About Charles' Record on the Council
As your Ward 6 Councilmember, Charles Allen has written laws that have improved the lives of Ward 6 neighbors and District residents in many ways. Below are just a few of the most notable laws that you might not realize started with a Charles Allen bill or were guided into law thanks to Charles’ leadership as a committee chair or member of the Council. If you’re here trying to better understand Charles’ positions, check out the last item to see where he stands on key issues more broadly:
Books From Birth
Charles’ first bill as an elected official created the Books From Birth program, which ensures every enrolled child can receive a book every month until their fifth birthday. This program helps children and their families bond over reading together. It also helps parents set up their kids for success by exposing them to a large range of words that boosts their vocabulary and reading comprehension as they grow. Books from Birth recently celebrated its 10 year milestone with a total of more than 3.6 million books sent to more than 103,000 DC children! The program partners with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Hop in the Wayback Machine and read DCist’s (RIP) coverage of Charles’ Books From Birth legislation: https://dcist.com/story/16/02/03/library-launches/
The STEER Act
Charles authored the STEER Act, which provides a series of first-in-the-nation ways to hold accountable those dangerous drivers who rack up thousands of dollars in speeding tickets and who put neighborhoods and other road users at risk. First, the STEER Act gave DC’s Attorney General the authority to bring civil suits against a vehicle that has a history of driving dangerously – no matter what state it is registered in. Second, when someone is convicted of dangerous driving in DC, the DMV can install a speed governor to limit how fast the car can accelerate and drive. The law gave teeth to DC’s traffic cameras and a new way to hold accountable drivers who thought they could flaunt our safety laws.
The Post (before it laid off most of its Metro Section staff, including this story’s reporter Rachel Weiner) covered how a driver involved in hitting a child in a crosswalk near Ward 6’s Stuart Hobson Middle School had racked up serious driving violations previously. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/06/24/dc-camera-speed-lawsuit/
WUSA 9 covered the first judgement secured against a dangerous driver as Charles was able to point to a significant reduction in traffic fatalities in 2025 to show the STEER Act was giving teeth to DC’s automated traffic cameras to get people to slow down. https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/legal/automated-traffic-enforcement-cameras-brian-schwalb-scott-perry-steer-act-charles-allen-dangerous-drivers-speed-camera/65-390e2258-24d2-470f-9b4f-ce26c88f1999
In September of 2025, DC’s Attorney General won the first STEER Act lawsuit against a dangerous driver. Here’s how DC’s Attorney General has used the STEER Act to go after drivers who have racked up significant speeding violations in DC: https://oag.dc.gov/release/attorney-general-schwalb-secures-first-steer-act
Shutting Down Illegal Pot Shops
Charles wrote the law giving MPD and the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) the authority to shut down illegal pot shops – shops that had become prolific in many commercial corridors and neighborhoods. These shops sell unregulated or untested cannabis (and often other drugs) and ignore the permitting and licensing process that legitimate businesses must abide by. To date, DC, has shut down __ shops thanks to this law.
“Allen, who introduced emergency legislation giving ABCA enforcement authority in January 2024, said the location of the press conference was apt. “As the mayor said, H Street was suffering from a disproportionate number of these illegal shops that popped up, many of them right here on these two blocks.” he said. “These illegal shops were proliferating not just on H Street but across DC.”
Allen said the bulk of those operations accepted only cash and sold untested cannabis grown outside the District that, he said, was sometimes laced with dangerous drugs. He praised ABCA for going after those shops and in some cases, the landlords who signed leases with them. “In doing so, they are protecting consumers, protecting residents, protecting communities,” Allen said.”
Read the full story: https://www.hillrag.com/2026/01/08/dc-shutters-100th-illegal-cannabis-shop/
Coverage from DCist (RIP) following unanimous passage of Charles Allen’s emergency legislation granting the city authority to shut down illegal pot shops: https://dcist.com/story/24/01/10/dc-council-bill-weed-gifting-shops-unlicensed-fines-penalties/
Fair Elections Program
As Chair of the Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, in 2019 Charles guided the District to create and fund the District’s Fair Elections program, which puts the power back with DC residents rather than wealthy interests, PACs, and corporations. By matching each dollar a DC resident contributes to a candidate for local office and putting a low cap on the total amount an individual can contribute, the program restores incentives for candidates for public office to focus on voters and not big dollar donors. Since its inception, without question, the program has completely changed how campaigns for local office are conducted for the better.
DC’s program could serve as a road map for how we can reclaim our national elections from big money interests and return the power to individual voters.
Coverage in the Washington Post from the final vote to create DC’s Fair Elections program, which puts the focus on campaigns back on DC residents and away from wealthy interests by putting a low maximum on how much an individual can donate, and matching 5:1 those dollars to the campaign. This allows more candidates from a wider range of backgrounds and income levels to seek public office and ensures their focus is on earning the support of DC residents. The program has been in place for three election cycles and has proven extremely successful. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-council-unanimously-votes-for-bill-to-create-public-campaign-finance-program/2018/01/09/c5eb031e-f553-11e7-a9e3-ab18ce41436a_story.html
Learn more from the Campaign Legal Center: https://campaignlegal.org/update/what-public-financing-how-small-dollar-democracy-combats-big-money-elections
2021 Hearts and Homes Budget Amendment
Charles was one of three key architects of the 2021 Hearts and Homes Amendment Act that expanded funding to lower the cost of childcare and raise teachers’ salaries, double the District’s Earned Income Tax Credit (effectively putting thousands of dollars back into the budget of more than 50,000 District families), and funded more than 1,000 new housing vouchers. This was all paid for with a small increase in the tax rate for high-income earners.
Two years after the Hearts and Homes Amendment was put into place, NPR covered on how it had transformed DC’s child care industry, including how it had created a 23% return on investment by attracting and retaining more experienced child care professionals: https://www.npr.org/2024/12/12/nx-s1-5203084/child-care-pay-equity-tax-dc
DCist (again, RIP) reports out on a second part of the Hearts and Homes Amendment, funding a significant increase in the local match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, and granting the option to receive the credit monthly or annually as a lump sum. The expansion is effectively cutting taxes for working families earning up to $60,000 a year. Read more: https://dcist.com/story/21/07/22/new-dc-tax-measure-could-help-eradicate-poverty/
2024 WMATA Funding Budget Amendment
Charles helped steer the District government, along with leaders from Maryland and Virginia, to commit a new funding formula annually to WMATA in order to improve service and grow the system’s ridership at a time when many cities were putting severe cuts on their public transit system.
WTOP covered the Council’s vote to put in place predictable, dedicated funding to help WMATA better plan for the future and avoid a doom cycle of worse service leading to fewer riders leading to less funding for improving service. https://wtop.com/tracking-metro-24-7/2024/02/dc-offers-metro-millions-to-help-avoid-dramatic-service-cuts/
Thanks to improved management at WMATA and more predictable regional funding led by DC, WMATA’s improved service and ridership growth earned it the high honor of “Transit System of the Year” from the American Public Transit Association: https://www.wmata.com/about/news/Metro-wins-Transit-Agency-of-the-Year-award-from-the-American-Public-Transportation-Association.cfm
Safe at Home
Legislation written by Charles Allen created the Safe at Home program that covers the cost for seniors to modify their homes to ensure their safety as they age. This program helps our senior residents age-in-place in their neighborhood and continue to be part of the community they helped build.
If you are a senior in DC, or if your parents are aging at home, check out the Safe at Home program to see what help might be available: https://dacl.dc.gov/service/safe-home
Where Charles Stands on Issues You Care About
Charles’ record is extensive and shows over and over again that he prioritizes the interests of DC residents and local businesses, and is committed to a government work better and is more transparent. Ward 6 deserves the leadership and values Charles delivers on the Council. For voters who are curious about Charles’ positions moving forward, here’s where he stands on key issues that will impact you:
As Ward 6 Councilmember, Charles has fought to ensure every family can trust their neighborhood school to provide a great education. He has secured more than $1 billion in funding for Ward 6 school modernizations in every neighborhood of Ward 6 to ensure students are learning in classrooms that maximize impact and incorporate technology. Equally, Charles has fought to ensure every school has the teaching and support staff to meet students where they are – be it writing legislation to give principals greater flexibility in their hiring needs to increasing out of school time grants that maintains the learning once the school bell rings.
During his time as Councilmember, Ward 6 has built more newly constructed affordable homes than anywhere else in the city – meaning more families and residents at every income level can call Ward 6 home. At every opportunity, Charles has advocated for more affordable homes to be added to a project whenever the District has leverage to do so. Building more homes will allow more people to live and be part of our community.
That work includes joining advocates to push the Office of Zoning to make it much easier to build alley homes that can add gentle density and charm to DC neighborhoods.
Charles has long advanced policies that focus on “both / and” solutions to creating safer neighborhoods. That means striking the right balance pursuing both strong laws and the certainty of being held accountable, and making targeted investments in preventing crime and breaking cycles of violence that go beyond what law enforcement is suited to deliver. That means reaching those most likely to use a gun. It means real opportunities for those coming home from incarceration to ensure they can contribute meaningfully. And it means supporting victims’ rights and needs that go beyond the courtroom and the immediate investigation — rights Charles has ensured are protected in law with legislation.
Charles believes great public transit and safe streets are not just nice amenities, but central to the success of the District and ensuring everyone can call DC home. That means committing the funding and oversight necessary to ensure trains and buses arrive on-time and regularly without excluding any neighborhoods from service. It means passing laws that will slow down drivers so kids can walk to school and people feel comfortable enough to commute on a bike or walk.
Charles is unquestionably the strongest advocate on the Council for taking bold steps to move toward powering more of our day-to-day activities with clean renewable energy sources, protecting our urban tree canopy, and preserving access to our rivers. His Healthy Homes Act ensures a transition to broader electrification powered by solar won’t be limited only to families who can afford it, as the program provides upgrades on ovens, water heaters, and home heating to modern electric and away from gas-powered appliances who create serious indoor air quality issues. To date, more than ____ DC residents, all on limited incomes, have gotten an upgrade in their home without paying out of pocket.
Charles is a fighter for our small and local businesses, having written several laws in recent years to make it easier for local businesses to open and thrive here in the District. That includes helping create, and later double, the Small Retailer Property Tax Credit, creating a grant program to install security inside of local businesses, and taking on big companies who try to rip off local businesses with swipe fees on taxes and predatory schemes around delivery apps. In 2025, Charles introduced the RESALE Act to stop major companies like StubHub from sweeping up local tickets and marking them up severely – working closely with local venues like the 930 Club to introduce a strong bill.