[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 191 (Monday, December 4, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H13872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FREE THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia [Ms. Norton] is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, according to this morning's paper, the 
majority leader of the Senate, Mr. Dole, said, and I am quoting him, 
concerning a Federal Government shutdown, ``I don't believe we should 
shut down the Government. I think it would be a mistake. I do not 
believe it should happen. I don't believe it will happen.''
  I think the majority leader is probably right. The Congress would be 
insane or close to it to shut the Government down 10 days before 
Christmas. A lot of folks who are not Federal employees and are nowhere 
close to Federal employees would regard that as the act that deserved 
the Scrooge Award of 1995.
  But will the Congress overlook the District of Columbia and allow it 
the short continuing resolution that I am certain will come for Federal 
employees? My prediction is you will probably let the Government stay 
open until we get back from the recess.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here to explain that for the District, that does 
almost nothing, because we are not a Federal agency. We are a city of 
almost 600,000 people, and you cannot run a complicated city, down on 
its luck, with 2- and 3-week continuing resolutions. You then have to 
calibrate how much money you spend on the basis of for example, if it 
is 2 weeks, one-fourteenth, so you do not overobligate. With the city 
in the financial condition it is in, that should be unthinkable.
  There is a very special congressional responsibility, therefore, to 
release in the next continuing resolution the District's money, raised 
solely in the District, until such time as an appropriation bill has 
been signed. I would hope that an appropriation bill will be signed 
before December 15. But, very frankly, our appropriation is stuck on 
stupid. It is stuck up here on controversial issues having nothing to 
do with the wishes of the people of the District of Columbia. So I 
cannot guarantee that by December 15 our appropriation will be signed.
  I have a bill that would allow the District to spend its own money 
until such time as an appropriation bill is signed. That way we would 
have the flexibility to run the city. Otherwise, we are put in the 
position where, if unfunded mandates such as AFDC have to be matched on 
time, as they do, and a payroll has to be paid on time, as it does, we 
could overobligate.

  The Congress has been most critical of the District for what it says 
has been overobligation in the past. The last thing the Congress, I am 
sure, would like to do, is put the District in the position where it is 
between the hardest rock and the worst hard place, where it had 
unfunded mandates and funded mandates that it had to meet and had no 
way to meet them because it can only spend a certain percentage of its 
funds.
  The Washington Post said in an editorial recently:

       House Speaker Gingrich, Subcommittee on D.C. Appropriations 
     Chairman Jim Walsh and other Congressional leaders who seek 
     to bring financial order to this city should see the 
     importance of separating the local functions as well as the 
     responsibilities of the Control Board and chief financial 
     officer from Federal stalemates. If their concern for the 
     District's financial stability is genuine, they should press 
     for immediate enactment of a continuing resolution, as well 
     as for protections against any more situations like this.

  Shutting the District down, when its own money is here only because 
the Congress requires it to come here, not because the Congress 
provides it, is an outrage. I ask this body, if and when such time 
should come that a continuing continuing resolution is needed to keep 
Federal agencies going, and if that continuing resolution is a short-
term continuing resolution, that you allow the District to spend its 
own money--and about 80 percent of the money in our appropriation is 
raised by hard working D.C. taxpayers in the District of Columbia--and 
that you allow that money to be spent, so that the District will not be 
thrown into worse financial shape than is already the case.
  That is not what this body desires. This body has been working 
beneficially with the District. So has the Financial Authority. We do 
not need another setback. I acknowledge that the District is 
responsible for many of its own problems, but the fact is, it is trying 
to get hold of those problems now. The District should not be thrown 
into further disarray because the Congress goes into short-term 
continuing resolutions, overlooking the difference between HHS, the 
State Department, and HUD and the District of Columbia.
  The District is a living, breathing city that has suffered 
tremendously throughout this period. It is the innocent bystanders for 
whom I speak now, not the Mayor, not the City Council and not the 
Delegate, but the hard working residents who pay taxes in the District 
of Columbia. Free the District of Columbia.

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