This week, all 12 City Council members signaled their support for a referendum that would amend the Home Rule Charter to give the District autonomy over its own budget. Although the city’s Attorney General said this move is most likely illegal and D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton has expressed lukewarm disapproval, the referendum is a step in the right direction. If passed, it will, at the very least, affirm the District’s commitment to budget autonomy. In the best of scenarios, it might go unchallenged by Congress, and the District will realize unqualified budget autonomy.
The referendum, which the Council is set to vote on by December, will allow the District to spend as much as $6 billion without any Congressional interference. This is a huge boon in a city where Congress has used the local budget to further its own social agenda. Last year, Republicans did away with the city’s needle exchange program, and Congress has been quick to restrict the District from spending local funds on abortion programs for lower-income women.
Some have expressed concern that the Council’s new strategy of unilaterally seizing control of the budget will undermine Norton’s strategy of building Congressional support for a D.C. budget autonomy bill. However, past bills have included provisions to restrict pro-choice spending or liberalize D.C. gun laws—in each case anathema to the city’s social priorities. In fact, this strategy arose out of the National Right to Life’s promise to “score” any budget autonomy bill that goes through Congress.
Norton already has the support of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (D-Va.) and Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa (R-Ca.). She should absolutely continue their attempts to eke out a compromise on District budget autonomy. But in the meantime, the District government needs to assert the importance of this issue by acting independently of Congress. D.C. Vote’s executive Director Ilir Zherka told the Washington Post that the District should pursue budget autonomy on multiple fronts. “I think all of us wanted to give that effort opportunity to succeed,” he said, referring to Norton’s politicking. “But it’s going to be harder and harder to get a budget autonomy bill through Congress, and we believe that the District of Columbia needs to embrace a new strategy.”
The legal issues surrounding this move involve the Council’s authority to amend the Home Rule Charter. While District Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan has warned that this move could be subject to a court challenge, the Council is utilizing the legislative channels set up in the Home Rule Charter: a 35-day review period, after which the referendum takes hold and the measure becomes law. The issue is whether or not this mechanism can be deployed to grant budget autonomy.
The potential legal challenge that might threaten this endeavor should not be cause to abandon this strategy. At this point, the District should explore every available option. Budget autonomy is not only a matter of independence for its own sake, but also a question of maintaining important social programs that the District government is more willing to administer than the current Republican party. It is a way to secure these programs even in the face of shifting political power.
