Bills to repeal DC’s Home Rule government were introduced in the House and the Senate at the beginning of the 119th Congress. This legislation would eliminate the city’s mayor, council, and attorney general and turn our nation’s capital into a colony of non-voting residents. The reasoning behind these bills, introduced by Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee, is unclear. Why would Congress take on the burden of running DC when it so often struggles with the basic task of coming up with an annual budget? One of the reasons Congress created our Home Rule government was to relieve Congress from legislating on local issues. Taking over the management of DC will certainly not make Congress more productive, nor will the takeover be of any benefit to the people Lee and Ogles represent. And it will be a cruel injustice to the residents of DC.
Unfortunately, for people in DC, the U.S Constitution gives Congress authority over the federal district “that is the government of the United States.” This makes DC the only city in the United States where local laws and budgets can and have been overturned by Congress. Ever since our Home Rule government was created over 50 years ago, Members of congress have imposed their will on DC in over a thousand ways. Their preferred method of interference has been budget riders—amendments with spending restrictions attached to appropriation bills.
Budget riders can destroy a program. In 1998, a budget rider shut down DC’s needle exchange program for IV drug users. And for ten years after that, the rider kept getting attached to the budget. During that time, the city earned the dubious distinction of being America’s AIDS capital, with the highest HIV infection rate in the country.
Budget riders can also make it Impossible to start a program. In 2014, 64% of DC voters approved a ballot initiative calling for the decriminalization of marijuana. Shortly after the election, a rider was attached to the DC appropriations bill which banned DC from using funds to commercialize the use of marijuana by adults. This rider has been part of every subsequent DC appropriation, including the current legislation
Another budget rider that is certain to be on the bill.is a prohibition against spending local funds on abortions for low-income women. This rider has been attached to every DC Appropriation for the past 14 years.Based on recent efforts to obstruct our local government, we expect members of the current Congress to try to interfere with our traffic laws, require the DC government to recognize conceal carry permits from other states, and repeal our law allowing terminally ill residents to have lethal medication
District residents are taxpaying Americans. We pay more federal taxes per person that the residents of any state. Yet, we are denied representation in the Congress that determines how our taxes are spent. We have no voice on national policy or who is in the President’s cabinet or on the Supreme Court.
Washingtonians have fought and died in every war since the Revolution of 1776, but no one representing people in the District of Columbia has participated in the decision to send our sons and daughters to war.
The way to end taxation without representation and Congressional interference is statehood for the people in DC. Residents of the nation’s capital strongly support the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which will make the residential and commercial areas of DC the 51st state of Washington, Douglass* Commonwealth. The federal District of Columbia (the area where Congress has authority) will shrink in size, but will still include the U.S. Capitol, White House, Supreme Court, National Mall, and key national parks and monuments.
*Douglass Is in honor of Frederick Douglass, the African-American abolitionist, who lived in Washington, DC from 1877 to 1895. During this time, he served as U.S. Marshal, Recorder of Deeds, and Minister to Haiti.
