D.C. hits a new low point in home rule history with Senate vote

• In the end, 33 Democrats sided with Republicans and President Biden, bucking their party’s support for home rule in favor of positioning themselves as tough on crime.

Driving the news: The vote blocks the city from enacting sweeping reforms to its criminal code, which included lessening penalties on some violent crimes — at a time when carjackings and gun violence have soared.

• The D.C. Council plans to go back to the drawing board on the reforms. Mayor Muriel Bowser is already pushing for revisions that restore current penalties for violent crimes like carjackings and robberies and remove the expansion of jury trials for misdemeanors, Axios’ Erin Doherty reports.

If you’re keeping tabs locally, Maryland’s two senators — Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin — stuck with D.C.

• Virginia’s Mark Warner and Tim Kaine both voted with Republicans.

D.C., of course, has no representation in the Senate!

• That drove dozens of demonstrators to protest this low point in home rule outside the Capitol ahead of yesterday’s vote.

Flashback: The last time Congress overruled the city was over, of all things, our height limit on buildings. In 1991, lawmakers blocked an office tower near the FBI building that would have risen 130 feet, about 20 feet over the limit.

What’s next: More intervention in D.C. affairs is expected in the year ahead. The overturn is a triumph for Republicans, especially for House conservatives — chief among them Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde — who have made it a point to scrutinize D.C.

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