Norton Hails 40th Anniversary of Home Rule Act, Calls for Recommitment to Expanding D.C. Equality
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, on the 40th anniversary of the enactment of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) called on Congress "to expand the Home Rule Act to include all the elements of self-government commensurate with other U.S. jurisdictions." She said that "D.C. residents and elected officials should use this 40th anniversary year to recommit ourselves to achieving budget autonomy and voting rights on the way to statehood for the District of Columbia."
Norton said, "Enactment of the Home Rule Act of 1973 was the most significant step forward for democracy for our city since the Civil War. Our struggle to defend and expand home rule has achieved noteworthy success, with all anti home-rule riders eliminated except for the ban on local funds for abortion services for low-income women, which we fully intend to end. Yet expansion of home rule has come in small rather than the giant steps we need. For example, this year, D.C. for the first time refused to shut down when the federal government closed and was not made subject to another short-term continuing resolution, but is now spending its local funds for the entire fiscal year while federal agencies are spending under a temporary continuing resolution only until January 15. However, as the continuous and unrelenting Republican attacks on D.C. home rule demonstrate, statehood must be our ultimate goal."
Several years ago, Norton negotiated two important home-rule improvements – D.C. no longer must come to Congress for a mid-year appropriation, and if the federal government appropriations are not done by October 1, D.C., in the continuing resolution, is permitted to spend its local funds at the next year's level. However, this year there was no continuing resolution at all and D.C. almost faced a shutdown. The remedy is at hand – the fiscal year 2014 Senate Appropriations Committee-passed D.C. Appropriations bill contains both a permanent no-shutdown provision and a budget autonomy provision.
Norton said that Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has D.C. jurisdiction, will hold a 2014 hearing on the D.C. statehood bill, which is also cosponsored by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and other members of the leadership.
The Congresswoman said the flaws in the Home Rule Act are serious because despite the Act, the city is open to attacks on its self-governance every year. This year, in the first session of the 113th Congress, for example, Norton defeated several attacks on D.C. home rule – bills to permanently prohibit the District from spending its local funds on abortion services for low-income women; a bill to prohibit most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy only in the District; a resolution expressing the sense of the House that active duty military personnel in D.C. should be exempt from D.C.'s gun laws, which Norton got removed from the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014; and a bill to prohibit the District from using automated traffic enforcement systems, such as red light and speed cameras, which was not introduced when it received critical media attention after Norton exposed it.
"These are unnecessary fights that blithely ignore the self-governance granted by the Home Rule Act," said Norton. "For the political indulgence of a few members, Congress wastes time that should be devoted to the pressing issues in our country. We are winning almost all the attacks on home rule, but we lose until we act together to make these battles unnecessary."
Published: December 24, 2103