Norton Announces Department of Justice Clarification on Home Rule Issue before the House Judiciary Committee?

Norton Announces Department of Justice Clarification on Home Rule Issue before the House Judiciary Committee

December 1, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that, following discussions with the Department of Justice (DOJ), the agency contacted the House Judiciary Committee to clarify that it does not oppose the removal of a provision in the Clean Up Government Act of 2011 (H.R. 2572) that would make a current federal embezzlement and theft statute (18 U.S.C. § 641) also applicable to only one local jurisdiction, the District of Columbia. Earlier this year, the DOJ testified at a Judiciary Committee hearing in support of the overall bill, but not the anti-home-rule provision in particular, which first appeared in an earlier version of the bill during the prior administration.

Norton said, "We very much appreciate the Department of Justice clarification. Clearly, the administration, the Senate, and the House were operating from prior language involving a minor part of a major bill, and the overall focus was not on the District. Otherwise, I would have expected the parties to have brought their concerns to us to give us the opportunity to consider any changes, if needed, to D.C. law on a home-rule basis.

Norton continues to work with the House Judiciary Committee, as well as Mayor Vincent Gray and D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown, who first discovered the provision, to remove it from the bill because it violates D.C.'s right to self-government and is duplicative of longstanding local D.C. laws.

H.R. 2572 will be marked up on Thursday, December 1, 2011, at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building. (Please note the time change)