Committee advances Fair Initiatives bill adding single-subject rule and petition disclosures

Chair Anita Bonds (at-large council member and chair of the Committee on Executive Administration and Labor) opened the July 8 additional committee meeting by outlining the committee print for Bill 26-436, the Fair Initiatives amendment aimed at updating the District's citizen-initiative process. The print would establish a single-subject rule for initiatives, require an Office of the Chief Financial Officer cost statement on petition sheets, require circulators to disclose whether they are paid and whether they reside in D.C., and extend the window to challenge a Board of Elections decision from 10 to 30 days. "The single subject rule will prevent a voter from having to consider multiple subject matters on the same initiative ballot," Bonds said when describing the proposal.

Committee members raised definitional and fiscal concerns during discussion. Councilwoman Crawford said she supports prohibiting multiple subjects in a single initiative but asked whether the committee’s definition — "a measure addresses 1 subject if each of its provisions refers to and is germane to the same subject matter" — would exclude combined measures such as ranked-choice voting paired with semi-open primaries. Council Member Fruman and another committee member urged care in how fiscal impacts are presented, noting that a fiscal-impact statement (FIS) may not capture broader economic consequences and that ballot language should clearly warn voters if implementation will require appropriations. A committee member moved to strike the phrase limiting the ballot summary to "not more than 50 words;" the committee adopted that amendment and then voted to move the bill and the committee report to the full council by unanimous voice vote.

The measure is intended to improve transparency about who funds circulation and the expected costs of voter-proposed measures and to reduce the potential for multifaceted initiatives that bundle unrelated subjects. The committee did not finalize all definitional language and signaled further refinement at first or second reading and in full-council consideration. The committee advanced Bill 26-436 to the full council; the committee record shows no opposing votes.