section_path: City government/Politics
section_name: Politics
paragraph_text: Politics
  
  Article One, Section Eight of the United States Constitution grants the United States Congress exclusive jurisdiction over the city. The district did not have an elected local government until passage of the 1973 Home Rule Act, which devolved certain Congressional powers to an elected mayor and a 13-member Council of the District of Columbia. However, Congress retains the right to review and overturn laws created by the council and intervene in local affairs. Washington, D.C., is overwhelmingly Democratic, having voted for Democratic presidential candidates consistently since it was granted electoral votes in the 1964 presidential election.
  
  Each of the city's eight wards elects a single member of the council and residents elect four at-large members to represent the district as a whole. The council chair is also elected at-large. There are 37 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) elected by small neighborhood districts. ANCs can issue recommendations on all issues that affect residents; government agencies take their advice under careful consideration. The attorney general of the District of Columbia is elected to a four-year term.
  
  Washington, D.C., observes all federal holidays and also celebrates Emancipation Day on April 16, which commemorates the end of slavery in the district. The flag of Washington, D.C., was adopted in 1938 and is a variation on George Washington's family coat of arms.
  
  Washington, D.C., has been a member state of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) since 2015.
  
  The idiom " Inside the Beltway " is a reference used to describe discussions of national political issues inside of Washington, D.C., by way of geographically demarcating the region inside the Capital's Beltway, the city's highway loop constructed in 1964. The phrase is used as a title for a number of political columns and news items by publications, including The Washington Times.