President Donald Trump announced the federal government is taking control of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department. A White House official told NOTUS that the takeover “is expected to last 30 days,” but added that “is subject to change.”
Per federal law, the president can federalize the metropolitan police for 48 hours on his own. To extend that to a maximum of 30 days, the president needs to notify the congressional committees with jurisdiction over Washington, D.C. Anything longer than 30 days has to be authorized by Congress.
A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said the committee had “been notified by the White House Office of Legislative Affairs,” as did Sara Guerrero, communications director for House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia.
The office of Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the senator also received notice.
“The District of Columbia is facing a crisis of violent crime,” Trump wrote in the letter to Garcia. “I have determined that special conditions of an emergency nature exist that require the use of the Metropolitan Police Department … for Federal purposes.”
Trump said that the police’s duties would be “maintaining law and order in the Nation’s seat of Government; protecting Federal buildings, national monuments, and other Federal property; and ensuring conditions necessary for the orderly functioning of the Federal Government.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser, Trump continued in the letter, “will provide to me the services of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes until I have determined … that the emergency has ended or for the maximum period permitted under [federal law].”
The White House has 48 hours from the moment it officially declares control of the D.C. police to notify the four members’ offices. If it fails to do so within that time frame, federal law prohibits the president from keeping control of the department for more than two days.
The politics get more complicated the longer Trump wants to control Washington police. A joint resolution to authorize the federalization of the D.C. police force beyond 30 days would require two-thirds of both chambers to pass, and it’s highly unlikely that Democrats would support it.
House Oversight Chair James Comer announced that the committee “is advancing legislative solutions,” including holding a September hearing with Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb.
While many Republicans in Congress have been openly discussing their interest in undoing D.C.’s self-governance, not all in the party have historically been as adamant about pushing a federal takeover of the city.
Last year, Rep. Darrell Issa told NOTUS that he believes there should be “a balance” of control between local officials and federal lawmakers. Democrats, meanwhile, are lockstep in opposing Republicans’ attempts to weaken Home Rule.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who called Trump’s takeover a “historic assault on D.C. home rule,” and Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced they plan to reintroduce legislation to ban the president from federalizing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
“Trump’s raw authoritarian power grab in D.C. is part of a growing national crisis. He’s playing dictator in our nation’s capital as a dress rehearsal as he pushes democracy to the brink,” Van Hollen said in a press release. “This is not just about self-governance for D.C. — it’s also about preventing authoritarian overreach by a lawless president like we are witnessing today.”