Whether it’s about your experience protesting or encountering law enforcement, providing testimony at a D.C. Council hearing is a great way to do your part to build a more just and free D.C.
The D.C. Council can be thought of as the District's state legislature (because D.C. is currently not a state, even though it should be). District residents elect 13 councilmembers: one from each of the eight wards and five who represent everyone as at-large members, including the Council chair. The Council creates local laws, allocates funding for the local budget, and provides oversight over District agencies.
As a local elected body, the Council regularly listens to D.C. residents and communities in hearings, which are public meetings that can directly influence local laws, how local tax dollars are spent, and how local agencies — like the police and public schools — are run. Any testimony you submit (written, oral, video, live in person, or virtual) will be entered into the public record, which means that your perspective will become part of the official governing process. However, be aware that — because it’s part of the public record — anyone can find, read, and watch your testimony.
You can provide testimony at any D.C. Council hearing for public witnesses. These can be hearings for potential laws, funding programs through the budget, or experiences with public services like trash pickup or agencies like the Department of Public Recreation.
These types of hearings are an important part of how local laws are passed in D.C. Any Councilmember can introduce a bill, and so can the Mayor and the Attorney General. Once a bill is introduced, it heads to a committee, which is a group of Councilmembers who work in specific areas of governance, like the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety or the Committee on Health. The committee may then choose to schedule a hearing for public witnesses so the community can weigh in on the bill before it becomes a law.
Here’s how you can testify at D.C. Council hearings.
Step 1: Sign up
You can testify before the D.C. Council in person, via Zoom, or in writing.
Visit the hearing calendar and click on the hearing where you want to testify; then, choose “See hearing details.” Next, select “Sign up to Testify” and complete and submit the form. Please note that not all hearings are open to public testimony.
If you need language interpretation or sign language interpretation, be sure to contact the committee at least five business days before the hearing. The Council’s website says they will make every effort to fulfill these requests.
Additionally, if you need assistive listening options, notify the committee at least 1 business day before the hearing to request these services. Available options include an FM System, audio induction loop technology, and closed captioning on large screens.
Step 2: Prepare your testimony
Regardless of the format of your testimony, the structure can be the same. We recommend keeping it to no more than 3 minutes when read aloud since the Council often limits the length of live and recorded testimonies to about 3 minutes.
Depending on whether you are testifying as an individual or as a representative of an organization, the most important part of your testimony could be sharing your experience with an issue or your perspective on that issue. If you identify a problem, you may also want to identify a solution.
Below is a helpful template for preparing your 3-minute testimony as an individual.
Paragraph 1: Introduce yourself and identify the issue you are addressing
Give your first and last name and identify what about you makes your testimony relevant (for example, if you are a District resident or worker). Then, state what you are testifying about.
Paragraph 2: Tell an example story
Pick an event or situation you are comfortable sharing with the public that directly relates to your issue. Explain what caused this event or situation and how it impacted you or other people. Remember that your testimony is part of the public record and will be widely accessible, so be thoughtful about the example story you wish to share.
Paragraph 3: Explain why you wanted to testify
Explain why you want to share your story and what you want the Council to take from your story.
Paragraph 4: Suggest how to address the issue you have raised
What do you think the Council should do to make sure that others do not have the same negative experiences as you, or that they do have the same positive experiences as you? What do you think will be helpful to deal with the issue or problem you are discussing?
Paragraph 5: Thank the Councilmembers
Thank the chair of the committee, if you know their name, for reading/hearing your testimony. Tell them you hope they consider your testimony and the solutions you have suggested.
Step 3: Submit your testimony
Each hearing has a webpage with instructions. To find the specific hearing webpage, click the committee on the Council hearing calendar.
After you sign up (Step 1), you will also get an email with instructions about when and how to submit your testimony and how to present your testimony at the hearing.
Often, the committee running the hearing will ask you to submit a written version of your testimony ahead of time if you are testifying live. To submit a written version, use the “Submit Testimony” button at the top of a hearing’s webpage. You can upload your testimony in PDF, Word, Pages, or text format, or you can type your testimony directly on the webpage.
You can also submit written testimony even if you don’t plan on testifying in person. Often, the committee will allow written testimony to be longer than oral testimony. Be sure to check out the hearing notice for any specific information about length. You can also include graphs or photos that support your points in your written testimony.
What Happens After I Testify?
What happens next depends on the purpose of the hearing. For example, if the hearing was about a bill, the next step is what is called a “markup,” where councilmembers on the committee can amend the bill and/or vote on it. After that, the bill goes to the full Council, where all 13 councilmembers discuss, potentially amend again, and ultimately vote on the bill twice for it to pass. The bill then goes to the Mayor for signature. Unfortunately, in the case of D.C. (again — no statehood), all non-emergency bills have to go to the U.S. Congress before they can be considered enacted. From the time a bill is transmitted, Congress has 30 to 60 working days, depending on the subject matter of the bill, to either let the law pass or disapprove it. (To learn more about why and how Congress has any say on our local laws, check out this blog post on D.C. Home Rule.)
To learn more about the legislative process in D.C., watch ACLU-D.C. Senior Policy Counsel Melissa Wasser explain it in this video:
Between new laws, decisions on how to spend local tax dollars, and improving our public services and programs, check the Council’s hearing calendar for important upcoming opportunities for you to testify before the D.C. Council. Your testimony can go a long way toward building a more just and free D.C. Be sure to also sign up for our volunteer list so we can let you know about other ways to get involved.