Skip to main content

Norton Vows to Take on Senate D.C. Appropriations Bill Cuts, Riders Attacking Home Rule

September 23, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today vowed to overcome the Senate Appropriations Committee-passed fiscal year (FY) 2020 District of Columbia Appropriations bill, which would reduce the D.C. Tuition Assistance Program (DCTAG) funding by $25 million, from $40 million to just $15 million. Despite prior attempted cuts, Norton has been able to get $40 million for DCTAG the last four consecutive years, even with Republican control of Congress, enough to benefit thousands of D.C. students, and she anticipates similar success this year. In FY 2017, Republicans mandated a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on DCTAG's effectiveness, attempting to undermine the successful program. However, the GAO concluded that "steady enrollment in DCTAG provides an encouraging signal that the program may be meeting the purpose set forth in federal law to expand access to higher education opportunities for D.C. students." DCTAG has enjoyed strong bipartisan support because of the program's success in helping students from every income group attend and graduate from college and return to a city where a college education is necessary to obtain a job with decent pay.

"The evidence could not be clearer," Norton said. "The most trusted and bipartisan congressional agency, the GAO, did the objective study demanded by Republicans, but apparently, Republicans did not get the result they wanted. Instead, the GAO study produced evidence that shows DCTAG is working as Congress intended. We will not sit still for this gratuitous attack on D.C.'s children attending or hoping to attend college. We do not intend to leave our children stranded or unable to go to college at all."

The Senate bill also maintains the enacted FY 19 riders, which prohibit D.C. from spending its local funds on abortions for low-income women and on commercializing recreational marijuana. Norton appreciates the Senate Democrats who defended D.C.'s right to home rule at the markup.

In June, the House passed its fiscal year FY 2020 D.C. Appropriations bill, which provided $40 million for the DCTAG and increased the family income eligibility limit for the program. In addition, the bill contains most of Norton's top policy and funding priorities. Importantly, the bill, for the first time since the Home Rule Act of 1973, did not appropriate D.C.'s funds. The House bill also contains no anti-home-rule riders. At Norton's request, the House blocked all the anti-home-rule amendments that were filed to the bill from receiving consideration on the floor. Those amendments would have blocked D.C. from using its local funds on abortions for low-income women, carrying out the Death with Dignity Act, carrying out the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act, and passing legislation to decriminalize prostitution.