Norton Seeks to Relieve Uncle Sam of Major DC Oversight at Hearing Wednesday (11/17/09

Norton Seeks to Relieve Uncle Sam of Major D.C. Oversight at Hearing Wednesday

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who serves on the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia, will hold a legislative hearing entitled, "Greater Autonomy for the Nation's Capital," tomorrow, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, at 10:00 a.m., in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building, addressingthe merits of two bills the Congresswoman has introduced this year: H.R. 1045, the "District of Columbia Budget Autonomy Act of 2009," and H.R. 960, the "District of Columbia Legislative Autonomy Act of 2009," which together would eliminate congressional review of D.C.'s budget and laws.

"The residents of all local jurisdictions of the 50 states and all four territories enjoy autonomy to enact their own local laws and to raise and spend their own local funds. No other U.S. jurisdiction except the District of Columbia, the capital of the United States, is without total and complete self government in our country today," Norton says. "Nothing is more demeaning than raising $6 billion in local funds, and then waiting many months until the Congress, which makes no contribution to local tax payer-raised funds, enacts our local budget."

Witnesses areD.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty; D.C. City Council Chair Vincent Gray; Dr. Natwar Gandhi, D.C. Chief Financial Officer; former D.C. Control Board Chair Alice M. Rivlin, currently a Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, and Director, Greater Washington Research, Brookings Institution (former Congressional Budget Office director); and former Corporation Council Walter Smith, currently Executive Director, D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.

Norton said Rivlin is uniquely qualified to give an independent assessment of the impact Congressional oversight has had on everything from purchasing school books on time to the increased cost of borrowing charged to D.C. taxpayers because of the redundant oversight of the budget.