President's Budget Funds Norton Priorities, Supports Budget Autonomy

President's Budget Funds Norton Priorities, Supports D.C. Budget Autonomy

February 14, 2011

Washington, DC-The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2012 budget, released this morning, funds many of Norton's priorities, particularly jobs and education for D.C. residents and Metro, as well as supports allowing the District's local budget to take effect without congressional approval.

The budget provides $67 million for D.C. public schools, including $20 million for public charter schools and $2.5 million for the Community College of the District of Columbia. Norton asked for money for the new community college because of its unique ability to match the long-standing workforce development needs of District residents with the available jobs here. The budget also provides $35 million for Norton's D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant program (DCTAG), which has doubled college attendance in the District.

Of particular importance to the District is the nearly $200 million for the General Services Administration for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters, currently under construction on the West Campus of St. Elizabeths in Ward 8. The amount includes $55 million for the highway interchange, to ease traffic when 14,000 federal employees move to the DHS headquarters, the first federal agency to be located east of the Anacostia River. Also included in the budget is $42 million to place one DHS facility on the District-owned St. Elizabeths East Campus, a critical part of Norton's vision to ensure that federal development also helps development in the community. The president also included $215 million in DHS's budget for the St. Elizabeths consolidation.

Other Norton priorities in the president's budget include the third $150 million installment for WMATA; $5 million to combat HIV/AIDS in the District; $217 million for the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA); and $25 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority. The budget also provides $5 million for non-profit arts organizations in the District.

The president's budget expressly supports Norton's home-rule objective that the District's local budget take effect without congressional approval. Last Congress, Norton got waivers from the authorizing committee to get budget autonomy included in the D.C. appropriations bill passed by a House appropriations subcommittee. As the lame-duck session ended, Republicans refused to support the omnibus appropriations bill that included budget autonomy, and a continuing resolution was passed instead.

"The president's budget focuses directly on our highest priorities, largely preserving our federal funding for jobs, education, and Metro in particular," Norton said. "Ensuring continuing work on the DHS headquarters on both the D.C. and the federal campuses will mean an increased flow of jobs at the site for D.C. residents. The funds for DCTAG are indispensible for our students in college and those who will go next year at a time when the jobs in this region increasingly require college training." The Congresswoman said the full funding for Metro was critical to continue rehabilitation of the ailing system, following the worst accident in its history, and to ensure the Metro jurisdictions will each appropriate the required $50 million match.

Once again, the president's budget includes no restrictions on the District's use of its local funds. The House Republican majority included the restrictions on abortion and needle exchange in their Continuing Resolution (CR) for this year, released last Friday. The president's budget does not permit any new students to enter the D.C. private school voucher program, upholding the compromise reached last Congress, which the Republicans are trying to undo in the CR.