OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Disapproving the Action of the District of Columbia Council in Approving the D.C. Income and Franchise Tax Conformity and Revision Temporary Amendment Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Date: Feb. 4, 2026
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. GARCIA of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Frost for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I also strongly oppose this resolution, which is yet another attack on the rights of over 700,000 D.C. residents.

This is the 10th bill that House Republicans are considering to either repeal or amend local D.C. laws. We know that D.C. has more residents than two States, pays more in Federal taxes than 26 States, and more per capita than any State as it relates to paying those taxes.

D.C.'s locally elected officials are accountable to D.C. residents, and local leaders should be empowered to address local matters without Congress interfering.

I have said this many times before, but issues like this go straight to the heart of representation. It repeals a tax law which the D.C. Council passed unanimously. The act created a child tax credit and expanded the earned income tax credit. These credits will significantly reduce child poverty in D.C.

D.C.'s act temporarily paused several provisions of Trump's larger bill from applying to D.C.'s tax code. Now, H.J. Res. 142 will deprive D.C. of $600 million in revenue over the next 4 years. This could force D.C. to cut public safety and education, and certainly impact its ability to serve the community. The threat of a budget crisis will increase borrowing costs for D.C., forcing more of the city revenue to go toward interest payments than actually helping people, as happened when Republicans cut D.C.'s local budget by about a billion dollars last year.

H.J. Res. 142 will also cause chaos in the D.C. tax filing season, which has already begun. Trump's Department of Homeland Security is doing horrific things across the country. The DOJ is defying the law to withhold the Epstein files. We are dealing with a cost-of-living crisis across the country. Instead, today, we are debating to vote to actually increase child poverty within the District of Columbia.

We strongly oppose this. Instead of actually acting like a super city council for D.C., we should be considering issues like D.C. statehood.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose H.J. Res. 142.

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