Norton Says President Trump’s Proposed D.C. Budget is An Affront to the District

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that President Donald Trump's fiscal year (FY) 2026 District of Columbia budget is an affront to D.C. and that she will work to defeat its most harmful provisions, as she has in the past. The FY 26 budget would zero out funding for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG) and impose anti-home-rule riders, including prohibiting D.C. from spending its local funds on abortion and recreational marijuana commercialization. It also proposes reduced spending on certain federal programs that benefit the District.

"As with President Trump’s budget during his first administration, I will fight to ensure that these harmful proposals never see the light of day," Norton said. "I particularly want to assure D.C. parents and students, thousands of whom are away at college now, that I will continue to fight for this important funding and that I do not believe they are in danger of losing their DCTAG funds. DCTAG has been funded every year by Republican and Democratic Congresses alike since the program was created in 1999."

DCTAG has been funded at $40 million for over a decade. DCTAG makes up the difference, up to $10,000, for D.C. residents between in-state and out-of-state tuition at public institutions of higher education in the United States. Norton has consistently been able to secure DCTAG funding since she got the program created in 1999, despite previous threats to zero out the program. 

Like his proposed budgets during his first term, the President’s FY 26 budget request does not provide funding to the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) for ongoing work to control flooding in the District and to clean up the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek. Norton secured $8 million for DC Water in last year’s enacted continuing resolution, and she is confident she will be able to get at least that much again because appropriators recognize that DC Water serves the Capitol and federal buildings as well.

However, the President’s budget request also includes Norton's annual provision exempting D.C. from a shutdown during the fiscal year. It contains $4 million to combat HIV/AIDS in D.C. Norton has secured HIV/AIDS funding every year to help make up for the 10 years when a rider kept D.C. from spending its local funds on needle exchange programs. The budget also provides funding ($600,000) for the Major General David F. Wherley, Jr. District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program for tuition for the D.C. National Guard. This program helps boost enlistment and retention in the D.C. National Guard by providing financial assistance to D.C. guardsmen to attend undergraduate, vocational, or technical courses.

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