Norton Says Greene, Latest Republican to Call for Repealing D.C. Home Rule Act, Will Not Succeed

Statement

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today warned that Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has become at least the second House Republican this year to say that, if Republicans are in the majority next year, they should repeal the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which gave D.C. an elected chief executive (mayor) and legislature (Council). In February, Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA) also said that a Republican House should repeal the Home Rule Act, and he said he was working on a bill to do so, which he has yet to introduce. Several other House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA) and Representative James Comer (KY), the ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, which has jurisdiction over D.C., have told the press this year that they plan to limit D.C.'s authority to govern its own affairs next Congress.

"The last time we heard such threats to D.C. self-government from Republicans was in the early and mid-1990s," Norton said. "Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew Clyde literally want the federal government to resume running D.C. as a colony. Republicans are scared that D.C. has gotten closer to statehood than ever, and their response is, predictably, to try to take away what democracy the nearly 700,000 D.C. residents, a plurality of whom are African American, have. I will defeat their efforts, and their efforts will only strengthen our case for statehood."

In his signing statement on the Home Rule Act in 1973, President Nixon wrote, "One of the major goals of this Administration is to place responsibility for local functions under local control and to provide local governments with the authority and resources they need to serve their communities effectively. The measure I sign today represents a significant step in achieving this goal in the city of Washington. It will give the people of the District of Columbia the right to elect their own city officials and to govern themselves in local affairs. As the Nation approaches the 200th anniversary of its founding, it is particularly appropriate to assure those persons who live in our Capital City rights and privileges which have long been enjoyed by most of their countrymen.

But the measure I sign today does more than create machinery for the election of local officials. It also broadens and strengthens the structure of the city government to enable it to deal more effectively with its responsibilities."

D.C. is denied voting representation in Congress and full self-government, which is undemocratic. Statehood is the remedy. Congress has the constitutional authority to grant D.C. statehood. D.C. has a larger population than two states, pays more federal taxes than 23 states, pays more federal taxes per capita than any state, has a larger budget than 12 states, has a larger gross domestic product than 17 states, has a triple-A bond rating, and federal funds constitute a smaller percentage of its budget than the percentage of total state revenue.

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