president that people are like, well, why did we wait so long? Why has it taken us this long to actually address the challenges that we have in this country? I think that he's just exposed the fact that sometimes our political betters are not the brightest lights on the porch in terms of addressing the issues that need to be addressed. And I'll let my colleagues respond as well. Recently, the governor of California said he was going to establish a task force on crime. Well, we've got news for him. There is a task force on crime. It's called laws. It's called prosecutors. It's called DAs. It's called accountability. The Republican Study Committee has long been the champion of conservative values and one of the conservative, probably one of the most important, if not the most important conservative value that we stand for is law and order. We stand to protect the sanctity of what our founders established here, that this city would be that shining beacon on the hill. And it's really sad to see, to a previous question, a lot of these cities around the country, what are the radical leftists standing for? Is it for crime? Is it for more violence? Is it for seeing their neighbors and their communities destroyed by lawlessness? That's not what this group stands for. And I can guarantee you that there are many Democrats that we serve with here. We need them to stand up. We need their voices to be heard to say enough is enough, that law and order and that safety and security and that bringing down violent crime is not a political, a partisan issue, that that's just common sense. And I'm proud to stand with this group of people here. And in Texas, I can tell you that my constituents are thrilled to know that Washington, D.C. is back on the mend again, that they can finally send their kids up here knowing that their safety and security is going to be well taken care of because that has not been the case, unfortunately, for far too long. Any other responses? When I was back in Wichita during the district work period, I was speaking to a group, and one of the women in the group asked that they were going to be up in Washington, D.C. in a couple of weeks and wanted to know what they were going to see different. Were they still going to see crime on the streets? Were they going to see the homeless around? And I reassured her that the president has put National Guard troops out in order to patrol the streets to make sure that the streets are safe. And based on being back here a day, that's what I can attest again when I talk with her, that we have safer streets now because of having the National Guard helping support and make sure that our laws are enforced and our citizens are safe. Thank you. And just to answer real briefly the follow-up, it's not just the National Guard who are going to cities. When federal law enforcement identifies a crisis area, it is not uncommon at all for agents in the ATF, HSI, DEA, FBI to surge in a particular city. And that's what we've seen in addition to the National Guard here. It's the federal law enforcement that are initiating the arrests. They're doing the investigations that are serving the warrants. And in terms of these cities around the country, there are several reasons why criminals are or crime is not being addressed. You have defund the police movements. You have sanctuary policies. You've got prosecutors that don't think they should prosecute crimes. And the president, again, has stated it does not have to be this way. And he is rightfully sending federal law enforcement to address federal crimes in cities. I mean, look at Chicago last weekend. I think it was close to 60 people were shot, almost a dozen people killed. Law enforcement is not getting it done at the local level. It's an appropriate place for federal law enforcement to go work with them to address the crime that's harming those citizens.