A House subcommittee has voted to fund several major budget priorities for Washington D.C., but extended a ban that prevents the District from spending its own funds on abortion services for low-income women.
Once the bill, approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, clears the House it will go to the Senate. Once there, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) hopes limitations on the District’s spending autonomy are removed from the final legislation.
The subcommittee, meanwhile, approved the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant program or DCTAG, start-up funds intended to help the District of Columbia develop the East Campus at St. Elizabeth’s in Ward 8. It also green-lit new funds for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in D.C., beyond the federal grants the city currently receives, as well as money to assist the District in covering the cost of handling major demonstrations and other national events in the nation’s capital city, including next year’s presidential inauguration.
In a statement thanking the subcommittee for funding the city’s initiatives, Norton also expressed gratitude for efforts lobbying Congress to respect the District’s autonomy.
“We are particularly grateful for the 100 organizations nationwide working in concert to activate their members, who in turn will tell House and Senate appropriators to keep their hands off D.C.’s local budget and to respect the city’s home-rule rights,” Norton said. “Their efforts were felt last year when no D.C. riders were imposed, other than the abortion rider. We are deeply disappointed that the introduced version of the fiscal year 2013 D.C. appropriations bill again includes the D.C. abortion rider, but with help from the coalition and the District’s friends in the Senate, we will fight back against that rider.”