Republicans on Capitol Hill are using their oversight power to try to eliminate traffic cameras that ticket speeding drivers, and soon enough, those who turn right on red.
House Republicans included provisions addressing both elements of D.C.’s traffic enforcement in a bill passed last week by the House Appropriations Committee.
Roadside cameras help contribute to the roughly $1 billion in annual revenue brought in by traffic tickets in the District.
That started with the first batch of speed and red-light cameras installed in the District almost a decade ago.
Right turns on red will be banned throughout the city beginning next year, meaning more camera enforcement is expected at intersections.
Following last week’s bill being voted out of the House Appropriations Committee, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting member of Congress, said she was “outraged by the anti-Home-Rule riders and committee report provisions.”
Other riders in the legislation included banning the District from using local money to: support a recreational marijuana market; fund abortions for low-income women; implement police reform laws, and implement a D.C. law that lets noncitizens vote in local elections.
Federal lawmakers have the constitutional authority to override local regulations and laws enacted by the D.C. government.
Congress exercised this power successfully last year when a bipartisan coalition shot down a rewrite to the District’s criminal code for being too friendly to criminals.
But efforts to put a lens cap on the hundreds of traffic cameras in the District have failed, in spite of repeated attempts by Republicans to do just that.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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