The House Rules Committee voted along party lines to advance H.R. 884, a bill that bars undocumented immigrants from voting in Washington, D.C. elections, to the House of Representatives’ floor.
The committee also passed three other measures from the House Oversight Committee’s jurisdiction, addressing D.C.’s sanctuary city laws, due process rights of federal law enforcement and the fentanyl crisis.
Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and Acting Ranking Member Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., appeared as witnesses.
House Republicans reintroduced H.R. 884 this year after the Democrat-controlled Senate did not take up an identical version of the bill last May. Now that Republicans have a united government, the bill rescinding voting rights of non-citizen residents of D.C. is likely to be signed into law.
“Let me make one thing abundantly clear: the only individuals who should be voting in American elections are American citizens,” House Rules Committee Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said. “That’s just a cold, hard fact that some cannot stomach.”
Republicans are also cracking down on Immigration and Customs Enforcement in D.C., a city that is governed by a historically progressive city council.
“The D.C. City Council has a history of thumbing its nose at federal agencies, such as ICE, that are responsible for protecting national security and the safety and wellbeing of the American people,” Foxx said.
Rules Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., expressed frustration at the Republican bills, arguing that they unnecessarily repeat initiatives already being carried out by D.C.’s local government.
McGovern also suggested that the legislation seeks to distract voters from House Republicans’ passage of their ‘big, beautiful bill.’
“Today’s bills are nothing new,” McGovern said. “More power grabs and more empty rhetoric, all to distract from the fact that two weeks ago you all voted to give billionaires tax breaks by robbing hard working families of things like health care and food.”
McGovern also criticized President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles this week during the hearing.
“This isn’t about enforcing immigration laws,” McGovern said. “It’s about creating a spectacle to justify his authoritarianism.”
The legislation passed by the Rules Committee will go to the House floor for a chamber-wide vote.
