D.C. Residents Get Boost on Anti-Home-Rule Rider from House Democratic Members
September 13, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC – In advance of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government and the Senate Appropriations Committee markups of the D.C. Appropriations bill on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is working with key senators to prevent the anti-choice rider that the House added to the D.C. Appropriations bill, which bars the city from spending its own funds on abortion services for low-income women, from being added to the Senate version of the D.C. Appropriations bill. The coalition of 100 organizations that helped Norton keep all other anti-home-rule riders off of the House bill is also at work in the Senate to prevent any anti-home-rule riders there.
Norton applauded Congresswomen Louise Slaughter (NY-28) and Diana DeGette (CO-1), the co-chairs of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, for leading 59 members of the House in sending a letter to both House and Senate Democratic appropriators yesterday urging them to protect the reproductive rights of low-income women in the District of Columbia. The letter asks appropriators to oppose the abortion rider in the Fiscal Year 2012 Financial Services Appropriations bill, which would prevent D.C. from using local taxpayer raised money to provide abortion services to low-income women.
"As we move further into the budget process, I know that Mayor Vincent Gray, our D.C. Council, and D.C. residents share in my gratitude that others in Congress share in their outrage that Congress would dictate how a local jurisdiction spends funds raised from its local taxpayers," said Norton. "I greatly appreciate Representatives Slaughter and DeGette for leading the charge in the House to protect D.C.'s self-governing rights on reproductive choice for low-income women. The District was dealt a devastating blow in the Fiscal Year 2011 continuing resolution, when the city was stripped of its self-governing rights on abortion. We cannot allow a repeat in 2012."
The full text of the letter follows:
September 12, 2011
Dear Democratic members of the House and Senate appropriations committees:
As you consider Fiscal Year 2012 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations legislation, we urge you to protect the District of Columbia's right to self-government as well as the health and reproductive rights of low-income women in the District of Columbia. We respectfully request that you ensure that language that undermines self-government is not included in subsequent legislation as it was in the House Appropriations committee-approved bill. Specifically, we urge you to not adopt Section 810 of the House bill, which prohibits local tax dollars from being used for abortions for women whose insurance is provided by the District government.
The autonomy of the District is necessary for democratic self-governance, and Congress should be mindful not to violate District residents' rights to control their own tax dollars. The Home Rule Act of 1973 was a result of decades of efforts to protect the rights of District residents. Republicans have spent much of the 112th Congress interfering in local District matters. Each time Democrats accede to violations of the District's home rule, we embolden Republicans to continue their attacks.
By failing to permit the District of Columbia to spend local government funds on abortion, we are sending the message that low-income women should not have access to the same medical services that middle- and upper-income women can access. Ultimately, this prohibition may threaten the health of medically vulnerable women and deny patients the right to access constitutionally protected medical services. We must strive to expand health care services for Americans throughout the nation – not place barriers in the road of a woman seeking medical care simply because of the state, city, or district that she lives in.
The District does not have a vote in the House or Senate. But other Democrats do. We urge you to stand strong and to protect the democratic self-government of the District of Columbia.
Sincerely,
DeGette, Diana
Slaughter, Louise
Moore, Gwen
Engel, Eliot
Polis, Jared
Richardson, Laura
Nadler, Jerrold
Wasserman Schultz, Debbie
Hastings, Alcee L.
Lee, Barbara
Connolly, Gerald E.
Towns, Edolphus
Filner, Bob
Brown, Corrine
Meeks, Gregory W.
Stark, Fortney Pete
Lofgren, Zoe
Loebsack, David
Cummings, Elijah
Holt, Rush D.
Capps, Lois
Farr, Sam
Maloney, Carolyn B.
Baldwin, Tammy
McDermott, Jim
Fudge, Marcia L.
Pingree, Chellie
Payne, Donald
Grijalva, Raúl M.
Quigley, Mike
Waxman, Henry A.
Blumenauer, Earl
Braley, Bruce L.
Woolsey, Lynn
Ellison, Keith
Heinrich, Martin
Waters, Maxine
Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr.
Lewis, John
Tsongas, Niki
Kucinich, Dennis J.
Rangel, Charles B.
McNerney, Jerry
Edwards, Donna F.
Green, Gene
Gonzalez, Charles A.
DeFazio, Peter A.
Chu, Judy
Speier, Jackie
Smith, Adam
Schakowsky, Janice D.
Crowley, Joseph
Peters, Gary
Welch, Peter
Matsui, Doris O.
Clarke, Yvette D.
Yarmuth, John A.
Cohen, Steve
Brady, Robert A.