Norton Gets Offensive Riders off D.C. Budget Headed to the House Floor
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) got the Appropriations Committee to remove two of the most harmful riders long attached to the District's budget--bans on spending local funds for needle exchange and lobbying for voting rights--as part of the District's FY 08 appropriation that was sent to the House floor this evening. Funding for several of Norton's priorities for the District also was included: college tuition assistance, water and sewer overflow and construction of a forensic lab. The Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government removed the riders at its markup last week, and the full committee followed with a $668 million federally funded D.C. bill, as compared to $597 million proposed by the President.
Norton has worked for years to strip the congressional ban on needle exchange, the most damaging of the riders because it has contributed significantly to D.C.'s HIV/AIDS rate, the highest in the nation. She is holding a series of town hall meetings to help in turning around the alarming incidence of HIV/AIDS in the District, with a meeting focusing on women coming next month. "If the city were to run its own program, rather than counting on a small privately-funded one, the impact on HIV/AIDS spread through intravenous drug needles would be dramatic, according to experts," Norton said. Although the House passed the D.C. voting rights bill in April and a Senate committee markup is scheduled for Wednesday, Norton said that the victory would have been "easier and perhaps earlier" had the city government been allowed to put its full weight and local funding behind the mostly grassroots lobbying campaign. Much to Norton's regret, another damaging rider banning the District from using its own money for abortions for poor women, remains on the city's appropriation. But Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee, conceded that while he believes the federal government should not dictate to the city how to manage its own affairs or spend its own money and would have liked to have gone further, eliminating some restrictions was just a first step. Norton hopes to remove the abortion rider next year.
Norton was pleased that the D.C. appropriation includes significant federal funding for top priorities: just over $35 million for the Tuition Assistance Grant program (DCTAG); $12 million to control sewer overflow, which contributes significantly to pollution in the Anacostia River; $10 million for the city to help build a forensic lab that will battle the backlog of unsolved crimes; and $26 million for public and charter schools that Norton got when a voucher program was forced on the District.
Almost half of the appropriated federal funds will go to the District of Columbia court system, which remains under federal jurisdiction. The figure includes an increase in payments for attorneys who defend needy clients to bring their compensation closer to the rate for lawyers practicing in the federal courts.