Norton Says House D.C. Appropriations Bill Repeals D.C. Budget Autonomy, Will Fight to Prevent Senate from Following Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that, as expected, the House’s draft fiscal year 2017 District of Columbia Appropriations bill, released today, repeals the Local Budget Autonomy Amendment Act of 2012 (BAA), a referendum ratified overwhelmingly by D.C. voters in 2013 that granted the District budget autonomy, but said, “the House is only half of the story, and I am making every attempt to make sure the Senate does not follow suit.” The bill also prohibits the city from passing budget autonomy legislation in the future and goes even further, preemptively repeals D.C.’s local fiscal year 2017 budget, now under consideration by the D.C. Council, and appropriates local funds for D.C. in fiscal year 2017. The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee will mark up the bill at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, May 25, 2016, in 2358-C Rayburn House Office. Norton said, “House Republicans are so threatened by our budget autonomy referendum that they are doubling down on their efforts to repeal the BAA by any means necessary.” A stand-alone bill to repeal the BAA will be considered at a House Rules Committee hearing scheduled for today at 3:00 p.m., where Norton will again make the point that the BAA does not eliminate congressional authority over the District, as statehood would, and will be on the House floor tomorrow.

However, Norton succeeded in containing the number of anti-home-rule riders to those enacted in fiscal year 2016: prohibiting D.C. from using its local funds on abortion services for low-income women and on legalizing the commercialization of marijuana. Norton’s major priority is to restore full funding for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG), which, like last year in the House, is funded at $20 million, but Norton was able to get that amount raised to a record $40 million in fiscal year 2016, a 25 percent increase over the fiscal year 2015 level. Norton said she is confident she will be able to restore the full $40 million funding, which is included in the president’s budget, by working with her allies in the Senate, as she did last year.

Norton said the bill does contain several of her other top priorities, including an exemption for the D.C. government from shutdowns in fiscal year 2018, and noted that Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) has submitted an amendment to the BAA repeal bill for today’s Rules Committee hearing that would permanently exempt D.C. from shutdowns, reflecting a longtime Norton bill. She said that this is the fourth straight year she has gotten D.C. exempt from shutdowns, but that a permanent shutdown exemption is necessary.

Norton said she is grateful that the bill provides D.C. $40 million for emergency planning and security costs, including the 2017 Presidential Inauguration, $5 million more than the requested amount in the president’s fiscal year 2017 budget.

The Congresswoman said that she was particularly pleased the bill continues to provide an extra $5 million to combat HIV/AIDS in D.C., the same amount as the fiscal year 2016 enacted level and as the president’s fiscal year 2017 budget request, and $450,000 for the Major General David F. Wherley, Jr. District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program for tuition for D.C. National Guard soldiers, which is the same as the president’s budget request and $15,000 more than the fiscal year 2016 enacted level.

The bill, as Norton predicted, authorizes the D.C. private school voucher program by including the text of the reauthorization bill the House passed last month. The bill provides $15 million each for D.C. public schools and public charter schools, and the same amount as the fiscal year 2016 enacted level and $5 million below the president’s request for each.

Norton said she will fight to restore the funding to the $14 million included in the fiscal year 2016 omnibus and the president’s fiscal year 2017 budget, which was not included in the House Appropriations bill, for ongoing work to fix D.C.’s federally constructed sewer system and clean up the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and Rock Creek.