President’s Budget Funds Top Norton Priorities

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that the President's fiscal year 2013 budget, released today, "funds our top priorities in an especially difficult budget year," and that she was grateful that "the District of Columbia does remarkably well under the proposed budget."

The President's budget contains a $5.1 million increase in funding for the District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant program (DCTAG), Norton's top education priority; $100 million for the St. Elizabeths Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters project in Ward 8, Norton's top economic development priority; $5 million for HIV/AIDS testing and treatment in the District, Norton's top health priority; and $11.5 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority for the Combined Sewer Overflow Long-Term Plan, Norton's top environmental priority.

The President's budget includes $35.1 million, or $5.1 million above the Fiscal Year 2012 enacted level, for DCTAG, which gives D.C. students up to $10,000 annually for in-state tuition at any U.S. public college and up to $2,500 annually to attend private colleges in D.C. and the region. The budget provides $60 million for D.C. public schools, including $23 million for public charter schools. The budget does not contain funding for new students in the congressionally imposed D.C. private school voucher program, but there is enough money in the program for all current students through the 2013-2014 school year. The D.C. National Guard would receive $500,000, up from $375,000 in the fiscal year 2012 spending bill.

The budget provides almost $100 million for the DHS's St. Elizabeths headquarters in Ward 8, continuing to fund the West Campus while providing new money to the District to redevelop the East Campus. DHS was provided with $89 million for infrastructure, transportation and pedestrian access to the West Campus, up from $56 million in the fiscal year 2012 spending bill. The budget also includes $9.8 million for the District's redevelopment of the East Campus.

The President's budget provides $5 million for HIV/AIDS testing and treatment in D.C. The District has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the country, in large part because of the old policy rider that banned needle-exchange. Preventing the D.C. needle-exchange rider from being re-imposed continues to be a top Norton priority this year, particularly considering that there has been a 60 percent decrease in the number of HIV/AIDS cases attributable to injection drug use since the rider was removed.

Finally, the President's budget provides $2 million to fund pilot programs to support general workforce development efforts in the District and another $135 million for Metro. The budget also includes $11.5 million in matching funds to the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority to continue implementation of the Combined Sewer Overflow Long-Term Plan.