Norton Calls Lift of Appropriations Bans a Step in the Right Direction

Press Release

Norton Calls Lift of Appropriations Bans a Step in the Right Direction

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton succeeded in getting the ban on the use of local funds for abortions for poor women, a ban only imposed in the District of Columbia, lifted. Norton said she also was very pleased that the last remnants of two other riders also were removed - the ban on the use of funds for the District's domestic partnership registration and benefits, and the ban on conducting a referendum on the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The ban on domestic partnership registration and benefits was no longer enforced since Norton got Congress to overturn it several years ago, but the ban language had not been removed from the appropriations bill. Norton, who has long championed funding HIV/AIDS prevention, was also able to get the committee to authorize funds to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. Norton had asked Congressman José E. Serrano, chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, to remove all riders restricting the District's use of local funds, and Serrano had promised to try to remove them all since Democrats gained a majority, but he said he would have to remove them gradually.

"When Democrats took the majority, I asked for the elimination of all riders in one fell swoop. Some of the riders were extremely harmful and others were merely outdated and obnoxious because of congressional interference," Norton said. "I appreciate that my friend José Serrano has gone after these notorious riders systematically, beginning with the worst first. Because of Serrano's commitment to the same kind of self-governance he enjoys in the South Bronx, we are close to wholesale elimination of wholesale interference in our rights as American citizens to self-government," she added. "Yes, there may be some opposition on this ground, but it's a fight I have been preparing for ever since the residents of the District of Columbia sent me to Congress."

In the last session, Norton succeeded in removing appropriations riders banning use of local funds on needle exchange programs and on lobbying for voting rights for the District of Columbia. She said she will continue to work to free the District of Columbia from congressional interference, continuing to press for full legislative autonomy.

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