Norton’s Active D.C. Agenda Does Not Allow for Pessimism as 2nd Session of 112th Congress Begins

WASHINGTON, DC – As the 2nd Session of the 112th Congress opened with an 84 percent disapproval rating, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that she hopes that the House's first vote today, "relating to the disapproval of the President's exercise of authority to increase the debt limit," which most Republicans are likely to once again support, is not a harbinger of a 2011 redux. Nevertheless, Norton is encouraged, at least for the District, considering the failure of House Republicans to re-impose several anti-home-rule riders on the city in the 1st Session, as well as the passage and funding of her D.C. jobs, economic development, and education priorities.

Expectations for the District were very low in 2011, when Tea Party Republicans won control of the House and shortly thereafter forced measures on the city that led D.C. officials and residents to the streets in civil disobedience. Despite a year of attacks on the city's home rule, Norton was able to turn back two attempts to re-impose the needle exchange rider, and efforts to eliminate the city's gun laws and overturn its marriage equality law. At the same time, while the House tried to defund Norton's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) construction project in Ward 8, she got funds for the project in the final spending bills, and convinced both the House and Senate to fully fund the District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant program (DCTAG) that is sending thousands of D.C. students to colleges nationwide.

"Pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophesy, but I do not suffer the illusion that what we finally achieved last year necessarily means more to come," Norton said. "A presidential election year can slow things to a crawl, or it can make Congress want to show that the 112th Congress is not a ‘do-nothing' Congress after all."

Norton said 2012 could be an even better year for economic development than 2011, when action on her top economic development priorities – the Southwest Waterfront bill, which passed the House and is expected out of the Senate soon, and funding for new DHS construction – were initially regarded as unlikely. Norton, who is a senior Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is working on the new surface transportation bill, which the full committee wants to pass this year, and said that a bill could pass because infrastructure is one of the few issues that has bipartisan appeal in both houses and that affects every state and district in the country. Further, her D.C. tax incentives, including the $5,000 homebuyer tax credit and $3,000 wage and business credits, are part of a larger incentive package that she and her allies also believe can pass in 2012.

The Congresswoman said she refuses to believe that nothing can be accomplished for the District, given the contrast between the opening and closing months of 2011. The House began the 1st Session by taking the District's vote in the Committee of the Whole, pursued an anti-home-rule agenda all year, and forced three needless shutdown threats on the District government over federal spending fights. Yet the year ended with a bill introduced by a Republican chairman that would eliminate District government shutdowns by giving D.C. budget autonomy. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced a budget autonomy bill, which mirrored much of Norton's own pending bill, bringing the District the closest it has ever been to budget autonomy. Issa has said he will pursue the bill this session.

Created: January 18, 2011