Norton to Seek Federal Funds for D.C. Region and Metro Snow Emergencies (02/10/2010)

Norton to Seek Federal Funds for D.C. Region and Metro Snow Emergencies

02/10/2010

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who chairs the subcommittee that administers the Stafford Act for national emergencies, said she believes that the national capital region qualifies for a presidential emergency declaration that would lead to funds and resources from FEMA, also under Norton’s subcommittee’s jurisdiction. The declaration is justified, Norton said, under the circumstances of a three-day shutdown of federal and regional governments in this area, where federal, city, and local operations have been paralyzed. If no national emergency is declared, she said she would ask Congress to add funding to the D.C. Appropriations to help the city pay for this winter’s record snow that culminated in today’s record blizzard, and that she will seek additional funding for Metro in the Transportation Appropriation, because, unlike the District, Metro has no entity to turn to in the event of an emergency. “The District and Metro keep the nation’s capital functioning and open for the federal government and its employees, quite apart from D.C. residents,” Norton said. “A city without a state to fall back on has no safety net in the event of an unanticipated emergency. In much the same way today, Metro is the federal government’s lifeline to its own security operations and to federal agencies, but given the effects of the recession, Metro, too, has no fallback. We risk federal operations if we place the burden of two unprecedented snowstorms on a Metro system that is in the struggle of its life to deliver safe, routine service.”

In the past, Norton has been able to secure federal funding for unusual burdens on the District, such as funds for demonstrations, for the inauguration, and for security. She cited language in each D.C. Appropriation allocating at least $15 million for federal-related public safety costs for events here, including security costs, which she will argue can be augmented, if necessary.