Congress quietly reverses DC's police accountability law
H.R. 2096 — Protecting Our Nation’s Capital Emergency Act · Filed by Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 14, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill restores two rights to DC police officers that were removed by a 2022 police reform law: the right to negotiate discipline matters through their union, and a statute of limitations for bringing disciplinary cases against them. It undoes specific provisions of the 2022 Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to repeal police reform provisions enacted in 2022, specifically restoring union negotiation rights over discipline and reinstating a statute of limitations that shields officers from older misconduct claims. This is a direct reversal of accountability measures.
What the text implies
- Statute of limitations restoration may bar prosecution of historical misconduct cases against police officers, effectively creating a window beyond which discipline becomes unavailable regardless of severity.
- Returning discipline negotiation to collective bargaining may allow unions to block or delay discipline outcomes, shifting power from civilian oversight to labor negotiation.
- The 2022 reform law was DC's response to national police accountability demands; this bill reverses that reform without addressing the public-safety concerns that prompted it.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill removes accountability mechanisms created by a 2022 police reform law, specifically eliminating the ability to bring discipline cases without a time limit and restricting the public's leverage over police discipline by returning negotiation power to the union. Citizens lose transparency and enforcement tools for police misconduct.
Who stands to gain
- DC police officers (union members)
- DC police unions
Named in the bill
District of Columbia, Metropolitan Police Department, DC Government Comprehensive Merit Personnel Act of 1978, Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022, D.C. Law 24–345, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Republicans.
- Mar 14, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 14, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform”
- May 21, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- May 21, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 23 - 18”
- Jun 10, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 235 - 178, 1 Present (Roll no. 162).”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $10,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Andrew Garbarino, the sponsor, reported $1,954,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Dc Police Union — $10,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 15, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,091 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 15, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress quietly reverses DC's police accountability law” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr2096 Report an error
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