[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 30, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E215-E216]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    THE INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BUDGET AUTONOMY ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 30, 2007

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, next to H.R. 328, the bill to give the 
District its first full vote in the House, the bill we introduce today 
is the most important bill to the District of Columbia that will come 
before Congress this session. The District of Columbia Budget Autonomy 
Act that Oversight and Government Reform Ranking Member Tom Davis and I 
introduce would give the District the right to enact its local budget 
without annual congressional oversight. The original Senate version of 
the Home Rule Act provided for budget autonomy, and 32 years of 
unnecessary difficulties and delay occasioned by the extra layer of 
oversight offer ample evidence that the time is at hand for Congress to 
permit the city to enact its local budget and move forward immediately 
to operate and manage the city.
  This is the most important of the bills to be introduced as part of 
the ``Free and Equal D.C.'' series of bills designed to accomplish two 
goals: (1) to give the city control over its core functions, such as 
budget, legislation and criminal justice; and (2) to transfer to the 
District the Home Rule Act provisions that prescribe the city's 
structure and others that make it necessary to come to Congress for 
changes, as well as many other provisions that have been included in 
the Act over the years. Budget Autonomy is most important because the 
ability to enact a budget and spend its own taxpayer funds as 
authorized is central to a jurisdiction's ability to operate and manage 
a functioning government. For that reason, the budget process is 
essential to the right to self government. By definition, Congress will 
retain jurisdiction over the District of Columbia under Article I, 
Section 8 of the Constitution. Since, therefore, Congress could in any 
case affect changes in the District's budget and laws at will, it is 
unnecessary to require lengthy repetition of the District's budget 
process here. The redundancy of the congressional appropriations 
process is its most striking feature, considering that few if any 
changes in the budget itself are made.
  I am gratified that Congress itself has moved toward the position 
embodied in this bill. The congressional experience with the District's 
budget has matured, and year after year, Congress has made no changes. 
At the same time, there has been increasing recognition of the hardship 
and delays that the annual appropriations process causes. As a result, 
Congress has already begun freeing the city from the congressional 
appropriations network. Last year, Congress approved the Mid-year 
Budget Autonomy bill, offering the first freedom from the federal 
appropriations process, the most important structural change for the 
city since passage of the Home Rule Act 32 years ago. The District can 
now spend its local funds annually without congressional approval, 
instead of returning mid-year to become a part of the federal 
supplemental appropriation in order to spend funds collected since the 
annual appropriations bill. Moreover during the past few years, 
appropriators have responded to our concern about the hardships 
resulting from delays in enacting the D.C. appropriation. I appreciate 
the agreement that has allowed the local D.C. budget to be in the first 
continuing resolution, permitting the city to spend its local funds at 
the next year's level. This approach has ended the lengthy processes 
that began years before I was elected, whereby the D.C. budget was 
delayed for floor fights about local policy and laws unrelated to the 
budget.
  I have long argued that budget autonomy would benefit the city 
financially and operationally without withdrawing congressional 
jurisdiction. Only statehood would completely eliminate congressional 
power over the budget, but that option is not available at this time 
because the Mayor and City Council turned over the costs for some state 
functions carried by the city to the federal government in 1997. 
However, permitting the local budget to go into effect on time benefits 
the District and the Congress alike. For the city, a timely budget 
would: eliminate the uncertainty of the congressional process that in 
turn affects the city's bond rating and adds unnecessary interest for 
local taxpayers to pick up; significantly increase the District's 
ability to make accurate revenue forecasts; and reduce the countless 
operational problems, large and small, that result when the city cannot 
proceed on budget on time. Among the many examples, one particularly 
comes to mind that resulted when the D.C. budget was enacted five 
months late. Despite significant cuts in most functions, the city had 
increased the budget of the D.C. Public Schools (DCPS), but DCPS was 
forced to spend at the prior year's levels under a Continuing 
Resolution without the benefit of its urgently needed increase. As a 
result, for example, textbooks had to be returned to publishers under 
contract provisions; school supplies were returned; school buses under 
the bus lease contract were reduced, creating longer rides for disabled 
children; and tuition payments for special education students went 
unpaid.
  Leaving its local budget to the District also would bring benefits to 
Congress. The D.C.

[[Page E216]]

budget typically has had to come to the floor repeatedly before it 
passes because of attachments. Members then complain about the time and 
effort spent on the smallest appropriation affecting no other members. 
No budget autonomy bill can eliminate the possibility of attachments 
because there are countless ways to attach riders, but our bill reduces 
the likelihood that they will hold the city's local budget hostage and 
sometimes the appropriations process itself.
  Members of Congress were sent here to do the business of the nation. 
They have no reason to be interested in or to become knowledgeable 
about the many complicated provisions of the local budget of a single 
city. In good times and in bad, the House and Senate pass the 
District's budget as is. Our bill takes the Congress in the direction 
it is moving based on its own experience and completes the process. 
Three decades of congressional interference into the vital right to 
self government should end this year and end first with budget autonomy 
for the District of Columbia.

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