Don't Tread on D.C.

Floor Speech

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I come to the floor to alert Members who interfere with the local funds of a local jurisdiction, not your own, in this case the District of Columbia, that this year, it will be highlighted in your own district.

The debt limit discussions spotlight our differences, but one idea always has enjoyed the broadest support in this country and in this House. The Federal Government does not interfere with local matters, especially local funds not raised by the Federal Government.

The Framers formed a federal government only after trying a confederation, but it became clear that there were some matters of overarching concern that could be arbitrated only by a true national government. But, they were at great pains to reserve maximum freedom at the local level where people live.

Nothing is more local than the local funds a jurisdiction raises on its own from its own local taxpayers. You raise the funds, you get to say how they will be spent.

The principle applies to all. No second class citizens on local matters, especially local funds, and that includes the 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia.

Congress ceded its power to run the District of Columbia in 1973 when it passed the Home Rule Act. It still approves the D.C. budget, but it does not change that budget.

Members of Congress, unaccountable to the electorate of the District of Columbia, have no right to use the budget process to direct spending away from matters that may be controversial to you but not to our own local jurisdiction. That is tea party doctrine; that is a principle of the Democratic Party.

License was taken to put controversial attachments on the 2011 budget deal and the world watched as the entire executive and legislative branches of the local government here were arrested in an act of civil disobedience.

This time a coalition of national organizations with millions of members are taking preventive action, and I quote from a letter all of you will receive: ``Should lawmakers continue to advance attacks on D.C.'s autonomy, we will make certain that our members in every district know how their representatives are spending their time in Washington, meddling in the affairs of D.C. residents rather than focusing on the Nation's true pressing business.''

Meddle with D.C.'s local funds, we will pull the covers off in your own districts.

Congress, this year ``don't tread on D.C.''

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