[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 29 (Thursday, February 12, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BUDGET AUTONOMY ACT OF 2009

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 12, 2009

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, on February 3, 2009, I intended to 
introduce my budget autonomy bill. I submitted the following 
introductory statement for the Record on that day. It appears that the 
wrong bill was attached inadvertently. Today, I correct that mistake by 
introducing the District of Columbia Budget Autonomy Act of 2009.
  As we approach a vote on the D.C. House Voting Rights Act of 2009, it 
is not too early in the session to begin the next steps necessary to 
make the residents of the District of Columbia genuinely free and equal 
citizens. Other than to voting rights, the highest priority for 
District of Columbia residents in the 111th Congress is their right to 
control the funds they themselves raise to support their city. Budget 
control is essential to the right to self-government. Therefore, today, 
I am introducing the District of Columbia Budget Autonomy Act of 2009 
to give the District the right to enact its local budget without annual 
congressional oversight.
  As a practical matter, permitting the city's budget to become law 
without coming to Congress would have multiple and immediate benefits 
for both the city and Congress. For the city, a timely budget means: 
eliminating the uncertainty of the congressional process that has a 
negative effect of the city's bond rating, which adds unnecessary 
interest costs for local taxpayers to pick up; significantly increasing 
the District's ability to make accurate revenue forecasts; and reducing 
the countless operational problems, large and small, that result 
because the city's budget cannot be implemented when enacted by the 
city. Of the many problems that would be eliminated, none is more 
important than aligning the school year with the typical state 
government July 1st fiscal year, instead of the congressional fiscal 
year, which starts in October, after the school year has begun.
  Leaving the local enactment to the District would bring benefits to 
Congress as well. The D.C. budget often has had to come to the floor 
repeatedly before it passes because of controversial attachments, often 
of interest only to a few members who use the D.C. appropriations to 
promote their pet ideological issues. Members then complain about the 
time and effort spent on the smallest appropriations that affect no 
other members. No budget autonomy bill can eliminate the possibility of 
riders because there are countless ways to attach riders, but our bill 
reduces the likelihood that unrelated riders will hold the city's local 
budget hostage and sometimes the appropriations process itself.
  I am gratified that Congress itself has moved toward the position 
embodied in this bill. Congressional experience with the District's 
budget has matured, and neither party has made changes in recent years. 
At the same time, increasing recognition of the hardship and delays 
that the annual appropriations process causes has led Congress to begin 
freeing the city from the congressional appropriations network. In 
2006, 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 36 years ago. As a result, the District can now spend its local 
funds all year without congressional approval instead of having to 
return 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 our agreement that has 
allowed the local D.C. budget to be in the first continuing resolution, 
permitting the city, uniquely, to spend its local funds at the next 
year's level, even though the budgets for federal agencies are often 
delayed for months. This approach has ended the lengthy delay of the 
budget of a big city until an omnibus appropriations bill is filed, 
often months after October 1st.
  There is no risk to the Congress passing the District of Columbia 
Budget Autonomy Act. By definition, Congress will retain jurisdiction 
over the District of Columbia under Article I, Section 8 of the 
Constitution because the District is not a state. Since, therefore, 
Congress could in any case make changes in the District's budget and 
laws at will, it is unnecessary to require a 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.
  The original Senate version of the Home Rule Act provided for budget 
autonomy, and 210 years of redundant processing of a local budget and 
delays occasioned by the extra layer of oversight offer conclusive 
evidence that the time is overdue to permit the city to enact its local 
budget, the single most important step the Congress could take to help 
the District manage the city.
  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 already based on its own experience. Congressional 
interference into one of the vital rights to self-government should end 
this year with enactment of the District of Columbia Budget Autonomy 
Act.

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