[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 44 (Thursday, April 14, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E652-E653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BUDGET AUTONOMY ACT OF 2005

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 14, 2005

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, Senate Government Affairs Chair Susan 
Collins, Ranking Member Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator George 
Voinovich, Senator Daniel Akaka, Senator Mary Landrieu, House 
Government Reform Committee Chair Tom Davis, Ranking Member Henry 
Waxman and I introduce H.R. 1629, the District of Columbia Budget 
Autonomy Act of 2005, which passed the Senate in the last Congress, but 
did not pass the House. It marked the most significant change in self-
government since the Home Rule Act was passed in 1973. Instead, 
Congress continues to essentially use the same oversight process it has 
used since the District was created as a functioning city more than 200 
years ago. The partial budget autonomy in this bill would be a major 
step to improve the efficiency of the congressional appropriations 
process and a historic step toward full self-government for the 
District of Columbia.
  Our bill starts as a compromise that is less than what the District 
and every local jurisdiction is entitled to in the management of its 
local funds. As important as this bill is, it is not the self-contained 
and more efficient procedure used by every state and locality in our 
country. The District's budget would still come to the Congress, but it 
would be discharged after 30 calendar days. This step would take the 
city a great distance toward functional budget autonomy and away from a 
congressional process that adds large dollar costs to running the city, 
and incalculable waste and inefficiency directly traceable to the 
congressional appropriations process.
  Our bill would significantly streamline and untangle the process. It 
also would eliminate the most inefficient and demeaning impediment to 
the local control every other jurisdiction enjoys, in requiring that 
the budget of the local jurisdiction be enacted by the District and the 
Congress as Congress enacts the budgets of federal agencies, such as 
the Interior Department and the Labor Department.
  For most of my service in Congress, the enactment requirement has 
usually kept the District from having a local annual budget with which 
to operate and manage the city for months at a time. The requirement of 
our bill

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that the D.C. budget become operative after 30 calendar days would have 
large effects on everything from the District's bond rating to its 
ability to more efficiently manage every function of the D.C. 
government.
  The irony is that the Congress almost never changes the District's 
locally raised core budget in any case. Even at its most intrusive, 
Congress has realized that when it comes to the complexities of budget 
decisions for city agencies, Congress is in foreign territory. This is 
only one of the reasons that I think members of the House and Senate 
have been open to the change we propose. I appreciate the support this 
approach already has received in the Senate.
  For years Congress saw the D.C. budget wreck the larger appropriation 
process for the country. Too often the District appropriation, by far 
the smallest of all of the appropriations, has been the largest 
impediment to the entire appropriation process and a major cause of 
delay. I am especially grateful for the way that Chairman Bill Young 
worked with me to remove obstacles and often to rescue the D.C. budget 
altogether. I expect that my good friend, Jerry Lewis, our new 
appropriations chair who has often been helpful to me and the city, 
will want to see the District come smoothly through the process as 
well. Speaker Dennis Hastert and former Speaker Newt Gingrich both have 
become involved as a last resort, when only they could rescue the 
locally raised budget from lengthy delays. I very much appreciate that 
they have always responded when I have asked for their help.
  However, the local balanced budget of a great city should not need 
extraordinary action by House speakers or full appropriation chairs. 
Despite a national economy that has left states and local jurisdictions 
on their knees, in recent years the District has balanced its budget 
without raising taxes and without using its cash reserve funds. Because 
the Mayor and the City Council have been cautious and conservative in 
their management of city finances and operations, the District has 
avoided the budget problems that plague many jurisdictions today.
  After more than 200 years of unchanged procedures here in the 
Congress, the city's record today and the bill we are considering today 
should be the beginning of improvement of congressional processes in 
aid of greater efficiency for the D.C. government. Even full city 
autonomy over its local budget would not deprive the Congress of the 
right to make changes by legislation.
  Congressional enactment of the Home Rule Act after a century of 
struggle was a major breakthrough. However, Congress has made no major 
step toward self-government since 1973. Surely the place to begin is 
with the city's own budget. Today must mark a long awaited step toward 
equal citizenship and equal treatment by the Congress. At the very 
least, the District is owed a Congressional response in kind to the 
very substantial improvements the city has made in its finances and 
operations for six years. The way to begin is by matching the 
District's greater efficiency in managing its finances and operations 
with the same in our own processes. The way to begin is with budget 
autonomy.

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