House Republicans mounted a full-frontal attack on D.C.’s ability to govern itself this week. They moved forward with bills that would do everything from altering the city’s traffic laws and gun restrictions to upending how residents vote and overturning local laws passed by the D.C. Council.

The sweeping provisions targeting D.C. were included in bills and spending measures approved by three House committees on Wednesday and Thursday, moving them closer to votes in the full House, which is controlled by Republicans.  

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability approved a bill from Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) that would stop the city from implementing a new law allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections. House Republicans unsuccessfully tried earlier this year to block it from taking effect, but the Democratic-led Senate did not follow suit.

On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a federal spending bill that included some two-dozen provisions targeting D.C.’s laws and policies. The bill would prohibit D.C. from using traffic cameras or banning cars from turning right on red lights as the council legislated in late 2022; extend the eight-year-old prohibition on the city legalizing recreational marijuana sales; continue banning D.C. from subsidizing abortions for low-income women; repeal the city’s seven-year-old law that legalized physician-assisted suicide; and prohibit the city from spending money to enforce a law preventing employer discrimination against employees for their reproductive health decisions (a Republican target since 2015).

A new provision was added that would allow people with concealed carry permits from other states to carry concealed handguns through D.C. and on Metro. Currently, anyone seeking to carry a concealed gun in the city needs to get a permit from the Metropolitan Police Department, which includes a training requirement. “The concept that no matter what the rules are in any other state that those folks can carry a concealed weapon in Washington, D.C. is a Jan. 6 concern,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) during the committee’s debate.

D.C. officials expressed particular concern with the riders included in the spending bill, notably those touching on traffic safety.

“These provisions would jeopardize public safety, lead to more deaths on our roads, and, with respect to the ban on automated traffic enforcement (ATE), unbalance the District’s budget. If enacted, the ATE ban would, according to the District’s chief financial officer, force the council and the mayor to make more than $100 million in budget adjustments for FY 2024. Over the next four years, we would need to close a nearly $1 billion hole in the District budget,” wrote Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, and Attorney General Brian Schwalb in a letter to congressional leaders on Thursday.

The three city leaders also criticized the Republican proposal to give the Metropolitan Police Department $28 million to help cover security costs related to the presence of the federal government, $20 million less than what the city had requested. “Thank you, Congress, for making the District less safe while defunding the police,” said Mendelson.

Congressional Democrats also fought the D.C.-specific provisions, with Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) arguing that Congress was “micromanaging” the District of Columbia’s traffic laws. “It’s petty and it deserves derision,” she said. “Which one of your members has so many tickets that you want to sidestep these tickets? Remind me not to take a ride with them.”

Also on Thursday, another House committee approved a wide-ranging election integrity bill that sets new optional standards for states while mandating dramatic changes to how D.C. would run its elections and how residents could vote. The bill would require voters to show photo ID to cast a ballot, prohibit non-citizen voting, stop the city from automatically mailing ballots to voters as it has over the last two election cycles, prohibit the city from adopting ranked choice voting, and do away with same-day voter registration.

“The [bill] gives us an opportunity to take the District of Columbia from a place that has demonstrated significant and in some cases very concerning failures and instead make it a model… that can be an example for the nation,” said Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Florida).

Democrats on the committee said the bill was an unnecessary congressional intervention into the city’s affairs, and unsuccessfully tried to scrap the provision focusing on the city.

“If elections in Washington, D.C. lack integrity, it is not because of fraud or insecure election procedures. It is because half a million D.C. residents are being denied full voting representation in Congress. If we are being honest, we know the [bill] isn’t really about D.C. It’s about providing a template for other states to impose extreme suppressive, restrictive voter laws,” said Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Alabama)

“What happened to self-determination? We’ll micromanage only in places where we find it convenient,” said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-New York), accusing the Republicans of hypocrisy in calling for local control except when it comes to D.C.

The Republican bills come during a year where D.C. has faced increasing interference in its local affairs from Congress. Republicans successfully led the charge to block a bill passed by the council that revised the city’s century-old criminal code, and have held a number of hearings focused on public safety and elections.

The Democratic-led Senate will likely serve as an obstacle to many of the Republican provisions targeting D.C.; on Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its own spending bill that included no new D.C.-specific riders. (It did include the usual riders targeting abortion funding and legal marijuana sales, though.) Additionally, President Joe Biden did recently veto an attempt to repeal a D.C. police discipline and accountability bill. Still, the city has been used in the past as a bargaining chip in political negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.