Senator Lee Introduces Bill to Stop Secret Meetings of DC Council

Legislation to reverse DC city council’s action exempting themselves from Open Meeting Act to avoid public scrutiny

WASHINGTON – Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced a bill to repeal a recent action by the city council of the District of Columbia which established secret planning meetings away from the oversight of Congress and the American people. The DC Council took this action with the expressed purpose of working around President Trump’s recent executive order to stop crime in Washington and clean up the city.

“Our nation’s capital should be safe and beautiful, but after President Trump created a task force to achieve exactly that, DC City Councilmembers used an emergency process to exempt themselves from a sunshine law mandating open meetings” said Sen. Lee. “Council Chairman Phil Mendelson explicitly said that he was “tired of having to defend against the challenges from the press.” The DC Council should be enthusiastically cooperating with the President of the United States in cleaning up Washington and fighting crime, not ducking accountability to make plans in secret. My bill reverses their wrongheaded policy.”

Failures of governance in the District of Columbia include:

A long history of official corruption, including the recent federal bribery charges against Councilman Trayon White
Repeated armed carjackings and violence by teenage gangs, including vicious filmed beatings on public transit
Assaults and robberies on Congressional staffers and Members of Congress
Soft-on-crime policies encouraging criminals to victimize innocent Americans
Allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections
Oppressive, backwards regulations leading to a high cost of living

You can read the bill text HERE.

You can read President Trump’s Executive Order HERE.

You can read the Washington Post’s exclusive coverage HERE.