Norton Files Amendments to Strike Anti-Home-Rule Riders from D.C. Appropriations Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) filed more than a dozen amendments with the Rules Committee to remove anti-home-rule riders from the House’s fiscal year 2024 District of Columbia Appropriations bill as it goes to the House floor.

Norton's amendments would:

• Strike the section appropriating the District of Columbia’s local funds, which consist of local taxes and fees, thereby permitting D.C. to spend its own local funds without congressional approval.
• Permit the District of Columbia to spend its local funds to commercialize adult-use marijuana.
• Permit the District of Columbia to spend its local funds on abortion.
• Permit the District of Columbia to spend its local funds to carry out its Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act of 2014.
• Permit the District of Columbia to spend its local funds to carry out its Death with Dignity Act, and remove the prohibition from D.C. enacting Death with Dignity in the future.
• Strike the section requiring the District of Columbia to submit a report to Congress on its enforcement of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.
• Strike the section requiring the District of Columbia to submit a report to Congress on maternity care in D.C.
• Permit the District of Columbia to spend its local funds to enact or carry out any law that prohibits motorists from making right turns on red.
• Permit the District of Columbia to spend its local funds to carry out its automated traffic enforcement law.
• Strike the section that repeals the provision of D.C.’s Anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation law that exempts from that law any claim brought by the D.C. government.
• Permit the District of Columbia to spend its local funds to carry out the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022.
• Strike the section permitting an individual with a license to carry a concealed handgun issued by a state or territory to carry a concealed handgun in the District of Columbia or on Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority property.
• Strikes the section that reauthorizes the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act, increases funding for the federal private school voucher program in D.C. and reduces funding for D.C. Public Schools.

Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) are cosponsoring the amendment to allow D.C. to spend its own local funds to commercialize adult-use marijuana, and Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), and Don Beyer (D-VA) are cosponsoring Norton’s amendment to strike the section permitting an individual with a license to carry a concealed handgun issued by a state or territory to carry a concealed handgun in the District of Columbia or on Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority property. Norton vowed to do everything possible to fight all the anti-home-rule riders.

"The anti-democratic interference in D.C.'s purely local affairs flies directly in the face of the Republican principle of local control, and I am making sure no member of Congress gets a free pass on abusing congressional authority over the District," Norton said.

“D.C. will not be used as political fodder for members who would rather spend their time meddling in the District's affairs than working on behalf of their own constituents."

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