Norton Vows to Defeat Republican Efforts to Repeal D.C. Home Rule Act

Statement

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said House Republicans have threatened to repeal the District of Columbia Home Rule Act if they take over the House next Congress. They cited reasons such as crime, homelessness, and drug use, all of which are present throughout the country. Several House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA), Representative James Comer (KY), the ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, which has jurisdiction over D.C., and others recently told the press that they plan to limit D.C.'s authority to govern its own affairs next Congress, including, according to Representative Andrew Clyde (GA), eliminating it by repealing the Home Rule Act.

"We have not heard such anti-democratic rhetoric from Republicans about the District of Columbia since the early and mid-1990s," Norton said. "Republicans are scared that D.C. has gotten closer to statehood than ever, and their response is, predictably, to try to take away what democracy the nearly 700,000 D.C. residents, a plurality of whom are African Americans, have. I will defeat their efforts, and their efforts will only strengthen our case for statehood."

Congress passed the Home Rule Act in 1973, which was signed into law by President Nixon. The Home Rule Act gave D.C. an elected chief executive (mayor) and legislature (Council).

Norton noted that D.C. has a larger population than two states, pays more federal taxes than 21 states, pays more federal taxes per capita than any state, has a larger budget than 12 states, has a larger gross domestic product than 17 states, has a triple-A bond rating, and federal funds constitute a smaller percentage of its budget than the percentage of total state revenue.

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