[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 13 (Tuesday, January 27, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E118-E119]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BUDGET AUTONOMY ACT OF 2015

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 27, 2015

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, District of Columbia residents raise 
billions of dollars annually for their local budget, and, like 
Americans everywhere, claim the right to control the funds they 
themselves raise to support their city as fundamental to their American 
citizenship. Therefore, today I introduce the District of Columbia 
Budget Autonomy Act of 2015, the second bill I introduce this Congress, 
to allow the District's local-taxpayer-raised budget to take effect 
immediately when passed by the city, without being subject to 
congressional approval.
  Control over the dollars raised by local taxpayers is central to 
local control, the oldest American government principle. Beyond this 
core principle, permitting the city's local budget to become law 
without a redundant congressional approval would have multiple 
practical benefits for both the city and Congress. For the city, a 
timely budget means eliminating the uncertainty of the congressional 
approval process, which has a significant negative effect on the city's 
bond rating, adding unnecessary interest costs for local taxpayers; 
improving the District's ability to make accurate revenue forecasts; 
and reducing the countless operational problems that result when the 
city's budget cannot be implemented until Congress approves it (even 
when it is not delayed, which rarely occurs). Also of major importance, 
the bill would permit the District to use the typical state and local 
government fiscal year (July 1-June 30), which is used to provide ample 
time to prepare for the opening of schools in September, instead of the 
current federal fiscal year (October 1-September 30), used for the 
convenience of Members of Congress, not the needs of the city. 
Moreover, the D.C. local budget consumes valuable subcommittee, 
committee, and floor time in both houses of Congress, the most 
inefficient and redundant annual process in the Congress. Yet the D.C. 
budget is of interest only to those members who use it to promote their 
own issues, violating a principle of local self-government that they 
value for their own districts and states.
  Increasing recognition of the hardships and delays caused by the 
congressional approval process has led Congress to begin freeing the 
city from many congressional constraints. We made significant progress 
in the last Congress on a major element of budget autonomy. There is 
unprecedented bipartisan and bicameral support for preventing D.C. 
shutdowns, which have been constantly threatened as the Congress now 
almost always fails to pass appropriations bills. Under the fiscal year 
2014 D.C. Appropriations bill, D.C. was, for the first time ever, 
exempt from shutdowns for an entire fiscal year--2015. The fiscal year 
2015 D.C. Appropriations bill also exempts D.C. from shutdowns for all 
of fiscal year 2016. In addition, the president's budgets last Congress 
and the Senate's D.C. appropriations bills would have granted D.C. 
budget autonomy. This progress from both Congress and the Executive 
invites the inevitable next step--a permanent shutdown exemption bill.

[[Page E119]]

  The importance of eliminating shutdown threats to the District was 
definitively shown recently. The three leading bond rating agencies 
favorably cited the fiscal year 2014 D.C. Appropriations bill provision 
exempting D.C. from a shutdown in fiscal year 2015. In upgrading their 
ratings on the District's outstanding general obligation bonds, 
Standard & Poor's Rating Services and Fitch Ratings both favorably 
cited the provision, and Moody's Investors Service favorably cited the 
provision while maintaining D.C.'s rating.
  Several years ago, we negotiated an agreement with a Republican-led 
appropriations committee that ensures that the city's local budget is 
approved in the first continuing resolution (CR) if the D.C. 
Appropriations bill has not been approved by the start of the fiscal 
year, another important step that responded to practical realities. 
This approach ended the annual nightmares of lengthy delays of approval 
of the local budget of a big city until a national appropriations bill 
was passed, often months after the start of the fiscal year. As a 
result, under CRs, the city has been able to spend its local funds at 
the next year's funding level, even though federal agencies must spend 
at the prior year's funding level. We are deeply appreciative that this 
process, which eliminated serious problems for the functioning of the 
D.C. government, has continued.
  We nearly secured budget autonomy for the District in the last days 
of the lame-duck session in the 111th Congress, when Democrats were in 
control. We got the House authorizers to include budget autonomy in the 
fiscal year 2011 D.C. Appropriations bill, which was passed by the 
subcommittee. Unfortunately, the Democratic Senate did not include 
budget autonomy in its appropriations bill, and Congress passed a CR 
instead of regular appropriations bills in the lame duck.
  Most important, we gained critical support for D.C. budget autonomy 
in the 112th and 113th Congresses. In an Oversight and Government 
Reform Committee hearing in May 2011, Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) 
endorsed budget autonomy. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and 
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R) during that year both indicated 
their support for budget autonomy. Last Congress, Majority Leader 
Cantor and Chairman Issa both continued in their support for budget 
autonomy. The President's fiscal year 2015 budget, for the second time, 
will have granted D.C. budget autonomy. The Senate's fiscal year 2015 
D.C. Appropriations bill granted the District budget autonomy, which 
was the first ever appropriations bill to grant it. We also got budget 
autonomy introduced as a stand-alone bill in the Senate.
  We kept the budget autonomy referendum from being overturned in 
Congress. However, a federal district court struck it down and an 
appeal is pending before a federal appeals court.
  Even if the District of Columbia Budget Autonomy Act of 2015 were 
enacted, Congress would still retain jurisdiction over the District of 
Columbia under article I, section 8, clause 17 of the U.S. Constitution 
until statehood is achieved. This authority allows Congress to make 
changes to the District's budget at any time, as we saw last week when 
the House voted to permanently ban the District from spending its local 
funds on abortion services for low-income women. Therefore, it is 
unnecessary to require the District to incur the costs and delays of 
transmitting its local budget for congressional approval. The time is 
overdue to permit the city to enact its local budget, the single most 
immediate step Congress could take to help the District better manage 
itself.
  Members of Congress were sent to Washington to do the business of the 
nation, not a local jurisdiction. Members have no reason to be 
interested in or to become knowledgeable about the local budget of a 
single city or jurisdiction far from their own. In the past, the House 
and Senate have more often than not passed the District's budget as is. 
Our budget autonomy bill takes the Congress in the direction it is 
already moving.

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