President Donald Trump doesn’t mind letting his 30-day takeover of Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department lapse on Wednesday, White House officials told CNN — mainly because he feels the city has taken steps to cooperate.
Those officials argued the executive order signed by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser last week, which calls for indefinite collaboration with federal law enforcement, achieves their goals without an extension that would typically require congressional approval.
Trump has previously vowed to push lawmakers to approve his continued federalization of the DC police force. But after Bowser’s order, the officials said he has abandoned plans to pressure GOP lawmakers to take up such a bill, which would have required some Democratic support in the Senate.
“She committed to indefinitely coordinate with federal law enforcement,” one of the officials said. “The key word is ‘indefinitely.’ That is what we want.”
The White House, the officials said, has discussed its revised plans with House Speaker Mike Johnson. The Louisiana Republican previously said the House would not vote to extend the crime emergency that allowed the temporary federalization of MPD, telling reporters his “understanding is it’s not necessary.”
Still, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee on Wednesday is considering more than a dozen bills that would further limit Washington, DC’s self-governance, impose tougher punishments and roll back criminal justice reforms in the city.
Among the bills are measures that would strip residents’ rights to elect their attorney general, target homeless encampments and “beautify” the city and lower the age at which juveniles can be tried as adults. The legislation’s language has not been finalized and could be amended during debate Wednesday.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, in a letter to the committee’s leadership, said the proposed legislation could make the district “less efficient, competitive, and responsive,” “less safe,” and “less democratic.”
DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, meanwhile, said the bill would “displace the ability of District residents to have a voice in the selection of local leaders.” The legislation, he argued, would instead move “in favor of installing an Attorney General accountable not to District residents, but to the President.”
Bowser has argued that Washington doesn’t need a “federal emergency” and disagreed with White House officials’ characterization of her executive order. She said it’s meant to be a pathway out of the federal takeover, and that it laid out “a framework for how we will exit the emergency. The emergency ends on September 10. The only way it can be extended legally is by the Congress.”
Questions remain about how long the president plans to keep National Guard troops on the streets of DC. National Guard presence in the city is not subject to the same strict time constraints under federal law.
As CNN has reported, the National Guard troops deployed in Washington were expected to have their military orders extended through December.
This story has been updated with additional details.
