Top Norton Priorities Funded in Omnibus Spending Bill

Press Release

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) expressed "tremendous relief" with the House-Senate appropriations deal, or the fiscal year 2014 omnibus appropriations bill, which funds many of the Congresswoman's top priorities and is an enormous plus for the District of Columbia, given the austere original House spending bills.

"For all the talking we did with appropriators, we did not know if it mattered at all until yesterday when the bill was published," said Norton. "The Congress agreed with our priorities, particularly DCTAG, because of its strong record of funding every student who applied and the success of our students in college. The funding for DC Water and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment for D.C. residents round out our most important priorities, which survived the cuts in the House bill. The omnibus bill contains many sacrifices, but the District came out ahead, particularly considering the detrimental cuts originally proposed by the House."

Norton thanked her House and Senate appropriations allies, especially Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Representative Jose Serrano (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, for their strong efforts and support on the bill.

The bill funds Norton's top educational priority -- the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG) -- by maintaining the fiscal year 2013 enacted level of $30 million for DCTAG, a positive shift from the House's proposed cut of over 50 percent from the program. Norton is also pleased that the bill does not adopt additional means testing for DCTAG, as proposed by the president. The bill also provides approximately $16 million for D.C. public schools and $16 million for D.C. public charter schools, a $4 million decrease for each from the fiscal year 2013 enacted level. In addition, it provides $375,000 for the Major General David F. Wherley, Jr. District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program, which provides tuition assistance for D.C. National Guard soldiers, the same amount as the fiscal year 2013 enacted level.

Norton worked particularly hard for the $14 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water), in light of the House's bill zeroing out its funding. The funds are vital for the ongoing massive construction to improve D.C.'s antiquated storm water system to eliminate flooding in several neighborhoods and reduce sewer overflows into the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and Rock Creek, Norton's top environmental priority. The $5 million in the president's budget, which was also included in the Senate's bill, for D.C. HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment is fully funded in the omnibus bill, compared to $2.5 million in the House bill. In addition, $8.92 million is provided to reimburse the District for expenses related to security at President Obama's second inauguration, adding to the $9.8 million D.C. got for pre-inaugural expenses in the fiscal year 2013 continuing resolution (CR). In addition, $14.88 million is included for D.C. emergency planning and security costs related to the presence of the federal government in the nation's capital.

Norton also pressed for her top economic development priority, the consolidation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters, currently under construction on the West Campus of St. Elizabeths in Ward 8, which received $190 million. These funds are a critical part of Norton's vision to ensure that federal development also reaches communities east of the Anacostia River. Norton, however, is disappointed that the bill does not include funding for the D.C.-owned portion of St. Elizabeths, even though the president requested and the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $9.8 million for funding for D.C. to jumpstart redevelopment of the St. Elizabeths East Campus.

Norton's language is included in the appropriations committee report to keep the Office of National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC) in the National Capital Region, which includes the District of Columbia and several surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia. Following a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) proposal to move the office to Philadelphia, PA, Norton pressed for this language to maintain this disaster and terrorist protection office in the National Capital Region it is tasked to protect.

Another Norton priority in the bill is the full $150 million in funding for the fifth installment for WMATA, per an authorization for $1.5 billion over ten years in federal funds for capital improvements, which Norton helped to champion as a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The bill contains Norton's provision to provide an economic boost to the District by giving the Capitol Police the permanent authority to issue permits for commercial filming and photography in Union Square (the area just below the west side of the Capitol, near the Botanic Gardens). Norton has worked to get this legislation through Congress since the jurisdiction for Union Square was transferred from the National Park Service (NPS) to the Architect of the Capitol in 2011. NPS allowed such filming and photography, and with the urging of Norton, the Capitol Police has permitted continued filming, but legislation was necessary because such filming is otherwise prohibited on Capitol grounds.

Norton is disappointed that the bill does not include the D.C. budget autonomy provision, which the president requested and the Senate Appropriations Committee approved, but she is pleased that the no action was taken to interfere with or overturn the budget autonomy referendum approved by D.C. voters. While the bill does not contain a permanent shutdown avoidance provision for D.C., it does contain a historic non-shutdown provision that will permit D.C. to spend its local funds and remain open if the federal government shuts down in fiscal year 2015. For the first time ever, D.C. will be guaranteed to avoid a local government shutdown for an entire fiscal year.

Norton is pleased that the bill does not contain restrictions on the District from spending its local funds on needle exchange programs or gun safety, issues that have been attacked in the past, using the District as a vehicle. However, she is disappointed that the bill maintains a rider banning D.C. from spending its own local funds on abortion services for low-income women. She stressed that, going forward, she will continue to work with her Senate allies and with a national coalition of more than 50 organizations that have successfully helped to keep riders off of D.C.'s appropriations bill in the past.

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