The dysfunction that has reigned in the U.S. House of Representatives this week hasn’t been contained within the marble halls of Congress, but rather has made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Wilson Building that houses the D.C. government.

It’s there that dozens of bills passed late last year by the D.C. Council remain in awkward legislative limbo, little more than words on paper that have no legal effect because of the political soap opera (or hostage crisis?) that has left the country without a Speaker of the House since Monday.

The bills include a measure that would simplify the system for automatic voter registration; one that would set new bed bug inspection requirements for rental properties; a bill that would make period products freely available in D.C. government buildings; a bill that would require child care facilities to post details on lead inspections and remediation efforts; and a measure that would allow non-citizens to vote in local D.C. elections. Another measure that is stuck in limbo is Initiative 82 — a.k.a. the ballot initiative to gradually increase the tipped minimum wage, which voters approved in November.

Bills that are due back from Mayor Muriel Bowser this week could also be impacted, as could those due back next week if the standoff in the House continues.

The problem stems from the provision of the city’s Home Rule Act that requires all bills passed by the council and signed by the mayor to be sent to Congress for a 30-day review period, or 60 days if they involve changes to the criminal code. The act specifies that those bills have to be sent to the president of the U.S. Senate and the Speaker of the House — an office that remains unfilled amidst a rebellion by a small group of hard-right lawmakers against leading contender Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California).

“There’s no one to be delivered to,” says Council Chairman Phil Mendelson of the fate of what he estimates are some 60 bills the city’s legislature passed since last October. “That means everything is delayed.”

The required congressional review period for all D.C. bills hearkens back to the compromises crafted in the mid-1970s when the city was granted home rule, the ability to elect its own mayor and council and largely govern itself. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress exclusive control over D.C., power that many representatives and senators have been loath to fully give up. During the review period, Congress can overturn any bill passed by the council — something that has rarely happened in the city’s history, largely because it takes both the Senate and House to act within the 30 (or 60) days.

Still, every D.C. bill still makes its way down Pennsylvania Avenue to Congress.

“I’m a little surprised but not a lot because you can’t foresee every possibility, but it’s not much different than when they had the fence and we couldn’t deliver,” says Mendelson, referring to the months after the Jan. 6 insurrection when a fence fully surrounded the Capitol — making the required hand delivery of physical copies of D.C. bills impossible. (D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has since introduced a bill to allow the council to email the bills over.)

D.C. officials have long dealt with the injustices of not being a state, both big and small. Congress often imposes its policy demands on D.C. via the federal budget: Republicans have prohibited the city from subsidizing abortions for low-income women and legalizing the sale of recreational marijuana, for one. Back in 2013, a federal government shutdown also shuttered portions of the D.C. government, because the city was treated the same as a federal agency. (Since then, Norton has gotten the city exempted from federal government shutdowns.) The D.C. court system experiences periodic judicial vacancy crises because, unlike in any state, the District’s judges have to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. (And that’s often a slow and politically fraught process.)

And even when it comes to the congressional review period for bills, 30 days is never just 30 days. The Home Rule Act specifies that the only days that count are those when either the House or Senate are in session, meaning that some measures can wait months before the review period is completed and they can become law.

It’s unclear when the Republican stalemate will end; McCarthy has been making concessions to 20 holdouts as a means to nail down all the votes he needs. Mendelson says a quick resolution is preferable, because adds that it could be a “big deal” for D.C. if the bills remain untransmitted for weeks to come.

“We’re in jeopardy of waiting and waiting and waiting,” he says.