Norton Gets D.C. Equality Provision Passed in Presidential Pension Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act (H.R. 1496), which passed the House on Wednesday, removes a provision in current law that treats the District of Columbia government as a part of the federal government for purposes of presidential pensions. The bill updates the 1958 Former Presidents Act by treating employment of former presidents and the widow or widower of former presidents by the District government in the same manner as employment by any other local or state government. Under current law, former presidents and the widows or widowers of former presidents are prohibited from collecting pensions during any period in which they work for either the federal or D.C. government. The law has not been updated to recognize D.C. as an independent jurisdiction with a locally elected and funded government, which was established by the Home Rule Act of 1973. The bill applies to future former presidents and widows. The bill makes this equality correction as the House moves toward House passage of Norton's D.C. statehood bill (H.R. 51).

In 1958, the District had no elected local government. Instead, the D.C. government was governed by three presidentially appointed commissioners, all locally raised D.C. funds were deposited in the U.S. Treasury, and the federal government paid the employer contribution of the pensions of D.C. government employees. However, the Former Presidents Act became outdated as to the D.C. government after Congress passed the Home Rule Act and the District was no longer part of the federal government.

"I thank my colleagues for supporting it on the House floor this week," Norton said. "The 1958 law was designed to keep former presidents or their widows or widowers who worked for the D.C. government from double dipping by collecting both a federal pension and salary from the D.C. government. Yet today, D.C., of course, is an independent jurisdiction that places its locally raised funds in its own accounts, making the double dipping rationale for that provision in the law an anachronism. I have long insisted that the District be treated like other jurisdictions up to and including statehood. This small but significant change puts treatment of D.C. on equal footing with the states."

The Home Rule Act granted D.C. a locally elected government. Under the Home Rule Act, D.C. local funds, consisting of local taxes and fees, are deposited in D.C. government accounts, not the U.S. Treasury. Under the Home Rule Act, former presidents and widows of former presidents would not be double dipping by collecting both a federal pension and a salary from the D.C. government, because they are funded by different governments.