Trump wants the city cleaned up. Congress is holding $1 billion in DC taxes in limbo. Residents just want a say.

• President Trump has criticized D.C.’s leadership and called for cleaning up the city.
• Congressional oversight of D.C.’s budget and laws has long been a point of contention.
• D.C. residents and officials are pushing for statehood amid these challenges to their autonomy.

WASHINGTON ‒ Three generations of Jenice L. View’s family have called this city home. One of her grandmothers arrived here from South Carolina decades ago. Her father left from here to serve in the Korean War. And it’s in this city where the D.C. native and her husband raised their two daughters.

For View, it’s disheartening to see her city – the nation’s capital – under attack, with congressional threats to strip $1 billion of its funding, take control of its local government and end its already limited authority to govern itself.

“For people who care about democracy in this country … just know there are a whole bunch of us,” she said, who have not had access to “full democracy.”

America’s mostly Democratic capital city now sits in the crosshairs of Republicans leading the country.

The GOP-led Congress, which has budgetary control of the district, could decide as early as this week whether to restore $1 billion collected from local taxpayers that sits in limbo. At the same time President Donald Trump said this city of nearly 700,000 needs to be spruced up and restored by reducing crime and moving homeless encampments away from monuments and federal buildings.

“We need to clean up our once beautiful Capital City, and make it beautiful again,” Trump wrote in a recent post. “We will be TOUGH ON CRIME, like never before. I will work with the Mayor on this and, if it does not happen, will have no choice but to do it myself.”

The city bordered by Maryland and Virginia has long had a contentious relationship with Republicans, but some long-time residents said the recent attacks have been ratcheted up to a new level. The District, they said, has been a laboratory or “punching bag for Congress” and presidents.

“This is a pattern. This is not new. It is always frustrating,” said View, a retired professor of education specializing in history. “This is, to me, the most frightening of the attacks because there seems to be so much more energy and power and hateful targeting.”

Attacks are ‘low-hanging fruit’

Republican attacks on Washington, D.C., aren’t surprising, particularly since Trump has made clear his disdain for the city and its leaders, said Greg Carr, an associate professor of Africana Studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

“This is the low-hanging fruit,’’ he said. “This is his obsession.’’

Trump had repeatedly criticized D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s handling of city business and has threatened a takeover of what he has called a “rat-infested, graffiti-infested” city.

Last month, Trump signed an executive order dubbed “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” that sets up a task force of federal officials to clean up the city. The order, among other things, directs federal officials to beef up police presence, get rid of homeless encampments and clean up graffiti on federal lands.

“As the capital city of the greatest Nation in the history of the world, it should showcase beautiful, clean, and safe public spaces,” it read.

A spending package passed by the House last month to prevent a government shut down, would force D.C. officials to cut $1 billion from the city’s $21 billion annual budget.

Violent crime is down 26% compared to last year, Bowser said, but a budget cut would imperil public safety programs.

“We need to have our budget issue resolved at the Congress and we need it done as soon as possible,” Bowser, a Democrat, said at a recent press conference.

Trump also called for the House to provide the funds.

Home rule challenged

Separately, city workers last month began ripping up a Black Lives Matter mural blocks from the White House.

Bowser had ordered the mural during the protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. A Republican lawmaker had threatened to take away millions of dollars in transportation funding if the city didn’t remove it.

Earlier this year, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced “The Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act” that would repeal the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.

Washington is governed by a council and a mayor, but Congress has oversight. Under the Home Rule Act passed in 1973, Congress can review bills passed by the council before they become law. Congress also has control over the city’s budget.

Home rule gave D.C. officials some sense of control of their budget, said Courtland Cox, a civil rights veteran who has lived in D.C. since 1960.

“It was really a big fight,” he recalled. “We still haven’t gotten all we need to, but it’s always been a struggle to make sure that we were able to have some form of self governance.“

Carr said congressional lawmakers have “always had the District in a chokehold.”

Eleanor Holmes Norton, a nonvoting delegate who represents the District in Congress, said there have been more than 20 anti-home rule measures introduced in the current session of Congress.

“D.C.’s authority to govern itself is under attack, objectively speaking,’’ Norton said in an email. “D.C. home rule is seeing more attacks now from the federal government than any time since the 1990s.’’

Democracy is not only under threat in D.C., but across the country, said Matthew Frumin, a Democratic city councilmember.  

“These are terrifying times,’’ said Frumin, who spoke Wednesday at a discussion about democracy in D.C. hosted by the University of the District of Columbia.

Renewed push for statehood

The uncertainty has motivated activists and officials to press Congress yet again to make D.C. a state ‒ even though they know the chances this session are slim.

“I want to believe that there are people in this country who are offended by the idea that the nation’s capital does not have a vote in Congress, does not have control over its own budget and would perceive that as egregious,” View said.

Supporters of statehood noted that the city has more people than some states. Wyoming, for example, has a population of 576,000.

Republicans have long opposed statehood for the district, which votes overwhelmingly Democratic. Some experts have argued the city’s significant Black population, who historically vote Democratic, has also been a factor.

The District “should have the ability to govern itself to the same extent the states enjoy and should be equipped equally to fight back against proposed federal government actions that would harm its interests,” said Norton, who has championed DC statehood.

Dana Reynolds, a D.C. resident, called it “petty” that some congressional lawmakers are attacking the city when there are many pressing issues across the country.

And while she said city officials should do more to address crime, Congress should support efforts to make the District the 51^st state.

“We pay taxes. We should have appropriate representation,” said Reynolds. “I cannot see the federal government and lawmakers who don’t live in the city dictating what we need and don’t need.”

For View, that fight has been real for generations. She’s frustrated by the continued attacks and Congress’ failure to make D.C. a state.

“Some people say, ‘Well, just move to Maryland,’” she said. “I love Maryland. But no, that’s not the solution. The solution is we need voting rights. We need control over our budgets. We need representation in Congress. We need to be left the hell alone.”