Norton Thanks Leahy for Protecting Home Rule in Bill Passed by Senate

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) thanked Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) for removing a redundant, anti-home-rule provision from a public corruption bill that was adopted by the Senate as an amendment to S. 2038, the STOCK Act, which the Senate passed today. Norton first requested this change last December, when the House Judiciary Committee approved a companion public corruption bill, the Clean Up Government Act of 2011 (H.R. 2572), that would make a federal embezzlement and theft statute (18 U.S.C. § 641) also applicable to only one local jurisdiction, the District of Columbia. The provision would make it a federal crime to steal the money or property of the District of Columbia, but not any other state or local government.

The provision, which was included in Leahy's stand-alone public corruption bill, the Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act (S. 401), was carried over from language in a bill written by the previous administration. After being alerted to the anti-home-rule provision by D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown, Norton called on the Department of Justice (DOJ), which had testified in support of H.R. 2572, but not the anti-home-rule provision in particular, to withdraw its support for the D.C. provision. DOJ subsequently withdrew its support. After the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 2572, Norton asked Leahy to remove the anti-home-rule provision from his bill before it went to the Senate floor.

"I am grateful to Senator Leahy, who has always been a strong supporter of home rule, for removing this anti-home-rule provision, which is redundant to existing federal and District of Columbia law," Norton said. "I will continue to work with Senator Leahy to ensure that the provision is not in the final bill."

Published: February 2, 2012