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 As the House Republican Conference continues to navigate an unpredictable leadership situation, outgoing Speaker John A. Boehner got one piece of good news Friday: his bill reauthorizing a D.C. school vouchers program moved forward.

Eight members of the District of Columbia City Council expressed their opposition Thursday to Speaker John A. Boehner’s bill to reauthorize a D.C. school voucher program. In a letter sent to House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the council members argued the program was ineffective and an affront to local governance. They said students in the program should be able to use them throughout high school, but the program should not be extended to new students.

If you wander past the digital “D.C. Residents Federal Tax Dollars Paid” screen flashing outside the John A. Wilson Building, you’ll see that these days, those dollars of taxation-without-representation number in the three billions. They’re just one reminder, as D.C. Council memberDavid Grosso (I-At Large) puts it “about how we’re really treated as a second-class jurisdiction in this country, a reminder of the fact that we don’t have full home rule here in D.C.”

House Republicans will work to to cement a part of Speaker John A. Boehner’s legacy next week by taking up a measure aimed at reauthorizing one of his pet projects. Oversight and Government Reform Committee members were notified Friday that their panel would be marking up a measure that would involve a five-year reauthorization of the D.C. school voucher program on Oct. 7, one day before House GOP leadership elections.

Updated 4:03 p.m. | Outrage over Capitol Hill’s meddling in the District of Columbia’s affairs could soon come full circle. The Republican staff director of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has agreed to trek from the halls of Congress to a local courtroom on Nov. 19. Sean McLaughlin will testify in D.C. Superior Court on why he directed a D.C. activist to leave the panel’s hearing room during an April 21 markup.

Press Release For more information contact: James Jones, Communications Director 202.462.6000 x112 office / 202.557.4864 mobile /jjones@dcvote.org / www.dcvote.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 25, 2015 

Press Release For more information contact: James Jones, Communications Director 202.462.6000 x112 office / 202.557.4864 mobile / jjones@dcvote.org / www.dcvote.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 22, 2015

The nation’s second most influential court handed a partial win to Dick Heller on Friday in a case challenging Washington, D.C.’s gun laws. Heller is best known for winning a landmark Supreme Court case in 2008, in which the court ruled 5-4 that the Second Amendment protects a person’s right to bear arms for self-defense. 

Here we go again. District residents, you know the drill. Congress needs to agree on how to fund the government by Sept. 30 and, well, at this point, a government shutdown seems likely, according to experts. For those of us who live in the city, that means an extra hurdle to ensure that city government remains open. This time around, officials say they are ready and the city will operate as usual.

The simmering legal battle over the District's restrictive concealed carry law has drawn in attorneys general from various states and advocacy groups on both sides of the gun control debate, raising the profile of a case that could reshape the legal landscape over how far cities and states can go in regulating the carrying of guns in public.