Norton Statement on House Markup of D.C. Appropriations Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– After the House Appropriations Committee marked up the fiscal year 2025 D.C. appropriations bill yesterday, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that although she was able to get some victories for D.C., she is disappointed with the anti-home rule riders and other provisions. Significantly, the rider prohibiting D.C. from commercializing marijuana, which was absent in the base text of the bill, was added back during the markup.

The bill, as reported out of committee, provides the following successes for D.C.:

• Exempts D.C. from federal government shutdowns in FY 2025. Norton has gotten annual shutdown exemptions enacted every year since the 2013 federal government shutdown.
• Provides $8 million for D.C. Water for ongoing work to control flooding in D.C. and to clean up the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek.
• Provides $77 million for the Emergency Planning and Security Fund, including $47 million for the upcoming presidential inauguration. The fund pays for the unique public safety and security costs the District incurs as the nation's capital, and is designed to cover the District's costs upfront so D.C. does not need to expend local funds and then seek an appropriation to be reimbursed for such costs after the fact.
• Provides $600,000 for the Major General David F. Wherley, Jr. District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program.
• Provides $4 million to combat HIV/AIDS in D.C.

The bill also provides $20 million for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG), a 50% decrease in funding from last year’s level for the program created by a 1999 Norton bill. DCTAG makes up the difference for D.C. residents between in-state and out-of-state tuition up to $10,000 at public institutions of higher education in the United States.

Norton was disappointed that the bill, as reported out of committee:

• Maintains the existing abortion rider, which prohibits D.C. from spending its own local funds on abortions for low-income women.
• Reinserted from the introduced version of the bill the existing rider prohibiting D.C. from using local funds to commercialize adult-use marijuana.
• Prohibits D.C. from spending its own local funds to enforce the rule relating to “Adoption of California Vehicle Emission Standards.”
• Repeals D.C.’s Death with Dignity Act of 2016 and purports to prohibit D.C. from passing such legislation in the future.
• Permits anyone with a concealed carry permit from any state or territory to carry a concealed handgun in D.C. and on WMATA.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to enact or carry out any law that prohibits motorists from making right turns on red, including the D.C. Safer Streets Amendment Act of 2022.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to carry out its automated traffic enforcement law.
• Repeals a portion of D.C ‘s Anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) law that currently exempts the D.C. government.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to implement its law allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections or on activities related to enrolling or registering noncitizens into voter rolls for local elections.
• Requires D.C. to report on D.C.’s enforcement of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to carry out the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act of 2014.
• Prohibits D.C. from using local funds to implement its Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022.
• Reduces the maximum age of eligibility for D.C.’s Youth Rehabilitation Amendment Act of 1985.
• Prohibits the use of local funds “to implement, administer, or enforce any COVID-19 mask or vaccine mandate.”
• Allows new students to enroll in the D.C. private school voucher program, instead of only permitting current students to remain in the program. Congress imposed the voucher program on the District, which is the only federally funded or created voucher program, even though Congress has rejected a national voucher program.

Norton also opposed the three directives to D.C. in the committee report:

• Directing D.C. to submit a report on maternity care access for D.C. residents.
• Directing D.C. to exempt houses of worship from some of its building performance standards.
• Directing D.C. to submit a report on fines for violations of the D.C. law regulating the removal of refuse from public spaces adjacent private property.

"While I am pleased to have achieved some victories for D.C. in the bill reported out of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday, I am outraged by the anti-home-rule riders and committee report provisions,” Norton said.

Norton said she will fight to remove the anti-home-rule riders in the bill, which Republicans try to attach to the annual spending bill to exert control over local D.C. matters, despite their positions as elected officials representing districts far from D.C.

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