ANC Commissioners Would Be Among the First to Benefit from Norton Hatch Act Bill - June 5, 2006

ANC Commissioners Would Be Among the First to Benefit from Norton Hatch Act Bill
June 5, 2006

Washington, DC-- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who introduced the District of Columbia Hatch Reform Act earlier this year, said that a recently issued opinion of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) was a virtual invitation to pass her bill. In an official letter, OSC informed ANC Commissioner Robert Brannum that it would not investigate him for seeking partisan office, even though OSC believes that ANC commissioners are subject to Hatch Act restrictions because they are not included in the list of D.C. elected officials that are not subject to the Act. Tellingly, the opinion took note of the need for legislative change, and said, “OSC would support any efforts to seek that change.”

Even before complaints were filed against ANC commissioners this year, Norton introduced H.R. 4969 with Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA), to remove the District from federal Hatch Act jurisdiction. The District is the only local jurisdiction that is treated as if it were a federal agency under the Hatch Act, a pre-Home Rule anachronism that was not needed after the passage of the Home Rule Act in 1973. Norton’s bill requires D.C. to pass its own local Hatch Act, as is the practice in other jurisdictions, and in response, Council Chair Linda Cropp has introduced a bill cosponsored by seven members of the Council, enough for passage. Federal Hatch Act authority concerning prohibited partisan and political activity that applies to every state only when federal funds are involved would remain.

Norton said timely congressional action is needed because of the confusion for both OSC and ANC commissioners. The OSC had to concede that ANC commissioners probably cannot be sanctioned for running for office by removal or suspension because they are not employees of the District government, and as they are officials elected to office, these sanctions could not apply. Yet, because ANC commissioners are not an exception listed in the federal Hatch Act, OSC said they still should resign from office to seek other partisan public office. “This intolerable confusion leaves every ANC commissioner with an impossible and irrational dilemma that only Congress can resolve,” Norton said. “Congress clearly never intended to cover ANC commissioners, who are unpaid elected officials, not ‘employees’, envisioned by the Hatch Act. This misapplication of federal law since the Home Rule Act was passed more than 30 years ago has denied these residents an important right and amounts to nothing less than a long-running miscarriage of justice. Although my bill would affect all D.C. employees, this case dramatizes the necessity to pass the bill this year. I believe the prospects are good.”

The Hatch Reform Act is among the seven bills introduced so far in Norton’s “Free and Equal D.C.” series that seeks to eliminate anti-Home Rule and redundant bills that deprive the city of equal treatment and recognition as an independent self-governing jurisdiction.