WASHINGTON — DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said he is asking to withdraw legislation to change D.C.'s criminal code. The criminal code legislation has generated a lot of discussion from both sides of the political aisle since the Council announced it would override Mayor Muriel Bowser's veto of the Revised Criminal Code Act last year.
President Joe Biden said last week he would sign a Republican-sponsored resolution blocking new D.C. laws that overhaul how the nation’s capital prosecutes and punishes crime.
City officials have spent nearly two decades trying to redo Washington’s criminal laws, including redefining crimes, changing criminal justice policies and reworking how sentences should be handed down after convictions.
Mendelson said he sent a letter Monday to the Senate withdrawing the Revised Criminal Code Act legislation.
"It's clear that Congress is intending to override that legislation," Mendelson said in a press conference Monday. "So my letter -- just as I transmit bills for review -- withdraws from consideration the review."
Mendelson explained in his letter that the withdraw would mean the revised criminal code is no longer before Congress.
"In order to become law it would have to be retransmitted to both houses of Congress," Mendelson said. "Pulling it back means the clock stops."
Mendelson explained the reason for pulling the bill back is to rework the bill "in light of Congressional comments." He did not have an updated timeline for when the new, reworked bill will be complete.
“I think just pulling it back and assessing what the next step is and looking at some of the issues explaining better what the legislation does and does not do, so that will take some time,” Mendelson said Monday.
Bowser spoke to the press about the issue just before discussing the issue of crime, with locals, in D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood. The mayor said she did not want to get into a back-and-forth as to how the District’s revised criminal code legislation had gotten to this point.
"I would agree with the chairman's sentiment that it's best for everyone if the vote doesn't take place,” Bowser said.
She added she remained opposed to the Council’s legislation as it stands now.
"I believe there are ways to fix that bill,” she said. “I advanced my recommendations to the Council. I spoke to the Council, ad nauseum, about my objections.”
DC Police Chief Robert Contee, who was also at the Adams Morgan press conference, said whatever happens, sentencing for violent offenders in the District must be kept tough.
"You really want to see homicides go down?” he said. “Keep bad guys with guns in jail, because when they're in jail, they can't be in communities shooting people.”
However, Mendelson maintained that he believed the political firestorm around D.C.'s crime laws has more to do with politics than safety on District streets.
"It's quite clear to me that the headwinds that have prevailed in Congress are about the politics of next year's election, and not about what's the substance in this criminal code," he said.
He said he hopes retransmitting the bill will "calm things down."
Mendelson said there was nothing in the Home Rule Act that would keep him from withdrawing and retransmitting the bill at a later point.
"We need to better message so that folks understand what this bill is doing," Mendelson said.