Norton Gets Better Than Expected Funding for Her D.C. Priorities in Trump Budget

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WASHINGTON, D.C.--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said President Trump's fiscal year 2018 budget is better for the District of Columbia than expected, providing $30 million from Norton's major priority, the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG)--but down from the $40 million she secured in the fiscal year 2017 omnibus appropriations bill, the first spending bill enacted into law during the Trump administration. However, the Trump budget contains a rider attempting to block the District's local medical aid-in-dying law, the Death with Dignity Act (DWA). Norton was successful in keeping the full House and Senate from considering disapproval resolutions to nullify D.C.'s Death with Dignity bill during the congressional review period, and no rider was not included in the enacted fiscal year 2017 omnibus appropriations bill to block or repeal the DWA. The new rider says no local D.C. funds in the D.C. appropriations bill may be "used to carry out" the DWA or "to implement any rule or regulation promulgated to carry out" the DWA.

"While the Trump budget harshly and unsustainably cuts virtually all domestic programs, especially affecting the most vulnerable Americans, we were able to achieve a better-than-expected result for the District of Columbia," Norton said. "However, I am already preparing to mount a coordinated effort with a broad coalition of allies to fight the anti-home-rule riders blocking local D.C. laws during the upcoming appropriations process."

As expected, the Trump budget includes the same riders that were enacted in the fiscal year 2017 omnibus and in previous spending bills--prohibiting D.C. from spending its local funds on abortions for low-income women and on commercializing marijuana, which Norton will continue to fight--but the budget did not contain riders to repeal D.C.'s budget autonomy referendum or to prohibit D.C. from spending its local funds on enforcing the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act, which were included in the House's FY17 D.C. appropriations bill. The budget also includes Norton's annual provision exempting D.C. from a shutdown (in fiscal year 2019).

Norton said a particular bright spot is that the budget provides continued funding for ongoing construction at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters complex at St. Elizabeths in Ward 8. DHS consolidation would receive $135.440 million in General Services Administration funding and $69.988 million in DHS funding. In addition, $250 million of funds still remain from the $556.7 million she got included in the FY16 omnibus appropriations bill, ensuring the complex housing the first federal agency to cross the Anacostia River will be completed.

Norton said that considering the current crisis in funding for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the inclusion of the full $150 million in WMATA capital improvements was particularly essential for D.C. and the region. Norton also got $8.5 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) for ongoing work to control flooding in the city and clean up the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and Rock Creek, a decrease from the fiscal year 2017 enacted level of $14 million. She got $5 million to combat HIV/AIDS in D.C., equal to the fiscal year 2017 enacted level, which she has gotten every year to help make up for the 10 years when a rider kept D.C. from spending its local funds on a needle exchange program. She said the budget, as usual, provides funding for the Major General David F. Wherley, Jr. District of Columbia National Guard Retention and College Access Program for tuition for D.C. National Guard soldiers ($435,000), though it is a small decrease from the fiscal year 2017 enacted level. The program helps boost enlistment and retention in the D.C. National Guard by providing financial assistance to D.C. guardsmen to attend undergraduate, vocational, or technical courses.