Update: The House of Representatives passed a measure that would give the D.C. mayor control of the D.C. National Guard on Thursday. It’s the first time either congressional chamber has passed a bill giving the city control over its own National Guard, according to a press release from D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.

The measure passed as part of a larger spending bill called the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

Norton has introduced a version of this bill multiple times, but it gained new urgency after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, when the Pentagon delayed the deployment of additional troops to the scene.

“The District of Columbia mayor is the chief executive for our jurisdiction and has the best knowledge and most reliable expertise about when to deploy our own National Guard,” Norton said in the release. “The D.C. National Guard Home Rule Act, which I had introduced for years before the January 6th insurrection, simply gives the District’s chief executive the same authority afforded to governors of states and territories over their Guards. This bill may have ended the insurrection hours earlier on January 6th, and would afford D.C. a critical element of home rule as we simultaneously fight for statehood.”

The bill still has to pass in the Senate, where Democrats retain a very narrow majority. The Senate bill was introduced in January and remains in committee.

Original:

A bill that would give the D.C. mayor control over the D.C. National Guard was approved by a House committee early Thursday morning, giving momentum to a local demand that has drawn renewed attention in the wake of last year’s racial justice protests and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Unlike in the 50 states, where governors have control over their state-based contingents of the National Guard, that authority ultimately rests with the president in the District. (The president can also activate the National Guard nationwide for federal purposes.) The bill, re-introduced by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton in late January, would shift control — giving the city’s mayor power to deploy and direct D.C. National Guard personnel more easily.

While Norton has introduced similar measures multiple times over the last decade, Thursday’s vote to include the bill in the broader 2022 National Defense Authorization Act represents the first time in history that a congressional committee has acted on the issue of D.C. control of its National Guard.

It was fueled in large part by the actions of the D.C. National Guard during last year’s racial justice protests and this year’s insurrection. In the first case, then-president Donald Trump used guardsmen to crack down on local protesters, and in the second case, the deployment of additional guardsmen to respond to violence at the Capitol was delayed by the Pentagon. The bill has also been linked to the broader effort to grant D.C. statehood, which has enjoyed support in the Democratic House but stalled in the Senate.

The legislation “simply gives the District’s chief executive the same authority afforded to governors of states and territories over their Guards,” Norton said in a statement. “If our bill had been law on January 6th, it would have brought that day’s insurrection to an end hours earlier and would afford D.C. a critical element of home rule as we simultaneously fight for statehood. Today’s passage of our bill out of committee is another step toward granting full equality to D.C. on our road to statehood.”

Norton has also introduced related measures in recent months, including one that would require the commander of the D.C. National Guard to live in the city and another that would strip the president of the right to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department — which Trump reportedly considered doing last year. The latter provision was included in a D.C. spending bill that was passed by the House in July, but has yet to be taken up by the Senate.

The National Guard bill next faces a vote in the full House of Representatives. A companion D.C. National Guard bill was introduced in the Senate earlier this year by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), and currently has 13 co-sponsors — including Sen. Tom Carper (D-Delaware), a longtime supporter of D.C. statehood.

“After watching a violent mob of insurrectionists invade the Capitol on January 6th, one thing was abundantly clear: The District of Columbia should have had full authority over its National Guard to ensure the safety and security of our nation’s capital,” he said in a statement. “As a former Governor, I called on Delaware’s National Guard to respond to numerous emergencies such as floods, blizzards, ice storms, drought, and more. The District of Columbia should be afforded that same right, a right that is given to all our fifty states and four U.S. territories.”

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