Norton Statement on Rules Committee Passage of D.C. Appropriations Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) secured many victories for D.C. in the fiscal year 2027 (FY 27) D.C. appropriations bill, which was marked up and passed last night by the House Rules Committee. The House is expected to consider the bill today. 

In addition to other victories for D.C., the bill would secure $40 million for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG) and increase the DCTAG annual and lifetime awards. The bill does not include 17 of the anti-home rule riders included in the House version of the bill.

Norton secured the following victories:

• The bill provides $40 million for DCTAG, an increase in the annual DCTAG award from $10,000 to $15,000, and an increase in the lifetime DCTAG award from $50,000 to $75,000.
• The bill has two existing legacy riders: a rider prohibiting D.C. from spending its own local funds on abortion services for low-income women and one prohibiting D.C. from spending its own local funds to commercialize adult-use marijuana. The original House version of the bill contained 20 anti-home rule riders.
• The bill would provide $90 million for emergency planning and security costs related to the federal presence in D.C.
• The bill exempts D.C. from federal government shutdowns in FY 2027.
• 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 Park.
• The bill provides $4 million to combat HIV/AIDS in D.C.
• 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 $53 million for the D.C. Public Defender Service, an entity established by Congress to represent indigent defendants in criminal cases in the local D.C. courts.
• The bill provides $46 million for the Defender Service, which pays private lawyers to represent indigent clients in both criminal and civil matters in the local D.C. courts.
• The bill provides $52.5 million for implementation of the SOAR Act, equally divided among vouchers, charter schools and D.C. Public Schools.

Norton expressed disappointment that the bill would prohibit the District from spending its own local funds on abortion services for low-income women and on recreational marijuana commercialization. Norton was also disappointed that the bill devotes substantial funds to the private school voucher program that Congress imposed on the District. The program has failed to improve academic achievement, as measured by math and reading test scores. The D.C. voucher program is the only federally funded voucher program in the U.S. 

“Although I’m disappointed that House Republicans continue to exert control over D.C., a district they do not represent, by adding anti-home rule riders, I am pleased that the 17 other riders that were included in the original House version weren’t included in the version passed by the Rules Committee,” Norton said. 

“D.C. has a larger population than two states and its residents are equally worthy of making decisions about their own local affairs and the future of their own local government. The 700,000 people who live in the nation’s capital are no less worthy of the benefits of democracy than any other Americans. I’ll use every tool at my disposal to see that they receive as many of those benefits as possible.”

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