Norton Says Senate Defeat of Full-Year Approps Bill Containing D.C. Riders Is Cause for Optimism

Norton Says Expected Senate Defeat of Full-Year Appropriations Bill Containing D.C. Riders and Harmful Cuts Is Cause for Optimism

March 8, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today applauded her Senate Democratic colleagues for defeating the House-passed H.R. 1, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, which contained riders that violate the District's right to self-government, by prohibiting the city from spending its local taxpayer-raised funds on needle exchange programs and abortions for low-income women, as well as by starting up a new D.C. private school voucher program. The House-passed H.R. 1 would cut $57 billion, including eliminating funding for Metro's safety improvements, and would cut domestic programs more deeply than any single budget in U.S. history. The Senate Democrat's spending bill, which cuts with $4.7 billion is also expected to fail this evening or tomorrow, but Norton said that it has important markers in eliminating the Republican riders, cutting very little from the District of Columbia in particular, and many billions less in cuts from federal programs on which the city relies.

"I have spent the past few weeks working with our friends in the Senate and with the administration to not only preserve our home-rule rights and dignity as a local jurisdiction, but also to prevent the draconian Republican cuts that will cost millions of jobs and drag the economy back from the fragile recovery now underway," said Norton. "Since the start of the new Congress, the House Republican majority has thrown aside jobs as a priority and put special attention on the District by not trying to re-impose the D.C. riders that I got removed in previous Congresses, but also by stripping residents of their Committee of the Whole vote and reintroducing the National Rifle Association-backed D.C. gun bill. As the House Republicans continue to try to dictate policy to District residents and the District government, we must continue to stand up for ourselves in strong opposition if we expect the Senate and the administration to continue to stand up for us."

The Congresswoman attempted to amend the short-term continuing resolution that expires March 18 to allow the District to spend its local funds for the remainder of the fiscal year in order to avoid the possibility of a District government shutdown if Congress fails to pass an appropriations bill by March 18, and to avoid the city having to operate on successive continuing resolutions. Last week, she offered a similar amendment to the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2011. The Rules Committee refused both of her amendments.