Norton Moves Quickly to Discussion with Appropriators to Keep Anti-Home-Rule Riders Out of 12 Budget

Norton Moves Quickly to Discussion with Appropriators to Keep Anti-Home-Rule Riders Out of 2012 Budget

April 14, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said no one was surprised following passage of a continuing resolution (CR) by the House and Senate that prevents the District from spending its own local taxpayer-raised funds on abortions for low-income women, and creates a new D.C. voucher program.

Norton said, "Today's outcome was expected, but with D.C. now out in front, we are already on to making sure our friends overwhelm our opponents in the upcoming 2012 budget. Although passage of the CR is a setback, it had a powerful effect in bringing the entire city into a new movement to protect home rule."

Norton is already in discussion with Senate appropriators for a clean 2012 budget.

"Having heard the outrage of District residents on Monday at a protest organized by DC Vote, the city is in much better shape than we were going into the CR negotiations," she said. "Tomorrow morning, DC Vote will hold another protest, but this protest will feature young people who do not want to grow up in a city where they are treated as second-class citizens."

The CR passed the House by a vote of 260 to 167, and passed the Senate by a vote of 81 to 19. Norton expressed special thanks to her colleagues Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Representative Jose Serrano (D-NY) who were vocal in their opposition to the CR because of the D.C. riders.