[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HOUSE SHOULD CONSIDER DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APPROPRIATIONS FIRST, RATHER 
                               THAN LAST

  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 this afternoon to speak 
about the District of Columbia. But I think it only appropriate to 
report what I have just heard, and that is that in the capital murder 
trial of John William King, the first of three men accused in the 
dragging death murder of James Byrd, Jr., the jury has just reported a 
guilty verdict in Jasper, Texas. Justice has been done, and southern 
justice this time has been done.
  Mr. Speaker, we are back to work in earnest. The Speaker has 
developed a workmanlike schedule. I come to the floor this afternoon to 
ask that the easiest bill in the House, the bill having least to do 
with the business of this House, be the first appropriation bill 
reported in this House. I speak of the D.C. appropriation bill.
  It is amazing that most often it is the last and not the first bill. 
When I brought the new Mayor to see the Speaker, he agreed that we 
should hasten this bill. During the fiscal crisis, it has been 
especially painful to have the District appropriation bill so late. The 
District has been on time, but the bill has been needlessly 
controversial.
  Delay hurts in the worst way because it affects the credit standing 
of a city that is only now getting its credit back. And it is getting 
its credit back. It has had three straight years of surpluses. However, 
it is the unpredictability of the appropriation process here that hurts 
the credit rating.
  There is no Federal payment any longer, so it is quite amazing that 
the budget of a local jurisdiction would have to come here at all. 
Suppose my colleagues' cities, their counties' budgets came here. They 
would tell us to get out of town. It is an historic anomaly; it is an 
injustice.
  It has to come. At least let no more injustice be done by holding it 
up. We collect $5 billion from D.C. taxpayers in the District of 
Columbia. All the District asks of this body is: ``Give us back our 
money as soon as you get it.''
  We will have before us a consensus budget. It will be a very balanced 
budget. The consensus budget notion came out of an amendment that I put 
into the Control Board statute that allows the District now, instead of 
having its budget go through the normal separation of powers, to have 
everybody sit around a table and agree on a budget so as to hasten the 
time. Therefore, to hasten the time to draw their own budget, the least 
the Congress can do is to enact their own budget as soon as possible.
  After 3 years of surpluses, a new Mayor who earned his stripes as 
chief financial officer and helped get the city back on its financial 
feet, the city, I think, has a right to ask of the Congress that we do 
our job. If we must look at a local budget, look at it fast, say what 
we have to say, do what we have to do, and let us then get on with the 
business of the District of Columbia.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that this House does have confidence in the 
Mayor and in the District itself. Last week or the week before last, we 
passed in this House the first half of my D.C. Democracy 2000 bill 
which gives back to the new Mayor, Tony Williams, powers that were 
taken from a previous Mayor in 1997.
  There has already been real confidence in this Mayor. The best way to 
encourage the Mayor and to encourage the city is to give it back its 
money first.
  The first bill to come here should be the District bill. It is a way 
of saying to the District that they have reached a consensus budget, 
they have balanced their budget. In light of that, we have given them 
the respect to which they are entitled. It is a way of saying, ``Here 
is your money back. Here is your budget back. Please run your own 
city.''

                          ____________________