Sen. Joni Ernst bill would deny federal funds to cities, states allowing autonomous zones

City and state governments that allow autonomous zones such as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest in Seattle would lose federal funding under a bill put forth by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. 

Her bill comes after a North Carolina Republican introduced a similar proposal in the House of Representatives earlier this week.  

"Mayors and city leaders are letting this chaos and anarchy continue in their streets, and in some cases preventing law enforcement from doing their job," Ernst said Thursday morning on a conference call with Iowa reporters. "That's not the America I know or fought for." 

Ernst's "Ending Taxpayer Funding of Anarchy Act" would restrict federal financial assistance in "anarchist jurisdictions," which the bill defines as city or local governments that abdicate their powers to non-governmental actors and that do not provide police, fire or emergency medical services as a result.

The bill applies to state or local governments that are an "anarchist jurisdiction" at any point during a given fiscal year, starting with the budget year that begins Oct. 1. 

"If local officials refuse to do their job, the federal government won't pay for it," Ernst said Thursday.

Ernst's bill is primarily a response to the Seattle autonomous zone formed in early June after police abandoned a local precinct following nights of protests. After police left, protesters sectioned off several city blocks and named the area the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or "CHAZ," saying it would be free of police. They have since renamed the zone as "CHOP," for Capitol Hill Organized Protest.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said this week that police plan to return and shut down the zone after multiple shootings occurred there. Some protesters have begun to leave. 

Ernst also cited an attempt to create the "Black House Autonomous Zone" in Washington D.C.

The bill's introduction comes after House Republicans put forward a similar bill this week. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-North Carolina, on Monday introduced the CHOPing Cash for CHAZ Act of 2020, a bill to restrict federal funding to governments that do not disband an autonomous zone within seven days. The bill was co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Ted Budd of North Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Matt Gaetz of Florida. 

"We are a nation of laws, and if a state or city chooses to promote anarchy, Congress should no longer fund them, for they are not doing the basic job taxpayers pay us for —protection and order,” Bishop said in a statement.

Ian Richardson covers the Iowa Statehouse for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at irichardson@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8254, or on Twitter at @DMRIanR.

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