D.C. Budget Will Pass "2010 Last Time City Will Have to Get Congressional Approval for Budget

D.C. Budget Will Pass - 2010 is the Last Time City Will Have to Get Congressional Approval for Its Budget

September 29, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that the District's local budget will be passed by Congress in a continuing resolution this evening, allowing the District's FY11 budget to become effective at the beginning of the fiscal year, which begins on Friday, October 1. Congresswoman Norton expects that her D.C. budget autonomy bill, which is included in a pending House appropriations bill, will also pass this year, freeing the District's budget from the congressional approval process.

"My pending budget autonomy bill would enable the District to implement its local budget upon enactment by the city, without coming to Congress, for the first time since the city was established," said Norton. "With great joy, we mark today as the last time the District's local budget will require congressional approval if my budget autonomy bill passes. Budget autonomy would give the District several great advantages it has long sought and needed. Without the D.C. budget here, it would be very difficult for Congress to pass noxious anti-home rule riders. Of great importance, the District would be able to make more accurate financial predictions and to manage its own money free from congressional interference."

Among the other benefits of budget autonomy are reducing the risk premium on D.C. bonds caused by the uncertainty of the congressional approval process; and reducing the countless operational problems, large and small, that result because the city's budget cannot be implemented when passed by the city.

Under current federal law, the District's local budget does not take effect until Congress affirmatively approves it. The District also gets a small federal appropriation, which, like other federal spending, will continue at FY10 levels pending passage of the regular federal appropriations bill.