U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered Washington, D.C.'s mayor and police chief to recognize Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as emergency police commissioner for the District of Columbia, giving him full powers to act as chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. D.C. officials, including Mayor Muriel Bowser, have rejected the order, calling it unlawful. In a letter to MPD Chief Pamela Smith, Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb writes that the Home Rule Act does not grant the president the power to remove or replace the chief of police or to alter the chain of command. Schwalb writes to Chief Smith, “You are the lawfully appointed chief of police of the District of Columbia.” This comes after a House spending bill approved by Republicans in March withheld over $1 billion from D.C.'s budget.