Norton to File Amendments to Strike All Anti-D.C. Riders from Committee-Passed D.C. Appropriations Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. – (RealEstateRama) — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said she will file amendments to strike all five anti-home-rule riders from the House fiscal year 2019 District of Columbia Appropriations bill, which was passed by the House Appropriations Committee last night, when it goes to the House floor. The bill repeals D.C.’s Death with Dignity Act (DWDA); prohibits D.C. from spending its local funds to carry out the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act (RHNDA); repeals the Local Budget Autonomy Act of 2012; prohibits D.C. from spending its local funds on recreational marijuana commercialization; and prohibits D.C. from spending its local funds on abortions for low-income women. Norton believes she can get most of the riders removed. Norton kept DWDA, RHNDA and budget autonomy riders from being included in the enacted fiscal year 2018 omnibus appropriations bill.
Norton thanked her good friends Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Tim Ryan (D-OH) for filing amendments to strike the abortion and RHNDA riders, respectively, from the bill at yesterday’s committee markup. Norton also thanked the many Members who spoke up forcefully for D.C. home rule at the markup, including Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY), Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Katherine Clark (D-MA), David Price (D-NC), José Serrano (D-NY), and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz (D-FL).
“No matter our success in ridding D.C.’s appropriations bill of anti-home-rule riders, House Republicans continue to treat D.C. as a political punching bag, pushing the same partisan riders year after year,” Norton said. “We are not going to let Members of Congress dictate local District policies by misusing congressional authority to undemocratically impose their policies on the more than 700,000 D.C. residents I represent. I am ready to wage a tough fight on the House floor to remove all five anti-D.C. riders from the bill.”
###
