President Biden told Senate Democrats in a closed-door meeting Thursday that he will not veto a GOP-led resolution that would block D.C.’s major revision of its criminal sentencing laws, according to senators present.Biden’s decision not to intervene means Congress may block D.C. legislation for the first time in more than 30 years, which would represent a remarkable moment for a city that has gone full throttle on pushing Democrats to unite behind D.C. statehood in recent years.
Reacting moments after the news broke during a news conference, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting representative in the House, expressed disbelief. She pointed out that the Biden administration previously said it opposed the efforts to block local D.C. legislation and said those efforts were a prime example of why D.C. deserves statehood. She questioned why, if Biden opposed the resolution and supported statehood, he would not veto it.
The major revisions to D.C.'s criminal code are the product of more than a decade of collaboration among prosecutors, defense attorneys and criminal justice researchers to update the century-old code and restructure how crimes are sentenced. Republicans have also seized on the revised code’s elimination of mandatory minimum sentences, as well as the reduction of maximum penalties for many crimes such as robbery and burglary.
But Republicans have continued to use her veto to drum up bipartisan support for the disapproval resolution, and Bowser’s veto has been a frequent point of discussion for members of both parties.Leaving the meeting with Biden, Sen. Mazie Hirono said she’s undecided on how she’ll vote now, saying that she believes in D.C. statehood but that the mayor’s veto has concerned her.
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