Washington, D.C., is governed through a hybrid arrangement in which locally elected officials run the city day-to-day while Congress retains ultimate authority over everything they do. Residents elect a Mayor, a thirteen-member Council, and an Attorney General, and those officials pass local laws, set local tax rates, and manage city services. But under the Constitution, Congress holds exclusive legislative power over the district, which means every local law, every local budget, and much of the local justice system runs through a federal filter that no state has to deal with.
Why D.C. Isn’t a State
Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to “exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever” over a district, not exceeding ten miles square, that serves as the seat of government.1Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution Article I Section 8 Clause 17 The framers wanted the national government to sit on neutral ground rather than depend on any state for its protection or basic services. James Madison argued in Federalist No. 43 that without an independent district, the federal government would be at the mercy of whatever state hosted it.
The land was ceded by Maryland and Virginia to form the original diamond-shaped territory of 100 square miles.2DC Statehood. FAQ Because exclusive federal authority is written into the Constitution itself, no ordinary statute can make D.C. govern like a state. That is the root of every unusual feature of life in the district.
Who Runs the City Day-to-Day
For roughly a century after the district’s creation, Congress managed its affairs directly. That changed in 1973 with the District of Columbia Home Rule Act (Public Law 93-198), which authorized residents to elect a Mayor and a thirteen-member Council.3Council of the District of Columbia. District of Columbia Home Rule Act The Mayor is the chief executive. The Council is the local legislature, passing laws on schools, housing, local taxes, social services, and the other matters that normally occupy a city or state government.
The Home Rule Act describes itself as a delegation of “certain legislative powers” while reserving “the ultimate legislative authority over the nation’s capital” for Congress. The statute states explicitly that “the Congress of the United States reserves the right, at any time, to exercise its constitutional authority as legislature for the District, by enacting legislation for the District on any subject.”4D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 1-206.01 – Retention of Constitutional Authority Local officials run the city because Congress let them, and Congress can take that authority back.
In 2014, voters approved a measure making the Attorney General an elected position for the first time, with the first elected Attorney General taking office in January 2015. That office is the city’s chief legal officer, directs the District’s litigation, and issues binding legal opinions for local agencies. It does not, however, prosecute most local crime.
What the Council Can’t Do
Section 602 of the Home Rule Act lists subjects the Council is forbidden to touch, and several of them shape daily life in the district. The Council cannot tax federal property, which keeps a huge share of the district’s land off the property tax rolls. It cannot tax the income of nonresidents, which means the hundreds of thousands of people who commute into D.C. from Maryland and Virginia pay no local income tax on wages earned here. It cannot override the 1910 federal law that caps building heights. It cannot change the structure or jurisdiction of the local courts. And it cannot lend the city’s credit to private ventures.5D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 1-206.02 – Limitations on the Council The commuter-tax prohibition alone costs the district revenue that comparable jurisdictions collect as a matter of course.
How Congress Controls Local Laws and Budgets
Even in the areas where the Council can legislate, its acts do not take effect right away. The Council chairman transmits every act to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate for a layover period. Most laws sit for 30 calendar days, excluding weekends, holidays, and days when neither chamber is in session. Laws touching the criminal code, criminal procedure, or treatment of prisoners sit for 60 calendar days.6D.C. Law Library. D.C. Code 1-206 – Reservation of Congressional Authority If Congress does nothing, the act becomes law. If Congress wants to kill it, both chambers pass a joint resolution of disapproval and the President signs it.
Budget oversight runs deeper. The district’s local budget, funded mostly by local taxes, still has to pass through the congressional appropriations process. When D.C. tried to carve out budget autonomy with a 2012 local amendment, the Government Accountability Office concluded that the measure had “no legal effect” and that Congress retains “sole authority to appropriate amounts for the District.”7U.S. Government Accountability Office. District of Columbia – Local Budget Autonomy Amendment Act of 2012 When federal budget negotiations stall, D.C.’s local government can face shutdowns even though the money at stake is locally raised.
Congress also uses the annual appropriations bills to override local policy through riders. These provisions attach to spending legislation and bar the district from using its own funds for specific purposes. They have reached everything from automated traffic enforcement to recreational marijuana regulation to implementation of the city’s Death with Dignity Act. The district has no procedural tool to stop them.
Who Prosecutes Crimes and Runs the Courts
The D.C. Superior Court handles local civil and criminal cases, functioning like a state trial court. Its judges, however, are appointed by the President of the United States to 15-year terms, with the advice and consent of the Senate, from a list recommended by the district’s Judicial Nominating Commission. The Council has no authority to change the court’s structure or jurisdiction.
Prosecution is just as unusual. The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia prosecutes both federal cases and most local crimes under the D.C. Code, from drug possession to murder.8United States Department of Justice. District of Columbia In every state, that job belongs to a locally elected district attorney. In D.C., it belongs to a federal appointee. The elected local Attorney General handles civil enforcement, consumer protection, juvenile matters, and other non-criminal work, but has no authority over felony or most misdemeanor prosecutions.
Clemency follows the same pattern. Because local crimes in D.C. are prosecuted under the D.C. Code by a federal prosecutor, only the President can grant pardons or commutations for those offenses. There is no governor, so there is no local clemency authority. Applicants petition the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Department of Justice, just as they would for a federal crime.9Justice.gov. Frequently Asked Questions
The President’s Role in the District
The executive branch’s footprint in local D.C. affairs is far larger than it is in any state. The D.C. National Guard is the only National Guard unit in the country that reports directly to the President rather than to a governor.10District of Columbia National Guard. About Us The President has delegated day-to-day activation authority to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Army, but the chain of command runs to the White House, not to the Mayor’s office. When National Guard troops deployed to D.C. streets during civil unrest in 2020, the Mayor had no authority to order them in or pull them out.
Combined with presidential appointment of local judges, presidential appointment of the U.S. Attorney who prosecutes local offenses, and the presidential pardon power over local D.C. convictions, this leaves the White House with direct influence over functions that in any state would be handled by elected local officials.
What Representation D.C. Residents Have
Residents of the district did not vote in presidential elections at all until the Twenty-third Amendment was ratified in 1961. That amendment gives D.C. a number of presidential electors “equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State.”11Cornell Law Institute. U.S. Constitution Amendment XXIII In practice, that is three electoral votes.
Congressional representation is where the gap is widest. D.C. elects one non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives.12DC Statehood. DC Governance The delegate can introduce bills, serve on committees, and speak on the floor, but cannot vote on final passage of any legislation. The district has no representation at all in the Senate. Meanwhile, D.C. residents pay federal income taxes at among the highest per-capita rates in the country.13Congress.gov. S. Rept. 107-343 – No Taxation Without Representation The license plates on district-issued cars read “Taxation Without Representation.”
Statehood would change the arrangement, and bills to admit the district have been introduced repeatedly. The latest version, H.R. 51, was introduced in the 119th Congress in January 2025 but has not advanced beyond introduction.14Congress.gov. H.R.51 – Washington, D.C. Admission Act Any such bill would need to pass both chambers and be signed by the President, and the political math has kept it from a Senate floor vote.