Washington Dc Law And Government

The city is run by an elected mayor (Adrian Fenty) and a district council. The council is composed of 13 members: one elected from each of the eight wards and five members, including the chairman, elected at large. The council conducts its work through standing committees and special committees established as needed. District schools are administered by a school board that has both elected and appointed members. There are 37 elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissions that provide the most direct access for residents to their local government. The commissions serve as local councils, and their suggestions are required to be given "great weight" by the D.C. Council. However, the U.S. Congress has the ultimate plenary power over the district. It has the right to review and overrule laws created locally and has often done so. The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not apply to the District of Columbia.

D.C. residents pay federal taxes, such as income tax, as well as local taxes. The mayor and council adopt a budget of local money with Congress reserving the right to make any changes. Much of the valuable property in the District is federally owned and hence exempt from local property taxes; at the same time, the city is burdened with the extraordinary expenses related to its role as the capital, such as police overtime and street cleaning for D.C.'s frequent parades and festivals. These factors are often used to explain why the city's budget is frequently overstretched. However, the federal government also appropriates funds for the city. For instance, according to Public Law 108-7, the federal government provided, among other funds, an estimated 25% of the District's operating budget in 2003.

Historically, the city's local government has earned somewhat of a reputation for mismanagement and waste, particularly during the mayoralty of Marion Barry, who was re-elected despite serving jail time for smoking crack cocaine. A front-page story in the July 21, 1997 Washington Post reported that Washington had some of the highest-cost lowest-quality services in the entire region. Prosperity in the late 1990s and early 2000s lessened public pressure on Mayor Williams, but he still faced daunting urban renewal, public health and public education challenges.

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress direct jurisdiction over Washington, D.C. While Congress has delegated various amounts of this authority to local government, including an elected mayor and city council, Congress still intervenes, from time to time, in local affairs relating to schools, gun control policy, and other issues.

Citizens of the District have no voting representation in Congress. They are represented in the House of Representatives by a non-voting delegate (Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC At-Large)) who sits on committees and participates in debate, but cannot vote. D.C. has no representation at all in the Senate. Attempts to change this situation, including the proposed District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, have been unsuccessful.

Citizens of Washington, D.C. are not unique in having diminished representation in their federal legislature, although they are unique in having no voting representation at all. Some nations that have built capital cities from scratch, including Nigeria, have diminished representation for a federal district. Washington's situation can also be compared to the historical status of U.S. territories, which had only non-voting delegates to the House. However, unlike U.S. territories today (such as American Samoa and Guam), citizens of the District of Columbia are fully taxed and subject to all U.S. laws, just as the citizens of the fifty states. In recent years, "Taxation Without Representation" has been the ironic motto featured on D.C. license plates.

With the passage of the 23rd Amendment in 1961, residents of the District became eligible to vote for President. The District has three electoral votes--the same number as states with the smallest populations, such as Montana, Wyoming, Delaware, Alaska, Vermont, and the Dakotas.

The District of Columbia has recognized domestic partnerships since 1992, but Congress withheld funding to implement recognition until 2002. Both same-sex and mixed-sex couples may register. Under the Domestic Partnership Equality Amendment Act of 2006, D.C. Law 16-79, which came into effect on April 4, 2006, in almost all cases a domestic partner will have the same rights as a spouse regarding inheritance, probate, guardianship, and other rights traditionally accorded to spouses. Employees of the District government and their domestic partners are eligible for healthcare coverage and family leave benefits, the same as married couples.

During the violent crime wave of the early 1990s, Washington, D.C. was known as the "murder capital" of the United States,[40] and often rivaled New Orleans in the high number of homicides. Homicides peaked in 1991 at 482, but the level of violence declined drastically in the 1990s. In 2006, there were 169 murders in the city.[41] Once plagued with violent crime, many D.C. neighborhoods, such as Columbia Heights, are becoming safe and vibrant areas as a result of gentrification. While not as intensely violent, crime hot spots have since displaced farther into the eastern sections of Washington, D.C. and across the border into Maryland. Although the southeastern side of the city has developed a reputation for being unsafe, these crime hot spots are generally concentrated in very specific areas that are associated with drugs and gangs.[5] Other areas east of the U.S. Capitol, as well as the city's wealthier Northwest neighborhoods, experience low levels of crime. Despite the declining trends, Washington D.C. crime rates (2005) remain among the highest of U.S. cities, and it was most recently ranked as the 13th most dangerous city in the nation (2005). Washington, D.C.'s crime rate surpasses the rates of L.A. and New York.[42]

Washington, D.C.'s Mayor Fenty is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,[43] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.

On July 11, 2006, then-Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey declared a "crime emergency" in the city in response to a rising homicide rate (the city had logged 13 murders since July 1, most notably the killing of a prominent British political activist in Georgetown. While the declaration allowed for more flexible and increased policing in high-crime neighborhoods, it was temporary and scheduled to be revisited following a 30-day trial period.[44]

The John A. Wilson Building houses the offices of the mayor and council of the District of Columbia.

The U.S. Capitol, seat of the Legislative Branch of the U.S. Federal Government, sits prominently east of the National Mall in Washington, D.C.