Norton Again Pressed Rules Committee Today to Free D.C. of Budget Battle and Remove Rider from CR
Norton Again Pressed Rules Committee Today to Free D.C. of Budget Battle and Remove Rider from CR
April 6, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) was back before the Rules Committee for the third time in a little more than a month this evening to offer two amendments during an emergency Rules Committee meeting on the one-week continuing resolution, H.R. 1363, the Department of Defense and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011. Norton issued the following statement during tonight's meeting:
"I am back before your committee for the third time in a little more than a month to defend the District of Columbia's right to self-government-and I will be back tomorrow to do so again during your consideration of H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would permanently ban the District from spending its local taxpayer-raised funds on abortions for low-income women. H.R. 1363, the Department of Defense and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, prohibits only one jurisdiction, the District of Columbia, from spending its own local taxpayer-raised funds on abortions for low-income women. My amendment would remove this anti-home-rule rider. This bill, perhaps more than any other, demonstrates the majority's contempt for the American citizens who reside in the District of Columbia. District residents were not surprised the bill contains the D.C. abortion rider, since H.R. 1 contained this and other D.C. riders, but they are particularly outraged that this bill lumps them together with Guantanamo Bay detainees. The only other prohibition in the bill would prevent Guantanamo Bay detainees from being brought into the United States. I urge you to adopt my amendment to permit the District of Columbia to exercise its right to self-government.
"I also have an amendment, which this committee has rejected before, to permit the District of Columbia to spend its local funds for the remainder of the fiscal year. As this committee knows, if the federal government shuts down, the District of Columbia government will shut down. You rejected my amendment on the grounds that it was moot, since you said the federal government would not shut down. Now that we are 48 hours from a shutdown, and the House has recently informed Members to prepare for a shutdown, you no longer have any excuse to not adopt my amendment. Most of our colleagues, as well as most Americans, would be astonished to discover that the local government of the nation's capital will shut down if the federal government shuts down, even though the city passed its budget last spring and a Senate committee approved it last summer. D.C. residents are not alone in relying on vital District services. Federal officials, including the president and Members of Congress, federal buildings, foreign embassies and dignitaries, and businesses rely daily on the city's services, as well. I find it ironic that the majority has spent countless hours of floor and committee time in the first few months of this Congress violating the District's home rule. There would be no greater violation of home rule than forcing the District government to close if the federal government closes."