When fences were erected around the U.S. Capitol after the Jan. 6 insurrection, they were meant to keep troublemakers out. But they’ve also successfully kept the District from being able to govern itself.

City officials said Monday that about 60 pieces of legislation passed by the D.C. Council and signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser cannot officially become law because they have been unable to get physical copies of the measures to Congress, as required under decades-old regulations around Congress’s oversight of the city.

Because D.C. is not a state, the council is required to hand-deliver signed hard copies of all new pieces of legislation to House and Senate leadership. Congress then gets 30 legislative days to review all the legislation (60 days if a bill touches on the city’s criminal code) before it becomes law.

Yes, you read that right. Council staffers must hand-deliver the bills.

For the past three months, council staffers have been unable to access the U.S. Capitol to make these deliveries. They are not allowed to use email or snail mail. They must make an in-person handoff to staffers for the Speaker of the House and the Vice President, who serves as the President of the Senate.

“It’s this crazy home rule situation which would be avoided if we had statehood,” said D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. He was referring to the 1973 Home Rule Act, which lays out how the District is governed.

Access to the Capitol first became limited last year due to COVID-19 restrictions. The D.C. Council’s Office of the Secretary was able to meet Hill staff outside on the Capitol grounds to deliver the legislative packets.

Those relationships began to fall apart in November following the election and impending transfer of power.

“Optimistically, we hoped that once the election was certified there would be some certainty and settling in the Senate which would give us new contacts in the new VP’s Office,” the Secretary of the D.C. Council, Nyasha Smith, wrote recently. “Then January 6th unfolded. It has since been impossible to get anywhere near Congress.”

After weeks of work, Smith found a contact in Vice President Harris’s office and was able to submit the legislative packages to a staffer at an off-campus location on Friday, Smith told DCist/WAMU. A representative from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office came to the Wilson Building on Monday to collect the House versions of the packages. “So we are now able to start the 30-day Congressional review period,” Smith said.

And yet, some challenges still remain. Mendelson also noted that he must hand-sign all the legislative packets that will be sent to Congress. “They won’t even allow a signature stamp,” he said.