[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 4, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H272-H273]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PROBLEMS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Callahan). 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, I appreciate the attention that the Speaker 
and, more recently, the President has given to the problems of the 
District of Columbia. The reason for that attention is that those 
problems are indeed desperate.
  Let me concede that there are operational problems of the city that 
must be laid at the feet of the city and the city has accepted that 
challenge.
  I come as an advocate for my city, not as an apologist. All the 
analysts also say that there are structural defects in the financial 
relationship between the city and the Federal Government. They can 
perhaps be summed up in the notion that this city pays for State, 
county, and municipal functions and, though the vast majority of those 
who work in the city come from the suburbs, it is the District that 
must pay for the services they use. And they make no contribution.
  As a result, I have introduced a bipartisan bill, the District of 
Columbia Economic Recovery Act. It is a progressive tax cut. 
Essentially it would allow the residents of the District of Columbia to 
use their own money to save the Capital of the United States.
  Why is this necessary? Perhaps that is best understood by looking at 
this chart, ``Frightening Decline of D.C. Tax Base.'' Mr. Speaker, this 
is 1990. This is the year 2000.
  When cities begin to lose their tax base at this rate, the State 
kicks in and keeps them from going belly up. There is no State to do 
that for the District of Columbia. Most cities, particularly the large 
cities of the United States, Detroit, New York, Chicago, Newark, LA, 
would not have been left standing if, given similar flight, they had 
not had a State as a safety net. If the District were not stateless, I 
would not have put in my tax-cut bill. The President will speak 
tonight, I believe, of a proposal he has to help the District by taking 
some of the cost of State functions from the District and taking back 
pension liability that the Congress built up.
  The fact is that as grateful as we are for a proposal that is 
serious, it is marginal. It would take about 10 percent of what 
District taxpayers pay now and, remember, those taxpayers are rapidly 
disappearing. It would leave those same disappearing taxpayers with 90 
percent of the costs they now pay.
  My bill contains protections against gentrification. It is a 
progressive tax cut based on income. Mr. Speaker, no one even speaks 
today of the underlying democratic flaw that afflicts the Capital of 
the United States. It is the last great injustice on American soil, 
that the District is third per capita in Federal income taxes and yet 
has indeed taxation without representation. The four territories have a 
delegate just as the District does. They pay no Federal income taxes. I 
even won the

[[Page H273]]

right to vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole and in 
one of this body's most ungenerous acts, this vote was taken from me by 
rule by the majority, an act that violates the principles of the 
majority and the minority. It is a vote I hope to reclaim.
  More important than my vote, Mr. Speaker, however, is the survival of 
my city and your Capital. As we begin the 105th Congress, I ask Members 
to keep an open mind as we try to find a way toward recovery for the 
Capital of the United States. We are not asking to tax others. We are 
asking that the money we spend in Federal taxes be cut somewhat so that 
we can help revive our city. You must not allow the Capital of the 
United States to become an absolute disgrace because its problems have 
been laid only at its feet and its own great country has not come 
forward to help it. The President wants to help. I now ask my own 
colleagues to help as well.

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