Norton Close to Removing All Riders from DC Appropriations
Norton Close to Removing All Riders from D.C. Appropriations with the Abortion Ban and Virtual Needle Exchange Bans
December 9, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC - With the abortion and needle exchange riders removed from D.C. appropriations Tuesday night in conference, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is close to achieving her goal of removing all riders from D.C. appropriations. Yesterday, the Congresswoman sent letters to House Committee on Appropriations Chair David R. Obey, and House Subcommittee on Financial Services Chair Jose E. Serrano, and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Daniel K. Inouye to reinforce her strong support for President Obama's removal of an abortion rider and her opposition to Republican attempts to reinstate the needle exchange ban in the bill due to be enacted soon. President Obama removed the abortion rider that Norton has long opposed in his budget proposal, and both the House and Senate committees did as well, but the D.C. abortion rider became an issue as a result of the Senate debate on abortion in the healthcare reform bill.
"Although the issues have nothing in common, the unrelated issue in the Senate healthcare reform bill has caused more attention to be paid to the House and Senate removal of the ban on using local D.C. tax dollars for abortions in the District," Norton wrote. "The D.C. abortion rider has created severe hardships for low income women in the District. It has singled out the District and its women for unfair and unequal treatment."
Norton also re-emphasized her strong opposition to Republican attempts to re-attach a virtual needle exchange ban that she got Congress to remove in the last session. "D.C. residents and AIDS activists were so concerned about the possible renewal of the needle exchange ban that they visited us and other Members of Congress just last week. The needle exchange ban has left death and injury in its wake. We thank you again for removing the ban in the 110th Congress and ask that you resist Republican attempts to reinsert it in the 111th Congress."