District's Local Budget Freed from Congressional Interference (7/29/2010)
District's Local Budget Freed from Congressional Interference
July 29, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today thanked the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, especially home-rule champion Chairman Jose Serrano (D-NY), for granting the Congresswoman's longtime request for budget autonomy for the District of Columbia. The bill approved by the appropriations subcommittee today will permit the District to immediately implement its local budget upon enactment by the city council and mayor. Under current federal law, the District of Columbia's local budget does not take effect until Congress affirmatively approves it. Norton has given top priority to budget autonomy, second only to D.C. voting rights, because permitting the city's local budget to become law without coming to Congress first will have multiple and immediate benefits. Among them are reducing the risk premium on D.C. bonds caused by the uncertainty of the congressional approval process; significantly increasing the District's ability to make accurate revenue forecasts; and reducing the countless operational problems, large and small, that result because the city's budget cannot be implemented when enacted by the city.
Last year, for the first time in memory, Congress passed a D.C. appropriations bill free of anti-home rule social riders, such as the prohibition on the use of local funds by the District for needle exchange and medical marijuana. "Not only is the D.C. appropriations bill rider free again this year," said Norton, "it allows us to take the historic giant step of exercising sole responsibility for our own local budget without interference from any outside source, most notably the Congress of the United States."
Norton said that she was particularly pleased that her requests for the new community college at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and her HIV/AIDS priority were honored. The subcommittee appropriated $10 million for the new community college at UDC and $5 million for HIV/AIDS programs. Norton will shortly release additional information about funds for the District.