[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 19 (Thursday, February 13, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H567]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES

  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, I come to the floor today first and foremost 
to thank the leadership of this country for the priority they have 
placed upon the capital of the United States, to thank President Bill 
Clinton, majority leader of the Senate Trent Lott, and our own Speaker, 
Newt Gingrich, who have agreed that among the five priorities for this 
session of Congress should be special attention to the capital of the 
United States. There is there the kind of bipartisanship that one would 
expect from a great country for its great capital.
  Why this priority for the capital of the United States? Well, I 
suppose its name tells it all. It is the capital of the United States, 
and there is in this body and this country a fiduciary obligation to 
its own capital. It is self-evident. The District of Columbia is a 
financial orphan under our Constitution. It is not a part of any State. 
It cannot even tax people who come here from other regions, use our 
services and go home without leaving any, not even one thin dime of tax 
money here.
  Why has the city come to this state of affairs now? Well, all of the 
cities are in great trouble, but they have States. There is not a big 
city in the United States that would not be flat on its back if it were 
not for its State. Cities are increasingly clusters of the poor, with 
the middle class having fled.
  This chart tells the story of the death-dealing crisis of your 
capital city. We are on line to lose three times as many people in the 
1990's as we lost in the 1980's. If we mean to have a capital, now is 
the time to move in. This is the session of Congress to move in to help 
the city.
  The reason this has not been as apparent as it should be is that the 
District Government has been historically poorly managed. That hides 
the poor performance of the Congress and of the country. The poor 
performance of the city should not give rise to the abandonment of the 
capital by our country.
  And what about the performance of the Congress, which offloaded $5 
billion in pension liability built up before home rule? What about a 
Congress that says to a city in this day and time, hey, you pay for 
State functions, prisons, Medicaid, courts, all by yourself with no 
help from anyone else? It cannot be done, my good colleagues. And yet 
there are no sure and fast answers to the problems of the District.
  I went this week to the funeral of a brave young officer, Officer 
Brian Gibson, executed, and I come back the day of his funeral to find 
a Member of the other body wanting to put the death penalty on the 
District of Columbia. This is 4 years after the District faced this 
issue and voted that it would be among the jurisdictions not to have 
the death penalty.
  The top killing States in the United States all have the death 
penalty. We do not see the death penalty as the answer to the crime 
problems of the District of Columbia. We do note that the American Bar 
Association says that the death penalty is so inequitably applied that 
there should be a moratorium on it.
  We ask the help of our country. We are prepared to make, and are 
making, excruciating sacrifices that no city which has gotten into 
trouble has had to make, that New York and that Philadelphia, which all 
became insolvent years before the District, none had to make, because 
there was a State.
  We are asking for the help of our country. We believe that the half-
million people who live in the District deserve the help of our 
country. But please do not impose on us matters that we ourselves have 
not approved. This is yet a free country, and this is the Congress that 
boasts that it is devolving power back to the localities, not usurping 
power from the localities.
  I welcome the help of my colleagues. I look forward to working with 
the President, with the majority leader of the Senate, with the Speaker 
of the House, and with my own leadership to make the capital of the 
Unites States a city that we truly can all be proud of.

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