Norton Thanks National Coalition for Letters to House and Senate Appropriators to Prevent D.C. Riders

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) thanked a coalition of over 50 national organizations for sending letters to House and Senate appropriators today to ensure that during the fiscal year 2014 appropriations process, which is now underway, D.C. home rule is respected and that anti-home rule riders are not added to D.C.'s appropriations bill. The coalition, led by DC Vote, consists of groups whose issues – reproductive rights, needle exchange, and gun safety – have been attacked in the past, using the District as a vehicle. The letters laid out the organizations' united opposition to riders targeting the District, and warned lawmakers that their constituents would be informed if they spent their time meddling in the District's local affairs during the appropriations process.

"I am grateful to the many national groups that have joined our city's fight against intrusion on our self-government rights," said Norton. "These allies have been a critical part of our resistance to the autocratic reversal of the local laws of the District of Columbia by alerting the Congress that they stand with our city on the bedrock federalism principle that local control means freedom from federal interference in local matters. The success of the coalition's work over the past several years is highlighted by the fact that only one appropriations rider remains – a ban on our city's ability to spend its local funds on abortions for low-income women. Despite our success, congressional attacks on the District have continued and the coalition's hard work is as necessary and deeply appreciated as ever."

In May, in advance of the appropriations process, Norton held a Save D.C. Home Rule press conference with D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and national groups. The groups' leaders have committed to use their nationwide networks of members throughout the country to contact members of the House and Senate appropriations committees to protect D.C.'s home-rule rights in the fiscal year 2014 D.C. appropriations bill, as they did with the letter to appropriators today.

In just the first six months of the 113th Congress, significant attacks on the District have already occurred. However, Norton and her allies have had some initial success, but more work remains, particularly on the repeated attacks. For example, Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) reintroduced a bill, which would, among other things, make permanent law the annual rider that prohibits the District from spending its local funds on abortions for low-income women. The bill passed the House last Congress, but was not taken up in the Senate. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) reintroduced his bill, which last Congress did not receive a hearing or a vote in the Senate, to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columba. He also filed an amendment to the Senate budget resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that Congress should pass such a 20-week abortion ban bill, but it did not receive a vote. Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ) reintroduced his companion D.C. abortion ban bill, which was defeated on the House floor last Congress, but he has since expanded it to a nationwide ban, a victory for home rule but not for reproductive choice. Representative Phil Gingrey (R-GA) introduced a resolution expressing the sense of the House that active duty military personnel in D.C. should be exempt from D.C.'s gun laws, but not those of any other jurisdiction, and he got it added as an amendment to the House version of the fiscal year 2014 Defense Authorization bill. Last Congress, the resolution was included in the House version of the fiscal year 2013 Defense Authorization bill, but Norton got the provision removed from the version signed into law.

Published: July 2, 2013