WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced legislation today overturning a recent move by the City Council of the District of Columbia (DC) to hold secret planning meetings in retaliation against President Trump’s recent executive order to improve the city’s crime rates and cleanliness. The legislation includes a Joint Resolution outlawing the City Council’s secret meetings and a bill to close an “emergency” loophole used to evade Congressional oversight and public input. U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman (R-WY) led companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

“D.C.’s corrupt City Council is taking out its hatred for President Trump on the nation’s capital by holding secret meetings, breaking with longstanding rules,” said Senator Mike Lee. “Americans deserve transparency from Washington – not petty corruption and secret political vendettas. My legislation will ban the Council’s shady meetings and remove the loophole they’ve exploited to keep their citizens in the dark.”

“The American people deserve transparency, not backroom deals and political scheming,” said Congresswoman Harriet Hageman. “The Council of the District of Columbia and Mayor attempting to eliminate and bypass open meeting laws is nothing more than a partisan tactic to hide their agenda and undermine President Trump’s efforts to restore safety and order in our nation’s capital. It is Congress' duty to oversee D.C., and I will not sit back while D.C. officials plot in secret to defy federal authority and destroy public trust. This bill ensures D.C. officials are accountable to the public and Congress and can no longer hide behind closed-door meetings."

Background

The Constitution of the United States and standing D.C. law both require the D.C. City Council be subject to congressional checks and balances. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution requires Congress “to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever” related to D.C. governance. But in retaliation against President Trump’s efforts to clean up the city, the City Council has stripped itself of the transparency it owes the American public in favor of secret planning meetings.

The Council has exploited emergency loopholes to insulate itself from congressional disapproval and plot against the President’s agenda to improve the city’s safety and cleanliness. While actions by D.C.’s City Council are normally mutable by a vote of disapproval from Congress, current law allows immunity from this oversight in the case of emergency actions. The Council has wrongfully categorized its vendetta against President Trump an “emergency” in a politically-motivated move that even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of D.C. dubbed a slippery slope, as "it is undisputed that public access to government meetings is a cornerstone of our democracy."

Senator Lee’s Joint Resolution will overturn the City Council’s move to hold secret meetings, and the corresponding bill will close the “emergency” loophole currently allowing the Council to evade Congressional oversight and hide from the American people.

Read exclusive coverage from The Washington Post here.