June 15, 2005: D.C. FREED FROM FEDERAL SUPPLEMENTAL IN SIGNIFICANT BUDGET AUTONOMY BREAKTHROUGH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2005

D.C. FREED FROM FEDERAL SUPPLEMENTAL IN
SIGNIFICANT BUDGET AUTONOMY BREAKTHROUGH

Washington, DC--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said she was delighted that the mark-up by the D.C. Appropriations subcommittee (D.C is now a part of the subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and Housing) today includes a provision that she has long sought allowing the District to spend its own funds mid-cycle without coming to the Congress to be included in the annual federal supplemental budget. Congresswoman Norton took another stab at getting the District out of the annual federal supplemental when the District’s ability to float bonds on the baseball stadium was delayed because the supplemental bill was not finally approved until May 11, 2005 – with the result that the city could incur penalties if the stadium is not finished by the stipulated time. She asked the new chair of the subcommittee, Rep. Joe Knollenberg (who chaired the D.C. Subcommittee in a prior Congress) if he would help get the District out of the annual federal supplemental process. “Chairman Knollenberg has freed the District from the extra costs, onerous operation strains, and burdensome delays that the supplemental process causes, forcing D.C. to trot over to the Congress just to get permission to spend money that is already in the bank,” Norton said. The bill allows the District to spend up to 25% percent above the budgeted amount approved by the Congress in revenue collected through fees, fines and similar self-sustaining funds and up to 6% more of local revenue than Congress has approved as the CFO certifies that the increase in revenue exists and the use of the amounts will not negatively affect the long term fiscal health of the District.

Norton said that the subcommittee mark-up also contained “a very important provision that unties the District hands to use funds that are piling up in our reserve funds despite important uses for the money.” The District can now use up to 50% of the combined total in its contingency and emergency reserve funds so long as the city repays the fund by February 2007. Previously D.C. could use its contingency funds only for non-recurring, unanticipated expenses. For example, the inauguration, for which the city must advance funds, qualified for contingency funds. Emergency funds have been reserved only for catastrophic events, such as the 2001 floods. Norton said, “Together these provisions, which allow us to spend our own money without Congressional approval, take us significantly down the road encompassed in my Budget Autonomy bill now pending in the House and Senate.” Norton also spoke about these additions with Senator Sam Brownback, Chair of the D.C. Appropriations subcommittee at his hearing on D.C. Appropriations today, and based on that conversation, believes that these provisions will be acceptable to the Senate. Last year, the Senate passed Norton’s Budget Autonomy bill containing provisions similar to those in today’s mark-up but the House failed to act.

The Congresswoman said that the mark-up today also marked another home rule landmark because no hearing was held before the mark-up. Norton has long argued that the present process could be significantly curtailed because Congress almost never makes changes in the budget itself. Rather the D.C. appropriations process mainly serves as an opportunity for non-budget related policy attachments and riders designed to countermand D.C. law. “We may not be getting it the way we deserve, but today’s provisions without the usual D.C. budget hearing means we are beginning to get budget autonomy,” Norton said.