Congress would need to approve that extension, but it could be filibustered. The president also floated declaring a national emergency if Congress doesn’t act.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump has said federal control over Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department should last more than 30 days.
“We’re going to be asking for extensions on that—long-term extensions,” the president told reporters on Aug. 13 at the Kennedy Center.
Under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973, the president can declare an emergency and take over the police department in the nation’s capital city for two days. He can prolong that for 30 days by notifying Congress.
For the emergency to be extended further, Congress must give the go-ahead. That effort could face a filibuster from Democrats in the Senate.
On X, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the takeover “a political ploy and attempted distraction.”
Trump also floated declaring a national emergency, suggesting it might enable him to sidestep the D.C. Home Rule Act’s limitations if Congress does not act.
“I don’t want to call a national emergency. If I have to, I will, but I think the Republicans in Congress will approve this pretty much unanimously,” he said.
The House and the Senate, which are both under Republican control, are in recess until early September. That’s within 30 days of when Trump first declared a crime emergency to restore safety in Washington on Aug. 11.
Trump has also activated the National Guard to assist the federalized police in combating crime. Those troops started arriving in the city on Aug. 12.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has praised the president’s takeover, writing on X, “House Republicans support this effort to clean up Washington, end the crime wave, and restore the beauty of the greatest capital in the world.”
“President Trump is rightly using executive power to take bold and necessary action to crack down on crime and restore law and order in Washington, D.C.,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, said in a statement on Aug. 11.
