Once again, the District of Columbia’s power of the public-always necessary when you lack the power of the elected official-has halted a Congressional proposal that was both controversial and confusing. It’s also an illustrative case of what happens when Congress, the press and local activists get tangled together in a political fracas.
It started late last week, when the House Resources Committee, under the auspices of its chairman Representative Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), “inadvertently” released a document containing “brainstorming options” to raise $2.4 billion in revenue for President Bush’s Budget Reconciliation, according to a statement issued to the press by Brian Kennedy, the Committee’s spokesperson. Kennedy did not return calls for comment.
This would have been an entirely harmless exercise in bureaucracy except that the document included a plan to sell Theodore Roosevelt Island, the national park that sits in the middle of the Potomac next to Georgetown’s campus, along with 15 other parks and sites. The plan envisions handing the publicly owned island to real estate developers.
Needless to say, everyone from local environmentalists to D.C. politicians fighting for autonomy went nuts.
Pombo’s office backpedaled, announcing that the congressman had not proposed any formal budget package but was simply “identify[ing] revenue-generating options” to submit to the Congressional Budget Office for “scoring,” the CBO’s term for figuring out how much things cost. Pombo staffers insist the congressman is not considering selling national parks. However, one wonders why Pombo would ask for a price tag on something he’s not selling.
Observers, as well as Congressional Democrats and their staff, have an answer: Pombo is holding parks hostage to achieve his eventual goal of opening the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Pombo’s staff confirms that he supports drilling there, and Kennedy told the Washington Post that drilling would raise almost as much money as the parks-for-sale brainstorm.
Non-voting D.C. Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes-Norton is keeping tabs on the Resource Committee’s brainstorming, according to her Press Secretary Doxie McCoy, and taking it seriously. Holmes opposes the sale of the park, but is more concerned about land-use issues that are actually appearing in the Bush’s Budget Reconciliation.
This isn’t the first time Congressional Republicans have used D.C.-based issues to push their national agenda. Last year, GOP Representatives pushed legislation to eliminate the gun ban in D.C. over the objections of the entire city government and most of its citizens. That proposal was also defeated by public outcry from local leaders, activists and the press.
The answer to this mess could be as simple as granting D.C. statehood—despite Norton’s sterling efforts, she can’t do much without a vote. Giving D.C. a say in it’s own public policy isn’t just a smart plan, its good democracy.
