“RETURNING POWER to states and local governments is a fulfillment not only of our political promises but also a return to the fundamental principles of the American founding.” So House Republicans proclaimed in their fiscal 2018 budget resolution Tuesday. Given the GOP move to undo the District’s medical-aid-in-dying law, one has to ask how they can keep a straight face when they call for giving more power to state and local governments.

“Bright-light hypocrisy” was the apt phrase of D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D). Release of “Building a Better America” by the House Budget Committee came less than a week after the House Appropriations Committee voted for a spending bill that would block or overturn four D.C. policies.

Getting most attention was last Thursday’s 28-to-24 vote to repeal the Death With Dignity Act and prohibit the District from spending its funds to enact medical-aid-in-dying legislation in the future. “This is really bad policy,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who led the effort to overturn local democratic decisions. The obvious question: If D.C.’s law, which is modeled on existing state laws, is such bad policy, where is the bill to ban medical aid in dying nationally? Six other jurisdictions allow medical assistance in dying, and in more than 30 combined years of experience, there has not been a single documented instance of abuse.

Regulations that went into effect this week to implement the D.C. law mirror the safeguards put in place by states that allow a mentally capable terminally ill adult with six months or less to live to request lethal medication from their physician for self-administration to bring about a peaceful death. Contrary to Mr. Harris’s many false assertions, there are no lethal injections, and it is the patient — not the doctor — who makes the decision and ultimately does or does not carry it out. A June 2017 Gallup poll showed that 73 percent of Americans support medical aid in dying.

The D.C. Council spent more than a year studying and debating the legislation, hearing from all sides about matters on which there are understandably strongly held feelings. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) signed the legislation on Dec. 20, 2016, and then carefully crafted regulations in consultation with experts. The Constitution gives Congress authority over the District, but why would a party that advocates less federal control want to undermine local officials?