Norton Blasts Republicans on House Floor for Launching Record Number of Attacks on D.C. Home Rule

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today took to the House floor during debate on the rule for the House's fiscal year 2019 District of Columbia Appropriations bill to shame Republicans for launching a record number of attacks on the District of Columbia's local laws and spending policies. Norton said Republicans hypocritically blocked her from offering her amendments to strike the five anti-home-rule riders from the bill, while allowing two additional anti-home-rule amendments to be offered targeting D.C.'s health insurance individual mandate bill (the Health Insurance Requirement Amendment Act of 2018 (HIRA)). The House this evening will begin consideration of the fiscal year 2019 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, which contains D.C.'s appropriations bill, and the amendments that were made in order. Norton will go on the House floor again this evening or tomorrow to oppose the HIRA amendments when they come up for debate. If the HIRA amendments pass with the bill, there will be a record seven anti-home-rule riders in the bill.

The HIRA amendments were filed by Representative Gary Palmer (R-AL) and Representative Keith Rothfus (R-PA). Palmer's amendment would prohibit D.C. from using its local funds to carry out HIRA, which requires D.C. residents to have health insurance and is modeled on the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate. Rothfus' amendment would prohibit D.C. from using its local funds to seize assets as part of enforcing a HIRA tax penalty.

Norton's full floor remarks are below.

Mr. Speaker, first I want to thank the ranking member for his very cogent remarks that go to the principle of the matter before the House today.

I have to day, I come to the well of the House in outrage against the attack on the District of Columbia by the Republican House. In 1973 – that is 45 years ago – Congress pass the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which created the locally elected government.

Understand that after the Civil War, it was Republicans who first gave the District of Columbia the right to have its own home rule, a tradition that this Republican majority has repudiated. According to the Home Rule Act, a central purpose of the act, and I am quoting, "to relieve Congress of the burden of legislating upon essentially local District matters."

President Richard Nixon, who signed the bill, affirmed that purpose himself when he wrote, and I am going to quote President Nixon: "One of the major goals of this Administration is to place responsibility for local functions under local control and to provide local governments with the authority and resources they need to serve their communities effectively. The measure I sign today represents a significant step in achieving this goal in the city of Washington. It will give the people of the District of Columbia the right to elect their own city officials and to govern themselves in local affairs. As the Nation approaches the 200th anniversary of its founding, it is particularly appropriate to assure those persons who live in our Capital City rights and privileges which have long been enjoyed by most of their countrymen. But the measure I sign today does more than create machinery for the election of local officials. It also broadens and strengthens the structure of the city government to enable it to deal more effectively with its responsibilities." Signed President Nixon.

How do we square those words and the bipartisan Home Rule Act with the fiscal year 2019 D.C. appropriations bill, which is the most significant abuse of congressional power over the District of Columbia since Republicans took over the House in 2011?

This bill repeals two D.C. laws and prohibits D.C. from spending its local funds, consisting solely of local taxes and fees raised in the city by local citizens, not a cent of it raised from this House, to either carry out or enact three laws.

I filed amendments to strike all five of these undemocratic riders. Even though my amendments complied with House rules, the Rules Committee did not make any of them in order, afraid, apparently, of debate on this matter before the people of the United States. Adding insult to injury, the Rules Committee piled on by making in order two additional anti-home-rule riders. If this bill passes, there will be a record seven anti-home-rule riders in it.

Some of these riders come back every year, and yet we have been able to get them off every year in conference. This Republican majority endlessly touts their support of local affairs – a lie, as long as that principle stops at the District of Columbia border and Republicans interfere with the spending and laws of a local jurisdiction not their own.

Pardon me for being angry, but I remind my colleagues that the 700,000 American citizens who live in the District of Columbia pay the highest federal taxes per capita in the United States and have fought and died in every American war, including the Revolutionary War. Yet, they have no voting representation on this House floor, even on their own appropriation, and no representation in the Senate at all.

These riders amount to bullying that takes unfair advantage of the District of Columbia. No wonder we are making headway on our D.C. statehood bill, but it should not take statehood for any district to be treated with respect and fairness. We have been successful in cleaning up the D.C. appropriation in the past and we will be successful again. The people of the District of Columbia will not let you get away with bullying them after they have paid their federal taxes the way every Member of this House has.