Norton Language to Remove D.C. from Federal Hatch Act is Included in Hatch Act Reform Legislation Introduced Today

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the Congresswoman's language to remove the District of Columbia from the federal Hatch Act was included in legislation introduced today by Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to reform the federal Hatch Act. The D.C. Council has already passed a local Hatch Act, but it cannot take effect until congress removes the District from the federal Hatch Act. Norton's language allows the District, the only local jurisdiction under the federal Hatch Act, to operate under a local Hatch Act, eliminating confusion about application of federal law to local D.C. matters and furthering D.C.'s home-rule jurisdiction. Last Congress, Norton's D.C. Hatch Act Reform Act passed the House and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee before being stopped by an anonymous hold in the Senate. Norton thanked Akaka and Cummings, as well as the legislation's co-sponsors, Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Carl Levin (D-MI), and Congressmen Gerald Connolly (D-VA), James Moran (D-VA), and Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA), for including the D.C. provision in this year's bill.

"In my first year in Congress, I was able to get the House to pass a bill to remove the District from the federal Hatch Act, but the Senate did not act on my bill. This language allows the District to operate under its own local Hatch Act, as all other state and local jurisdictions are permitted to do," Norton said

Norton has frequently criticized the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) for inconsistently applying the federal Hatch Act to the District. OSC, for example, has charged some Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners (ANCs), elected officials under D.C. law, running for the D.C. Council with violating the Hatch Act, but not other ANCs. OSC has requested that Congress clarify the District's Hatch Act status. Congress should not miss this new opportunity, Norton said.

The Congresswoman's language removes only the federal Hatch Act jurisdiction that applies solely to the District of Columbia.

Published: March 7, 2012