Norton Sees Way to Restore Funding for DCTAG and Other Key D.C. Programs
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that the 50 percent cut to the funding for the District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG) in the House's draft fiscal year 2014 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill, "simply cannot and will not stand." The bill, which will be marked up tomorrow, provides $15 million for DCTAG, compared to the fiscal year 2013 enacted level of $30 million. The president requested $35 million for DCTAG in his fiscal year 2014 budget, and therefore Norton believes that she can get the Senate to restore full funding for DCTAG. "This devastating cut is a function not of the subcommittee but of new cuts imposed upon it, plus the effects of sequestration," said Norton. "Cuts of this magnitude are reflected throughout the House appropriations subcommittee allocations and therefore there is a good chance that a continuing resolution, rather than this appropriations bill, will be adopted. If so, funding would continue at last year's level - $30 million for DCTAG." Norton has been working closely with the DCTAG office because sequestration had already reduced the total funding for the program. However, with some maneuvering, DCTAG students have not experienced cuts. Norton said that she does not believe that the subcommittee's bill is a cause for panic. She said, "In the best case scenario, the Senate will fully fund the President's $35 million request for DCTAG, or, in the most likely scenario, a continuing resolution will maintain the $30 million fiscal year 2013 enacted funding level." Norton was encouraged that the bill did not adopt additional means testing for DCTAG, as proposed by the president. Norton also expressed her gratitude to the subcommittee for not imposing any additional riders on the District, but she remains resolute to try to get the one remaining rider – the annual ban on D.C. spending its local funds on abortions for low-income women – out of the D.C. appropriations bill once and for all.
Next to DCTAG, Norton said the most distressing cut was the elimination of all funding for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water), which funds the ongoing work to fix D.C.'s sewer system and clean up the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and Rock Creek. Zeroing out the entire enacted fiscal year 2013 level of $15 million for DC Water comes at a time when flooding in Ward 5 shows the urgency of redoubling efforts and funding for DC Water. Additionally, Norton expressed her disappointment with the 50 percent cut to funds for testing and treatment of D.C. residents for HIV/AIDS – $2.5 million compared to the fiscal year 2013 enacted level of $5 million.
Norton said, fortunately, the blow against DCTAG, DC Water and HIV/AIDS testing and treatment does not reflect the subcommittee's general approach to the D.C. funding this year. She said she was grateful that despite an especially difficult budget year the subcommittee approved important funds for D.C., including $14.9 million for emergency planning and security costs associated with national events and demonstrations, which is the same as the fiscal year 2013 enacted level, excluding inauguration pre-planning funding; $18 million for charter schools and $18 million for public schools, as compared to the fiscal year 2013 enacted level of $20 for each; and $375,000 for 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 fiscal year 2013 enacted level.
Norton said that while she is pleased that the bill does not contain any additional riders, she will work with her Senate allies and with a national coalition of more than 50 organizations that have successfully helped to keep riders off of D.C.'s appropriations bill in the past. The coalition sent a letter to House and Senate appropriators last week urging a clean D.C. appropriations bill, and some of the coalition members appeared with Norton at a press conference earlier this year pledging to get their members to contact appropriators to ensure that the D.C. appropriations bill did not contain any riders.
Published: July 9, 2013