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HR 6339
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District of Columbia Special Elections Home Rule Act

To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to permit the District of Columbia to establish the timing of special elections for local office in the District of Columbia.

Introduced Dec 1, 2025

Latest action (Dec 1, 2025) Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Referred to
Oversight and Government Reform Committee
Policy area
Government Operations and Politics
Issues
Voting & Elections

Summary

This bill would allow the District of Columbia to establish the timing and procedures for special elections to fill vacancies in local offices, rather than having those procedures set by federal law. The changes would apply to elections for the DC Council chair, council members, mayor, and attorney general. Currently, federal law specifies when these special elections must be held, but the bill would transfer that authority to the District of Columbia. The changes would take effect one year after the bill's enactment and would apply to any vacancies occurring after that date.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (3)
  1. Dec 1, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. · house
  2. Dec 1, 2025 Introduced in House
  3. Dec 1, 2025 Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR E1129)

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 8581 — SET Act · Introduced Apr 29, 2026 · Cong. 119 73%
  • HR 5015 — To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to extend the emergency period during which the President may exercise control over the Metropolitan Police Department. · Introduced Aug 22, 2025 · Cong. 119 68%
  • HR 5183 — District of Columbia Home Rule Improvement Act of 2025 · Introduced Jan 27, 2026 · Cong. 119 67%
  • HR 3877 — Washington, D.C. Residents Voting Act · Introduced Jun 10, 2025 · Cong. 119 67%
  • HR 4055 — District of Columbia Legislative Autonomy Act of 1998 · Introduced Jun 17, 1998 · Cong. 105 67%
  • HR 2693 — District of Columbia Electronic Transmittal of Legislation Act · Introduced Sep 10, 2025 · Cong. 119 67%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Dec 1, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

December 1, 2025

Ms. Norton introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

A BILL

To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to permit the District of Columbia to establish the timing of special elections for local office in the District of Columbia.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “District of Columbia Special Elections Home Rule Act”.

SEC. 2. TIMING OF SPECIAL ELECTIONS FOR LOCAL OFFICE IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

(a) Council.—

(1) Chair.—The first sentence of section 401(b)(3) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act (sec. 1-204.01(b)(3), D.C. Official Code) is amended to read as follows: “To fill a vacancy in the Office of Chairman, the Board of Elections shall hold a special election in the District in accordance with such procedures, including procedures establishing the time of the election, as may be established by law of the District of Columbia.”.

(2) Members elected from wards.—The first sentence of section 401(d)(1) of such Act (sec. 1-204.01(d)(1), D.C. Official Code) is amended to read as follows: “In the event of a vacancy in the Council of a member elected from a ward, the Board of Elections shall hold a special election in the District in accordance with such procedures, including procedures establishing the time of the election, as may be established by law of the District of Columbia.”.

(3) Members elected at-large.—The second sentence of section 401(d)(2) of such Act (sec. 1-204.01(d)(2), D.C. Official Code) is amended by striking “and such special election” and all that follows and inserting the following: “and such special election shall be held in accordance with such procedures, including procedures establishing the time of the election, as may be established by law of the District of Columbia.”.

(b) Mayor.—The first sentence of section 421(c)(2) of such Act (sec. 1-204.21(c)(2), D.C. Official Code) is amended to read as follows: “To fill a vacancy in the Office of Mayor, the Board of Elections shall hold a special election in the District in accordance with such procedures, including procedures establishing the time of the election, as may be established by law of the District of Columbia.”.

(c) Attorney General.—The first sentence of section 435(b)(1) of such Act (sec. 1-204.35(b)(1), D.C. Official Code) is amended by striking “the Board of Elections” and all that follows and inserting the following: “the Board of Elections shall hold a special election in the District in accordance with such procedures, including procedures establishing the time of the election, as may be established by law of the District of Columbia.”.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

The amendments made by this Act shall apply with respect to vacancies occurring after the expiration of the one-year period which begins on the date of the enactment of this Act. <all>

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