February 7, 2005: NORTON HAILS $6 MILLION FOR FOSTER KIDS AND BUDGET AUTONOMY IN PRESIDENT'S BUDGET

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 7, 2005

NORTON HAILS $6 MILLION FOR FOSTER KIDS AND BUDGET AUTONOMY IN PRESIDENT'S BUDGET
Norton toFind Waysto Overcome Federal Law Against Transfer of Federal andParkLand

Washington, DC--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that despite some disappointment in the President’s budget, she was particularly grateful for a provision that would mean approximately $6 million in additional federal funds this fiscal year in D.C.’s Medicaid federal reimbursement rate, raising it from 50% to 70%, and for the President’s support of budget autonomy for the District in his plan. “We have tried since the 1997 Revitalization Act raised the old Medicaid rate to correct the omission of child welfare services. I am certain this was an error because the formula for foster care reimbursement is in a different section of the Act. However, it has been an expensive mistake that has cost D.C. taxpayers millions of dollars.”

Norton has come close in prior years as Medicaid corrections were made in the Congress, but, she said, it became clear that the only way to get the needed increase was through the President’s budget. She got a similar error in the federal reimbursement rate for uncompensated care raised in 1999, but she is still trying to get $17 million owed annually because a faulty number was originally used in 1997.

The Congresswoman said that she is working on a bill to get D.C. the control it needs of some federal land using theSoutheast Federal Center model and other means through which the District and private entities will develop the valuable site along the Anacostia River. However, she said a story in The Washington Post this morning creates the impression that the federal government could turn over federal land free of charge or otherwise transfer federal land. Norton, the Ranking Member of the subcommittee of jurisdiction, said the Federal Property Act does not allow such transfers. Moreover, the President’s 2006 budget provides funds to build a Coast Guard headquarters on the west campus of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and the rest of the campus is likely to be used for the Homeland Security Department expansion and for other federal office space. Far from turning over federal land, the GSA is in the midst of a 10-year plan for 12 million square feet of office space it needs here, 9 million on land large enough for the secured facilities required as a result of 9-11. This need is in keeping with the District’s priority to keep federal jobs in the District. Norton said that park land raised even more difficult problems. However, she is already working “to get it done consistent with federal law, with a new bill or by agreement with federal agencies.”

Norton was concerned to see an almost $2 million increase in funding for the federally imposed D.C. vouchers program. This happens as, contrary to its statutory mandate, the program reportedly has given vouchers to only 75 low-income students attending the lowest performing schools out of the more than 1,300 students who were awarded vouchers, and that more than 200 students already enrolled in private schools received vouchers during the first year of the program.