But the bill has been intensely denounced by Black lawmakers for its drastic intrusion on local decision-making and voting rights in the capital, which is Democratic-led and has the highest percentage of Black residents of any major U.S. city.
The version that passed the House about a month ago would create a permanent unelected court system within the Capitol Complex Improvement District, an area the bill would also expand to include majority-white areas of the largely Black city. That is a move that some, like Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, have compared to Jim Crow and apartheid.