Norton Introduces D.C. Budget Autonomy Bill

Press Release

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced the District of Columbia Budget Autonomy Act of 2015, her second bill of the 114th Congress, to allow D.C.'s local budget to take effect after it is approved by the city without congressional approval. Today's bill seeks to continue the progress Norton made last Congress on budget autonomy, including keeping Congress from overturning the budget autonomy referendum overwhelmingly approved by D.C. voters in 2013, support from President Obama, whose budgets would have granted D.C. budget autonomy, support from the Senate, which included budget autonomy in its D.C. appropriations bills, and support from Republicans, including the then-chairman of the committee with D.C. jurisdiction, Representative Darrell Issa (CA). The most significant progress Norton made toward budget autonomy was the overwhelming bipartisan support she received in both the House and Senate for preventing shutdowns of the D.C. government. Norton was successful in exempting D.C., for the first time ever, from federal government shutdowns for an entire fiscal year (2015 and 2016). The shutdown exemption gives D.C. an essential element of budget autonomy and of statehood. Norton is seeking a permanent exemption for D.C. from shutdowns.

In her opening statement, Norton wrote: "Members of Congress were sent to Washington to do the business of the nation, not a local jurisdiction. Members have no reason to be interested in or to become knowledgeable about the local budget of a single city or jurisdiction far from their own. In the past, the House and Senate have more often than not passed the District's budget as is. Our budget autonomy bill takes the Congress in the direction it is already moving."

Source