Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks at a rally in February urging Congress to keep its hands off D.C. law, ahead of a (different) hearing to block the Death with Dignity Act. (Photo by Lorie Shaull)

After already failing once to block the District of Columbia’s Death With Dignity Act, House Republicans are at it again. The House Appropriations Committee voted last night to repeal the law, which allows physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients, through an amendment to the 2018 federal appropriations bill.

The D.C. Council, a 13-member body of officials elected by Washingtonians, passed the law 11-2 in the spring, after more than a year of debate, hearings, and discussion.

Andy Harris, a congressman voted for by residents of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, thinks they were wrong.

“There’s nothing dignified about suicide, ever, in my belief,” Harris said, citing Congress’ overlord powers in introducing the amendment. “We have the absolute ability to judge anything that the District of Columbia does that is bad, bad policy.”

The measure still must be voted on by the full House and Senate and signed by the president to go into effect.

Attaching budget riders to must-pass spending bills is much more common than permanently blocking D.C. laws, and they are the primary way that Congress dictates policy to D.C.. Yesterday, the committee also continued its annual tradition of blocking D.C. budget autonomy, spending local funds on abortion, or enacting regulations regarding the sale of marijuana.

After being approved by the mayor, all D.C. legislation undergoes a 30-day Congressional review period before becoming law. The House and Senate can each pass a disapproval resolution, which must be signed by the president, to nullify the bill. But in practice, it has only successfully occurred three times.

That hasn’t stopped Republicans from trying, particularly in recent years. Jason Chaffetz, for example, successfully shepherded a disapproval resolution through the House for D.C.’s Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act in 2015, though it failed in the Senate.

He also pledged and attempted to block the Death with Dignity Act through a disapproval resolution, but it didn’t go further than a House committee before the clock ran out and the bill became law (it still sparked a trip to the Hill by our elected leaders and a fervent response from Washingtonians demanding that Congress keep its “hands off D.C.”)

“Today we note our first victory in our battle to defend the Death with Dignity Act from overbearing and undemocratic congressional attacks,” said D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton at the time, while recognizing that this was unlikely to be the last attack on the law. “However, our defense of the Death with Dignity Act is only beginning.”

In raising objections yesterday, Harris cited the possibilities of last-minute, live saving cures and depression being a factor in patients’ decision to request life-ending drugs.

Among the Death with Dignity Act’s provisions are a number of safeguards against abuse, including requiring patients make both oral and written requests more than two weeks apart. Two witnesses, one of whom isn’t a relative, also have to attest that the decision is voluntary.

“The Council did not consider this measure lightly and dedicated over two years of careful deliberation to the Death with Dignity Act,” said Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, who introduced the law, in a statement.

Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Colorado, and California all have similar laws on the books, and Montana courts have ruled the practice doesn’t violate state law.

“Yet again, Congress has proven that its members are incapable of respecting the principle of the autonomy of our locally-elected government and the bodily autonomy of our residents,” Cheh said. “To meddle with the District’s Death with Dignity Act is to meddle in perhaps what is the most intimate decision of a person’s life: the ability to determine the time and circumstances of their passing when death is imminent.

Ever concerned with D.C. affairs and “bad policy,” Harris also introduced and then withdrew a law to block the city’s recently enacted legislation governing flushable wipes.

As Norton put it: “Long live D.C.’s pipes and sewers #handsoffDC.”

Previously:
Fight Over D.C.’s Death With Dignity Law Finds New Life In Trump’s Budget
D.C.’s Death With Dignity Law Survives Republican Attacks For Now
As House GOP Tries To Block District Bill Sans D.C. Input, Our Elected Leaders Head To The Hill
As Promised, Republicans On Capitol Hill Submit Resolutions To Block D.C. Death With Dignity Act
Utahn Pledges To Block D.C.’s ‘Death With Dignity’ Law
D.C. Council Passes Right-To-Die Bill