Manipulated statistics, high murder rate: 5 things to know about federal takeover of DC
5. Senator calls for Congress to take complete control of DC
While D.C. leaders are calling for statehood, some conservatives believe that Trump's action does not go far enough.
In an opinion piece published in The Spectator on Monday, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said Congress needs to pass his Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident Act.
The BOWSER Act would return full governing authority over D.C. to Congress by repealing the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act within one year of the legislation's passage.
The 1973 law established a popularly elected mayor and city council that would control most aspects of city government while giving the federal government limited veto powers in some cases.
In addition to condemning the all-Democratic D.C. Council's response to crime in the city, Lee characterized the push for statehood as inconsistent with the vision of the Founding Fathers.
"In Federalist No. 43, Madison warned that the seat of the federal government must not be 'left in the hands of a single State' and that any such arrangement would 'abridge its necessary independence,'" Lee wrote.
"He could just as easily have been warning against what we see today: a capital captive to its own small-time operators and their rackets," he added. "Washington, DC, is not a state. It was never intended to be one. Our Founders deliberately placed the capital under the 'complete authority' of Congress to ensure the nation's government would never be held hostage to the petty politics of a single jurisdiction."
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
