ENROLLED ORIGINAL
A RESOLUTION
23-460
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
July 7, 2020
To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Establishment of
the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Act of 2000 to require the Office of the Chief
Medical Examiner to investigate all maternal mortalities occurring in the District of
Columbia.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the Investigating Maternal Mortalities Emergency Declaration
Resolution of 2020.
Sec. 2. (a) On October 8, 2019, the Council passed the Investigating Maternal Mortalities
Emergency Amendment Act of 2019, effective October 23, 2019 (D.C. Act 23-137; 66 DCR
0137) (emergency act), which expired on January 21, 2020. The emergency act required the
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to investigate all types of maternal mortalities occurring in
the District.
(b) On October 22, 2019, the Council passed the Investigating Maternal Mortalities
Temporary Amendment Act of 2019, effective January 10, 2020 (D.C. Law 23-43; 67 DCR
15336) (temporary act), which will expire on August 22, 2020.
(c) This emergency legislation is substantively identical to the emergency act and the
temporary act and will prevent a gap in the law between the expiration of the temporary act and
the passage of the permanent legislation pending in the Committee on the Judiciary and Public
Safety.
Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances
enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the
Investigating Maternal Mortalities Emergency Amendment Act of 2020 be adopted after a single
reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.