Norton Credits Help of Coalition as the D.C. Appropriations Bill Heads to Floor with No New Riders
Norton Credits Help of National Coalition as the D.C. Appropriations Bill Heads to House Floor with No New Riders
June 23, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC - Following today's Appropriations Committee passage of the fiscal year 2012 D.C. appropriations bill, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) praised the new coalition of 100 organizations that has moved aggressively to help prevent new anti-home-rule riders from being added to the appropriations bill in the appropriations subcommittee and the full committee. Norton said she was especially grateful to Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) for her amendment to strike the one rider in the bill, a provision that would prohibit the city from spending its local funds on abortion services for low-income women. Although the amendment failed on a party-line vote, it provoked a lengthy debate and several members of the Appropriations Committee spoke up for the city's right to spend its own funds without congressional interference and for the constitutionally protected abortion rights of its low-income women. Norton said that she especially appreciated the remarks of Ranking Member Jose Serrano (D-NY), who also spoke in support of the amendment. He stressed a major point that the coalition has been making D.C.'s right to spend its local funds without dictation from Congress does not depend on the particular policy issue.
"In this Congress, getting this far with no new riders added must be counted as an initial success," Norton said. "I believe that the new pro-D.C. home-rule coalition has been an important part of this success, because their ‘boots are on the ground' and are worn by voters in every Members' district. The continued turnout of D.C. residents for events like Saturday's DC Vote rally at the White House is indispensible. However, we need all the help we can muster, because Members are not accountable to us, and direct contact from their constituents telling them to mind the business of their own districts, not D.C.'s local business, has been a missing ingredient that we are glad to have for the first time this year."
As the bill heads to the House floor, Norton, DC Vote, and the coalition are preparing for additional anti-home-rule riders. She said that proactive steps to prevent new riders ahead of the House floor vote will be important, as it has been ahead of the subcommittee and full committee votes. "The goal in the Senate," Norton said, "is to eliminate the abortion rider and return to the rider-free appropriations bill we achieved before the Republicans took control of the House."