Eleanor Holmes Norton: “You wouldn't know it from hearing the Member on the other side speak, but in 1973, Congress passed the bipartisan…”

“You wouldn't know it from hearing the Member on the other side speak, but in 1973, Congress passed the bipartisan District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which created a locally elected government. According to the Home Rule Act, a central purpose of the act was to ``relieve Congress of the burden of legislating upon essentially local District matters.'' In his signing statement of the Home Rule Act, President Nixon wrote, ``It will give the people of the District of Columbia the right . . . to govern themselves in local affairs. . . . `' Yet the bill before us would either repeal or block the District of Columbia from carrying out or enacting five local laws. I filed amendments to strike all of these undemocratic riders, but the Rules Committee has blocked me from offering any of them on the floor, even though they all complied with House rules. I have gotten some of these amendments off in the past, and I intend to do so again, because this matter has to go to the Senate as well, Mr. Chairman. Adding insult to injury, the Rules Committee allowed this and one other undemocratic amendment to be offered. Republicans were not satisfied with sabotaging the Affordable Care Act by, among other things, reducing the penalty for failure to comply with the individual responsibility requirement to $0 in the recently enacted GOP tax scam. The ACA remains standing and popular, nevertheless, throughout the country. Mr.…”