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Historic Senate Appropriations Bill Advances Self-Government by Granting D.C. Budget and Legislative Autonomy, Free of Anti-Home-Rule Riders

July 24, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced another milestone on the way to statehood today as the Senate's fiscal year 2015 District of Columbia Appropriations bill grants D.C. both budget and legislative autonomy, marking the first time ever that an appropriations bill has granted both authorities to the District. After a bruising fight here in the House on the D.C. Appropriations bill, where gun and marijuana decriminalization riders were added, Norton said she especially appreciated that the Senate bill is free of all anti-home-rule riders. The Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government approved the bill on June 24, 2014, but only publicly released it today.

"After the House last week passed the most anti-home-rule D.C. Appropriations bill we have seen in many years, the Senate bill, together with the President's Statement of Administration Policy on the House bill, sends a strong signal that Democrats not only respect D.C.'s right to self-government, but they want to expand D.C. home-rule authority," Norton said. "We will need the President and Senate Democrats to fight for D.C.'s home-rule rights as the final D.C. Appropriations bill is negotiated."

The House-passed fiscal year 2015 D.C. Appropriations bill prohibits D.C. from spending its local funds on abortions for low-income women, to decriminalize or legalize marijuana (an amendment sponsored by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD)) and to enforce its local gun laws (an amendment sponsored by Rep Thomas Massie (R-KY)). The House bill does not grant D.C. legislative or budget autonomy, but it does include a provision that keeps the District government open in the event of a federal government shutdown in fiscal year 2016. The enacted fiscal year 2014 D.C. Appropriations bill prevents a D.C. government shutdown in fiscal year 2015. The Senate bill provides this shutdown-avoidance authority permanently

The Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) on the House's D.C. Appropriations bill said the administration "strongly opposes" the bill's prohibitions on the District's spending of its local funds to implement its local marijuana policies and to provide abortions to low-income women because they violate the "principle of States' rights and of District home rule." The SAP also "urge[d] the Congress to adopt" the provisions in the President's fiscal year 2015 budget that would grant D.C. authority to spend its local funds without congressional approval and set its own fiscal year (budget autonomy), as well as permit D.C. legislation to take effect upon passage by the D.C. government (legislative autonomy). The SAP was issued immediately before the House bill was considered on the floor. The Massie D.C. gun amendment was offered during the floor consideration of the bill, so the SAP was issued before the amendment was offered.

The Senate subcommittee previously released a summary of the funding provisions in the bill. The bill, as Norton previously announced, fully funds Norton's D.C. priorities, including $40 million for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program, $5 million to combat HIV/AIDS in D.C. and $16 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) for ongoing work to fix D.C.'s federally constructed sewer system and to control flooding and clean up in the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and Rock Creek.