Norton Secures Victories in D.C. Appropriations Bill Despite Republican Control of House

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House Committee on Appropriations today released the text of the fiscal year 2025 (FY 25) Financial Services and General Government (FSSG) Appropriations bill, which includes many victories secured by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) despite Republican control of the House. Significantly, Norton was able to get the rider preventing D.C. from commercializing and regulating recreational marijuana, historically a priority for House Republicans, removed from the FY 25 bill.

The appropriations bill, however, includes several anti-home rule riders.

"I am pleased with many of the provisions in the text of the D.C. spending bill released by the House Appropriations Committee today, which I was able to secure despite Republican control of the House,” Norton said. "Notably, the rider preventing D.C. from commercializing marijuana is absent from the FY 25 bill.”

In addition to removing the marijuana rider, Norton secured the following victories:

• The bill exempts D.C. from federal government shutdowns in FY 2025. Norton has gotten annual shutdown exemptions enacted every year since the 2013 federal government shutdown.
• The bill provides $8 million for D.C. Water for ongoing work to control flooding in D.C. and to clean up the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek.
• The bill provides $77 million for the Emergency Planning and Security Fund, including $47 million for the upcoming presidential inauguration. The fund pays for the unique public safety and security costs the District incurs as the nation's capital, and is designed to cover the District's costs upfront so D.C. does not need to expend local funds and then seek an appropriation to be reimbursed for such costs after the fact.
• The bill provides $600,000 for the Major General David F. Wherley, Jr. District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program.
• The bill provides $4 million to combat HIV/AIDS in D.C.

Norton said she was outraged at the numerous anti-home-rule riders in the bill, which Republicans try to attach to the annual D.C. spending bill to exert control over local D.C. matters, despite their positions as elected officials representing districts far from D.C. The text released today:

• Permits anyone with a concealed carry permit from any state or territory to carry a concealed handgun in D.C. and on WMATA.
• Provides $20 million for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG), a 50% decrease in funding from last year’s level for the program created by a 1999 Norton bill. DCTAG makes up the difference for D.C. residents between in-state and out-of-state tuition up to $10,000 at public institutions of higher education in the United States.

• Repeals D.C.’s Death with Dignity Act.
• Maintains the existing abortion rider, which prohibits D.C. from spending its own local funds on abortions for low-income women.
• Prohibits D.C. from spending its own local funds to enforce its vehicle emission standards.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to enact or carry out any law that prohibits motorists from making right turns on red, including the D.C. Safer Streets Amendment Act of 2022.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to carry out its automated traffic enforcement law.
• Repeals a portion of D.C ‘s Anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) law that currently exempts the D.C. government.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to implement its law allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections or on activities related to enrolling or registering noncitizens into voter rolls for local elections.
• Requires D.C. to report on D.C.’s enforcement of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to carry out the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act of 2014.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to implement its Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022.
• Reduces the maximum age of eligibility for D.C.’s Youth Rehabilitation Amendment Act of 1985.
• Prohibits the use of local funds “to implement, administer, or enforce any COVID-19 mask or vaccine mandate.”
• Allows new students to enroll in the D.C. private school voucher program, instead of only permitting current students to remain in the program. Congress imposed the voucher program on the District, which is the only federally funded or created voucher program, even though Congress has rejected a national voucher program.

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