Norton’s Office Corrects Erroneous Report That the District Can Spend its Local Funds for All of Fiscal Year 2012

September 28, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC – In response to a media inquiry, the Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that, contrary to what may have been reported, the continuing resolutions (CRs) passed by the Senate on Monday do not give the District of Columbia the authority to spend its local funds through 2012, as Norton has repeatedly requested.

On Monday, the Senate passed two CRs to avert a government shutdown. One CR keeps the federal government running through October 4, which the House is expected to adopt by unanimous consent on Thursday. The other CR, which the House is expected to consider next week, would keep the federal government running through November 18. Both CRs, under an agreement Congresswoman Norton reached with Republican appropriators several years ago, allow the District to spend at next year's levels until the CRs expire. However, the District's authority to spend its local funds expires when the CRs expire. President Obama asked for year-long spending authority for D.C. in his fiscal year 2012 CR request. A Norton amendment to the CR to allow the District to spend its local funds for all of fiscal year 2012 failed in the House Rules Committee. On September 21, as the odds of a federal government shutdown increased, Norton introduced the District of Columbia Fiscal Year 2012 Local Funds Continuation Act, to permit the D.C. government to remain open in the event of a federal government shutdown and to spend its local funds for the rest of fiscal year 2012, a bill similar to one Norton introduced in fiscal year 2011. She then worked with House and Senate Democratic leadership to try to amend the CR to give D.C. full-year spending authority, but Senate Democrats did not include this authority in either of the CRs the Senate passed earlier this week. Norton has pending a bill, H.R.980, the District of Columbia Local Funds Continuation Act, to allow the District to remain open spending its own funds whenever the Congress has not passed the D.C. budget, and a bill, H.R 345, District of Columbia Budget Autonomy Act of 2011, to allow the District budget to become final without coming to Congress at all.

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