Norton and New Coalition Call on Administration and Senate Democrats to Protect D.C.'s Home Rule

Norton and New Coalition Call on Administration and Senate Democrats toProtect D.C.'s Home Rule on Two Fronts Before August Recess

June 30, 2011

Washington, DC - As the debt limit talks move to the highest levels of the administration and Congress, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and a new coalition of 100 national and local organizations called on the administration and Senate Democrats to keep D.C.'s home-rule rights off the table in both the debt limit negotiations and the fiscal year 2012 appropriations. Norton is preparing to fight possible attempts to interfere with the District's local affairs in both the legislation to raise the nation's debt limit and the Fiscal Year 2012 D.C. Appropriations bill. The House Appropriations Committee-passed Fiscal Year 2012 D.C. Appropriations bill, which retains the prohibition on D.C.'s use of its local funds for abortions for low-income women, is expected on the House floor before the August recess, and the nation's debt limit must be raised before August 2.

Norton wants Democrats to use their votes to protect the city, which has no vote, even on matters that affect only the rights of its residents. Norton said she appreciates that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has pointed out that no debt limit or spending bill can pass without House Democratic votes; 59 House Republicans voted against the fiscal year 2011 spending deal, which meant that without 39 House Democratic votes, the deal could not have occurred. "This means that House Democrats, although in the minority party, have considerable leverage, and Democrats must be prepared to use it this time in negotiations on the debt limit and appropriations," Norton said. "Since the 2011 spending deal, which violated the city's home rule, District officials and residents have taken action to reinforce the oldest of American principles: local legislation and local spending decisions are for local residents alone. The District enters these upcoming battles with newly energized D.C. residents, who have taken to the streets of the Capitol and the White House by the hundreds, including 73 who have been arrested, to protest interference in the District's local affairs, and a new national coalition that is alerting the constituents of members of the House and Senate if their representatives intervene in the local affairs of our city instead of attending to the business of their constituents."