[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 15, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1626-E1627]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    INTRODUCTION OF THE HATCH ACT NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION PARITY ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 15, 2010

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Hatch Act 
National Capital Region Parity Act. This bill would remedy an omission 
in federal law that treats District of Columbia residents who work for 
the federal government differently from their federal colleagues in the 
Washington metropolitan area. This omission is another remnant of the 
days before the District of Columbia was a self-governing jurisdiction. 
This bill would give the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) authority 
to designate the District of Columbia similar to other local 
jurisdictions so that federal employees who reside there may take an 
active part in political management and political campaigns for local 
partisan elections. Under the Hatch Act, OPM only has authority to 
designate Maryland and Virginia localities in the immediate vicinity of 
the District, or towns in which the majority of voters are federal 
employees, as exempt from the Hatch Act's prohibition on federal 
employee participation in local partisan elections. Currently, federal 
employees residing in 47 Maryland localities, 15 Virginia localities 
and 12 other localities across the United States are permitted to 
participate in local partisan elections.
  OPM's authority to exempt certain localities recognizes that, if 
large numbers of residents in a jurisdiction are federal employees, 
much of a locality's population would be denied the opportunity to 
participate in local affairs. When the Hatch Act was passed in 1940, 
the old Civil Service Commission (CSC) was given authority to exempt 
federal employees living in Maryland and Virginia localities near D.C. 
because large numbers of residents of those localities were, and 
continue to be, federal employees. However, CSC was not given the same 
authority for the District of Columbia, even though a large number of 
residents were, and continue to be, federal employees, probably because 
D.C. did not have local elections until the Home Rule Act of 1973.
  This bill is part of our ongoing mission to wipe away all the 
disparate treatment of District residents left in federal law. Our 
related pending bill, the Hatch Act Reform Act (H.R. 1345), which the 
House passed last year and is now on its way to the Senate floor, would 
permit the District of Columbia, the only local jurisdiction where 
local government employees are under the federal Hatch Act, to enact 
and operate under its own local Hatch Act, like other jurisdictions in 
the United States.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the District of 
Columbia as a self-governing jurisdiction by supporting this bill.

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