Washington, DC – (March 28, 2023)
WASHINGTON – Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 29, 2023, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee will conduct its first oversight hearing of the 118th Congress of the District of Columbia government with a focus on public safety. The DC Republican Party issued the following statement:
Patrick Mara, Chairman of the DC GOP, noted, “One of the primary functions of the DC Council is oversight. The Council does not manage government agencies, but they ask questions to help those agencies run better and provide transparency. Congress will perform the same function. They will ask DC government officials questions about the state of public safety in the District in an effort to determine whether the District government is doing everything possible to keep District residents and visitors safe. Some Council members deride this Congressional duty as ‘interference,’ but it is not. In the same way that the Council performs oversight, so too will Congress.”
Mara continued, “If the Council has reasons to be concerned about oversight, it is because they have been negligent in their own oversight responsibilities regarding public safety. The size of our police department has been dramatically reduced since 2011, homicides are at a 20-year high, and meanwhile the DC government is spending $115 million on violence interruption programs, as mandated by the DC Council, that are verifiably ineffective. It is unclear how these policies and programs are improving public safety in the District. If the Council believes it is doing a good job, tomorrow is their opportunity to explain it. They should welcome the questions that Congress asks.”
For further information, please contact Nicole M. McClure, Executive Director of the DC Republican Committee, at nicole@dcgop.com
The DC Republican Committee is composed of registered Republicans living throughout the District of Columbia in all eight wards nominated and elected to serve as members.
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