Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank the gentleman from Colorado for yielding to me and for his work on this bill. Madam Speaker, the District of…”

“I thank the gentleman from Colorado for yielding to me and for his work on this bill. Madam Speaker, the District of Columbia has no vote on the rule or the bill under consideration. Yet the only controversial attachments in this bill involve only the District of Columbia. The bill is remarkably clean. Only four out of 50 or so attachments survived: one on gray wolves, one on Guantanamo prisoners, and, yes, there is the District of Columbia. These two, the only controversial amendments, violate the District's most basic right to self-government. One has to do with private school vouchers--only for the District of Columbia. A bill we didn't ask for, a bill we weren't consulted about, and a bill we don't want. The Rules Committee refused to recognize my amendment, which would redirect the private school voucher money to the D.C. public schools and to our own public charter schools--40 percent of our children go to this alternative and our charter schools have long waiting lists--to our choice, not the Republicans' choice. My second amendment would strike a second rider that keeps the District from spending our own local taxpayer-raised funds on reproductive choice for our low-income women. Local money, local choice. The majority proposed to close down the District government last week rather than pass my amendment to allow D.C. to spend its own local funds. Now the majority wants a closed rule for a bill with attachments that profoundly affect only the District of Columbia.…”