In a national first, the House Armed Services Committee voted last week in favor of a bill that would grant the mayor of the District of Columbia authority over the D.C. National Guard, adding that provision to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.
Since its inception, the D.C. National Guard has been something of an anomaly, controlled by the President rather than by the territory’s leader, unlike National Guard units from other states and territories. By tacking the effort to change that onto the NDAA, its proponents have also dramatically increased its likelihood of passage, as that legislation has been enacted every year for the last 60 years.
Accordingly, the amendment has been dubbed the District of Columbia National Guard Home Rule Act.
“The District of Columbia mayor is the chief executive for our jurisdiction and has the best knowledge and most reliable expertise about when to deploy our own National Guard,” U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who introduced the bill in the House alongside Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD), said. “The D.C. National Guard Home Rule Act, which I had introduced for years before the January 6th insurrection, simply gives the District’s chief executive the same authority afforded to governors of states and territories over their Guards. If our bill had been law on January 6th, it would have brought that day’s insurrection to an end hours earlier and would afford D.C. a critical element of home rule as we simultaneously fight for statehood.”
Many of the bill’s proponents called back to the events of January 6, when a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump overran police lines and breached the Capitol. At the time, one of the factors of much debate was the role of the D.C. National Guard, which was not approved for mobilization until hours after the attack began.
“On January 6th, as our nation’s capital was under attack by insurrectionists, DC officials were unable to immediately mobilize the National Guard, as the Department of Defense took hours to approve their deployment,” U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who is pushing companion legislation for the Senate together with U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), said. “It’s clear that the District must have complete authority over its National Guard to protect its own safety and security and that of our capital.”