[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H2037-H2038]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION MUST INCLUDE FUNDING FOR THE DISTRICT OF 
                                COLUMBIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia [Ms. Norton] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, if the comic Letterman were to name the 10 
most unlikely events this year, 1 of them might be that the 
Presidential primary in any part of the United States would be canceled 
for lack of funds. I am here to tell you that this morning's Post tells 
us that, and I am quoting, ``Cuts may mean no presidential primary in 
D.C.'' The lack, Mr. Speaker, is for money in the form of a payment due 
the District of Columbia, which the Congress is holding up, in the 
amount of $250 million or more. As a result, the District faces the 
possibility of a payless payday at the end of this month, and the end 
of its primary for May 7.
  As Members may know, this money is being held up not because of 
matters germane to the District of Columbia, but because of a national 
fight over whether or not vouchers should be funded for private and 
religious schools. I am here to say this morning, Mr. Speaker, that if 
you want to debate vouchers, an important national issue, do it on your 
own time and on your own bill; do not take the Capitol of the United 
States down with you.
  This body is fiddling while D.C. residents are burning. The body shut 
down the District of Columbia on one occasion. Now you want to cancel 
democracy in the Capital of the United States by not bringing forward 
the payment due the District in lieu of taxes? How low can we go? What 
will it take to wake us up?
  Mr. Speaker, I hasten to add that though I am on the ballot in this 
primary, I do not mind if this primary is shuttled over, if my own 
primary is put over to another date, because I am unopposed, so I do 
not have anything personally to lose, although I must tell the Members 
that there are minor officials that are on this ballot that do have 
something to lose. Of course, the President is not opposed in his own 
party, either. But would not the shame of the country be to have a 
headline, and we know it would be one, to the effect ``Election in 
Nation's Capitol Canceled Because Congress Holds Up the 
Appropriation?'' Come, now.
  The Washington Post this morning tells us that this is happening for 
good and sufficient reasons, lack of funds. ``Although he has 
accelerated layoffs, canceled the planned purchase of new polling 
places, eliminated mailings to voters, and reduced the temporary staff 
hired to run elections, Fremaux * * *,'' that is the head of the 
election board, `` * * * said he is still far short. The only place to 
turn,'' his letter said, ``is the elections themselves.''

[[Page H2038]]

  This is an agency known as one of the most efficient in the District 
of Columbia. They have already made sizable cuts. They are going down 
to $369,000 in cuts. They have made $239,000 very rapidly. But the rest 
requires, obviously, local legislation and the following of personnel 
rules.
  We are today, at 2:15, to have the fourth cloture vote on the D.C. 
appropriation in the Senate of the United States, the fourth. Each time 
there has been a cloture vote on whether to pass our appropriation, it 
has gotten fewer votes than it got the last time. Somebody is playing 
games, here. But the folks who are suffering are not represented by 
anybody in this body except me, so I have to come before this body to 
say that the CR that is due out Friday simply must contain the District 
of Columbia, or you will have to suffer the consequences. You will have 
to suffer the embarrassment. My constituents and I have already 
suffered the pain.
  Congress is fond of saying that it is acting in the District with 
less democracy than other jurisdictions because ``It is the Capital of 
the United States, and it is our responsibility.'' When is the Congress 
going to perform like it recognized that it has a responsibility? The 
residents I represent are second per capita in taxes paid to the 
Federal Treasury, and yet have no voting representation in this body, 
and no representation whatsoever in the Senate. Put yourself in their 
position, when the money being held up is their money, not this body's 
money, money owed them for taxes.
  If this is everybody's city, which is why the Congress says it 
exercises jurisdiction over it, then it is time for the Congress of the 
United States to act like it.

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