Photo by afagen.

When the D.C. Council gathers today for its legislative session, there won’t be much of substance on the agenda. But in response to the tendencies of some potty-mouthed legislators, D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown will be pushing a resolution that would explicitly ban the use of profanities during council meetings.

Brown’s resolution seeks to add a provision to a council Code of Conduct mandating that “a Councilmember shall treat other Councilmembers with dignity and respect, and refrain from using profane, indecent, or abusive language directed at another Councilmember or the Council as an institution.” It would also allow Brown to remove a member who drops expletives during a meeting.

The resolution comes in the wake of a Valentine’s Day retreat at the Washington Convention Center where Councilmember David Catania (I-At Large) got into a shouting match with Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), calling him a “despicable human being” and “full of shit.” During an open council breakfast in September, Catania and Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) similarly used language unbecoming of elected officials.

In an original version of the legislation circulated late last week, though, a massive loophole was included that would exempt just about every type of council meeting, session or hearing from the anti-cussing rules:

According to Karen Sibert, Brown’s deputy chief of staff, standard decorum rules already apply during formal council meeting and sessions; the new rule is meant to apply to breakfasts, retreats and other informal gatherings that are open to the press and where the councilmembers are acting in an official capacity.

“It will apply to any meeting of the Council that’s not a formal meeting. In other words, today’s [Committee of the Whole] meeting would not be included — that’s because rules of debate and decorum already apply during such a meeting. But a breakfast meeting, budget meeting, Mayor-Council breakfast, etc., would all be covered,” she wrote in an email to us.

Existing council rules don’t explicitly ban, well, explicit language, but rather encourage councilmembers to “avoid personalities” and states that “it is not allowable to question or impugn the motives of a member.” The rules also ban the use of cell phones during council sessions and hearings, but anyone who has been to one knows that that rule is rarely, if ever enforced.