There’s no sugarcoating what is taking place on Capitol Hill. By embedding anti-home-rule riders in the fiscal 2019 D.C. appropriations bill, House and Senate Republicans are thumbing their noses at citizens of the District and their elected leaders. This affront to our nation’s capital is contemptible.
The 1973 Home Rule Act delegates local legislative power to the city government. Congress, of course, retains constitutional authority over the District. But D.C. leaders, taking actions that deal exclusively with D.C. matters, are working within the authority of the federal law enacted 45 years ago.
GOP members of Congress, however, are laughing at the city’s home-rule authority. Their lack of respect is tangible.
The fiscal 2019 D.C. appropriations bills pending in the House and Senate would repeal the city-enacted Local Budget Autonomy Act of 2012, which removes the city’s local funds from the congressional approval process, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) said in a press release.
