Norton to Join Mayor Bowser, Chairman Mendelson, and Attorney General Racine for Press Conference at Wilson Building Ahead of OGR Markup to Repeal D.C. Budget Autonomy Law, Tomorrow

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will go to the John A. Wilson building as the District of Columbia Council holds its first vote on the District’s fiscal year 2017 budget to stand with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine at a press conference tomorrow, May 17, 2016, at 12:30 p.m., at the John A. Wilson Building’s main entrance lobby (1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW, First Floor). Norton will then go back to Capitol Hill for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGR) markup of a bill to repeal the Local Budget Autonomy Act of 2012 (BAA), a referendum ratified overwhelmingly by D.C. voters in 2013, tomorrow, May 17, 2016, at 2:00 p.m., in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

The markup will take place only five days after an OGR subcommittee hearing on the validity of the BAA, which Norton says is an indication that Republicans had already drafted the repeal bill and planned to mark up the bill even before the hearing and regardless of what the witnesses explained. Under the BAA, for the first time ever, the D.C. Council will adopt the local portion of D.C.’s budget and submit it to Congress for a review period as it would any other D.C. bill, rather than having the President submit it to Congress for approval. In March, a D.C. Superior Court judge upheld the BAA and ordered District officials to implement it.