Crimes in d. C. Fall under feller under federal jurisdiction and prosecution that is unlike most cities in america. This hearing of the House Oversight and accountability is about three hours and 40 minutes. The committee on oversight accountability will come to order i want to welcome everyone here today. Without objection the chair may declare a recess at any time, the Committee Welcomes the public to the very important meeting. While youre here i want to point out to the members in the audience today that house rule 11 provides the chairman of the committee may punish breaches of order in the quorum including exclusion from the hearing. All participants will be required to avoid unruly behavior and inappropriate anguish, expression of support or opposition are not in order and that includes holding up signs, i expect all parties to the proceedings to connect themselves in a manner that reflects property on the u. S. House of representatives. I recognize myself or the purpose of making an Opening Statement. Under article one of the constitution, congress is a jurisdiction over the Nations Capital and the house rules charges committee to oversee the Municipal Affairs of the district of columbia. Wanted Nations Capital to be safe and prosperous. A city for the residents and districts alike. But our Nations Capital is declining by several metrics crime has gone to the roof. Education levels are on the floor. According to the d. C. Metropolitan Police DepartmentMotor Vehicle theft in the district have increased by 100 compared to this time last year. 57 of the carjackings are committed by juveniles. Total property crime is up 30 . Homicides are on track for the highest rate since 2003. This year alone we producing over 1500 Violent Crimes committed with a total crime up 27 from last year. Washington, d. C. Clearly has a crime crisis. At this committees march 29 hearing members of the d. C. Council refused to acknowledge this reality. The d. C. Council chairman Phil Middleton one as far as saying there is not a crime crisis in washington, d. C. The numbers speak for themselves in the american to visit the Nations Capital deserve to be safe. I am concerned about a lack of resources and funding for the metropolitan Police Department and officer retention and recruitment challenges. I am concerned the u. S. Attorney for the district of columbia which prosecutes local crimes in d. C. Decline to prosecute 67 of cases last year. The d. C. Council continued attempts to push soft on crime policies are emboldening criminals. Mayor bowser thankfully opposed many of the d. C. Councils reckless actions and rhetoric. The republicanled house has passed to joint resolutions for the soft on crime proposals from the council both of the joint resolution passed with bipartisan support. However, many of my democratic colleagues of this committee have actively cheered on the reckless actions and criticize congressional action to restore order. Hope this committee will come together for subsidy discussion on how to address our capital citys most pressing issues especially crime. Todays hearing will also address the crucial role that the mayor plays ensuring the best possible education for the districts shoulder pandemic policies and prolonged closures have huge drops in math and language for students across all grades of the policies have resulted in record level truancy. In 202248 qualified as chronically absent from school. 48 . Something needs to be done to turn the situation around. I look forward to Hearing Solutions today. Finally maximum telework has created huge financial strains on the district, downtown d. C. Has become a shadow of the former self. Mayor bowser has been vocal about the need for federal employees to return to office yet bustling street Simple Office buildings have been replaced by maximum telework leading to businesses leaving the district in a substantial loss of revenue predicted time in the postpaid debacle world to have our federal government workers returned to the Office Especially d. C. Offices to continue to serve the American People. I think the mayor and u. S. Attorney for appearing today as well as the chief and initiator donahue this is also National Police week i would like to send it additional thank you to the many women who police the streets of d. C. To take and to keep us safe in all offices across the country who serve their communities. I look forward to working with my colleagues and district leaders here today to achieve meaningful progress on the Critical Issues facing our Nations Capital. I now recognize Ranking Member for his opening remarks. Thank you very much mr. Chairman and forgive me were at a point when we have to ask why were doing this again. I wonder if secondguessing in washington, d. C. Is most urgent priority for the u. S. Congress today. I think a dozen things more urgently important to the American People started with outofcontrol gun violence that is taking thousands of lives and causing millions of people to live in fear and terror from kentucky to tennessee from georgia to california we had more Mass Shootings in 2023 then we had days and years so far. Another was a gun massacre not only with an ar15. Every single day and you assault weapons account for only 1 2 overall a firearm fatality in america. The vast whole from gun violence in our gun laws make america an outlier among industrialized nations in the world. You know the countries that foreign ministries have issued travel warnings to their citizens about the dangers of coming to america because of gun violence. Gun violence is not the leading cause of death for children under 18 surpassing car accidents, pediatric cancer in contagious diseases. And yet the Oversight Committee is not fit to call single hearing on why these massacres are increasing in our country or how we can Work Together effectively across party lines to stop this bloodbath. Nor if we held a hearing on the threat of a default which could plunge america into a deep recession, trash the stock market and cost are people millions of jobs the constitution does not allow any of this because section 4 of article four says the validity of the public debt shall not be question and our colleagues were content to raise the debt limit three times under President Trump who created 25 of all the debt accumulated between George Washington joe biden seeks to play a dangerous game with the full faith and credit of the United States. A nation up until this point never skipped its creditors in defaulted on top of nations. No hearings on that and we call no hearings on the war of freedom on america to ban textbooks, sensor and intimidate teachers, silent scientist, humiliate and cancel lgbt students and rewrite our textbooks to conform to the nationalist ideology to the republican senator publicly embraced just a few days ago, nor have we held a hearing on how the Dobbs Decision and the relentless attack on reproductive freedom is dramatically undermining the healthcare that millions of american women receive from, miscarriages to a topic presented pregnancies to postpartum hemorrhage in india major biopsy all of the treatments can involve the use of postal that are being treated like criminal contraband across the country. Womens health were a single hearing under these crisis conditions and we had a hearing on the assault on Voting Rights taking place. Instead we gather to hold a second hearing to micromanage the local affairs in washington, d. C. I fully expect some of her colleagues to announce her Kidney Disease for d. C. City council from where we sit or mayor of the district of columbia when this is all over or the advisory neighborhood commissioner. At least the people of washington would have some role in the performance art. I was watching President Trumps town hall meeting on cnn last week and i saw two remarkable things that clarified in my mind was happening. First i saw donald trump claim Vice President pence for stealing the election on januarn phys ed on january 6 he believed and continues to believe that mike pence did not have the courage to do what needed to be done. Moreover assured his cult followers that mike pence was never in a danger in all of the violence was mike pences own fault for not becoming the first Vice President in her history to step outside of his constitutional role and declare the president the winner against actual Electoral College vote. Thats what mike pence gets for not doing what he was told by donald trump. We also saw trump castigate and blame jean carol the woman he sexually abusing a Department Store and later lied about and defamed, trump called her a whack job and asked what kind of a woman meet somebody and within miniature plane hankypanky, he thinks its her fault that he sexually abused her. Watching the two glaring cases of the gop frontrunner for the nomination in 2024 blaming the victim for his crime made me see what happened with the hearings on washington. Theyre part of an effort to deny americans who live in washington the right to participate in Representative Government and to blame them for their own disenfranchisement and their own lack of representation in congress. Nearly 700,000 u. S. Citizens live in d. C. They pay more taxes per capita than the residents of the 50 states they fought in every u. S. War third draft ebola and subject to all the laws of the country and against all odds without the power to select their own judges or prosecutors or make their own budgets without outside interference, they made Real Progress in their community over the decades, they have nonviolently petition for statehood the way 37 states have done it in our history but they have no voting representation, they are locked out of the normal processes of congressional representation. And yet when violent insurrection is attacked this body on january 6, 2021. A Beautiful Day according to President Trump the people of washington as Capital Police officers and metropolitan Police Department officers and staffers in citizens and local officials like mayor bowser rally to the defense of the congress and the republic in the very institutions that lock the mountain. Local residents and leaders stood up to defend us in the Vice President against the rampaging mob that stormed the government in the name of the big lie with the explicit goal of toppling and stealing a president ial election for their service and sacrifice washingtonians must endure lectures for their unfitness of democracy and other peoples representatives who confuse the act of seditious conspiracy with tourism and call the convicted assailants of american Police Officers political prisoners. For colleagues choose to ignore the state a petition of the people of washington. Theres not much we can do about the moral indifference and contempt for other americans rights. At least spare everyone, at least spare everyone the trump spectacle of blaming the victims their own disenfranchisement and lack of fully comprehensive government is an insult to washington is an embarrassment to congress in a shocking waste of time i want to think the mayor and the u. S. Attorney for appearing here today in a want to think the people of washington for nonviolently attacking Congress Even though you have a legitimate political agreement as to an imaginary one, you exercise your rights under the first and the ninth two petition for statehood omission and we salute your patriotic defense of the constitution and this body in your embrace of nonviolent chains, thank you, mr. Chairman i yield back. I must admit when you were referencing i thought you were going to refer to the Durham Report but you never did. Im pleased to introduce our witnesses today, first we have mayor Muriel Bowser was mayor of washington, d. C. Since 2015 and reelected last year to serve a third term in office the chief executive of the district of columbia overseen city life and Government Operations, the District Economic development in the d. C. Police among other critical matters shes joined by two d. C. Officials robert j the third has served as chief at the metropolitan Police Department mpd since early 2021 he is a native of the district that is spent his career serving the mpd, thank you for your service. Kevin donahue the city administrator by the district of columbia by mayor bowser in 2021. In this role mr. Donahue State Government operations and finally Matthew Graves serves as district columbia and has served since he was confirmed in november 2021. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses regarding the district of columbia in their efforts to ensure our Nations Capital as a safe and wellmanaged place for all. Pursuant to Committee Role nine g the witnesses will stand and raise their right hands. You solemnly swear the truth is nothing but the truth so help you god. But the record show they all answered in the affirmative. We appreciate all of you been here today and look forward to your testimony let me remind the witnesses that we have read your written statements and they will appear and pull the record please limit your oral statements to five minutes as a reminder to push the button to the microphone so its on and the members can hear you when you begin to speak about in front of you will begin to turn green after four minutes the light will turn yellow and when the red light comes on your time is expired and we ask that you wrap up. I reckon as mr. Donahue, i recognize mayor bowser. Thank you mayor. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you Ranking Member raskin i would recognize my congresswoman and all members of the committee i am Muriel Bowser mayor of washington, d. C. Im joined by the chief of Police Robert contee in the city administrator kevin donahue. A lot has been said about washington, d. C. Over the past weeks and months. As someone who was born and raised in served in Elective Office since 2005 i daresay i know more than most. I would like to start by sharing a little bit of my story and also setting the record straight. I am over the d. C. Home role by one year. As it was born into it did not have an elected mayor or an elected council. The residents of d. C. Had no elective representation except for school board, the d. C. My parents were born into, they could not even vote for president , despite my father serving 20 years in the u. S. Army reserve committed to protecting americas democracy. My father is one example of the indignities that residents have suffered but he is not alone. When i was one years old in 1973 Congress Passed the d. C. Home role act created the local government while retaining Congress Power to overrule local legislation. Today we have elected mayor 13 Member Council in attorney general but we lack voting representation in congress. But you have the power to fix this through the d. C. Statehood. Since achieving home role we made significant strides to moving d. C. Forward. I am proud to say with confidence. The state of our finances are strong in the state of the district is strong when a process of passing the budget i sent them with no new taxes or fees and one that reflects the sober reality of our time declining revenue due to decreases in remote work and increased cost due to inflation. Still were a donor state and we give more to the federal government then we get back in our finances continue to be the envy of jurisdictions around the nation. We got here through a long history of balanced budget in clean audit. In january of 2020 we achieve 60 days cash on hand in over 20 years d. C. Went from junkbond status to having a aaa bond rating. We did all of this with one hand tied behind her back, congresswoman with novo in the house and no representation in the senate at all. You see we are not actually a city, not quite estate. Were not a colony or territory. We are 700,000 disenfranchised americans living in the shadow of the capital with all the responsibilities of citizenship. And like every big city mayor in america i tackle bigcity challenges all day every day. I use every tool in your toolbox to address the most among social problems troubling america. American cities and towns alike. Gun violence being taught among them. No one can be satisfied with increasing crime trends in any category. I certainly am not. In d. C. Like whats happening around her country we experienced some concerning increases in crime. We see more illegal g