Limit the population in DC to 2,000 or 3,000, which would cover members of the House, the Senate, and the White House and their families. Since we already have public housing for the President, building some nice one, two and three-bedroom apartments for the Senate and House should not be a problem. I'm sure somebody could find copies of the plans for something like the old Cabrini-Green project in Chicago, and a private sector developer (DJT???) would be happy to manage the construction.
Those people would be the entire resident population of Washington, DC. The land for the rest of the existing housing in DC could be be handed back to Virginia and Maryland, along with the population. If the people getting re-zoned out of DC don't want to end up in the assigned state, offer them a bus ticket to either New York City or Martha's Vineyard.
The public housing for the elected officials is my favorite part, since I have been deeply concerned that nobody started a GoFundMe for AOC after her complaint about being able to find housing on her measly salary, and I was also worried that she would have to make another dance video to raise money. Can't have that kind of thing going on.
Here's a picture of some military family housing from bases around the world:
US Army, Camp Humphreys, South Korea
Osan AFB, South Korea
Army Community Housing, San Antonio, Texas
Misawa Air Base, USAF, Japan
Fort Drum, New York
Why isn't this good enough for Senators and Representatives???
Give the majority of the district back to Maryland just like it was done for Virginia. Maryland would likely gain a congressional delegate or two. In case you don’t know the district was originally a square. In 1847 the Virginia part was returned to Virginia. That’s part of the reason the boundaries of Arlington City\County and Alexandria are so regular.
Make the official district just the government buildings.
I like the idea of a Congressional Housing area, put it in the “government building” district. Make it the equivalent of flag officer military housing, both have similar sized egos. However, requiring them to live there would likely be impossible. How would you enforce it? There would “separation of powers” problems if you used the executive or judicial branch to enforce. The only possible way to enforce is through “shame”. Most of them have no sense of “shame”! Publicize the names of those unwilling to live in the housing. That will only go so far given the inattentiveness of some congressional district & state constituents.
It would likely take a Constitutional Amendment. The original retrocession some Constitutional Scholars say was unconstitutional. It was never challenged so the USSC didn’t rule one way or the other.
Here’s a Constitutional Amendment suggestion.
Make the states & districts responsible for paying for the “expenses” (salaries, staff salaries, “O&M”, etc.) of their representatives.
Repeal the 17th Amendment!