On the recordMay 25, 2016
My amendment would have made the text of D.C.'s Local Budget Autonomy Act Federal law. It would have simply said, look, if you don't like what the District did, you do it. We would have lost. But you would at least have given to us the respect that we are entitled to as American citizens--afraid even to do that. The Local Budget Autonomy Act is already law. The District government has begun to implement it, and I applaud them for doing so. When you are up against a despotic House of Representatives, the only way to proceed in a democracy is to move on your own, or else they will say: See, we waited them out and there is nothing they can do. There is only one of them against all of us. Only one court opinion has, in fact, upheld the Budget Autonomy Act, though the good Member on the other side implied that this was a lawless act. Well, let me tell you what the court said, without going through all of it: Forthwith, enforce all provisions of the Local Budget Autonomy Act of 2012. That is the law. Who is being lawless, who is being unprincipled is any majority that would want to be involved with the local funds of any American jurisdiction. When Members cast their vote today on the bill, they will be voting on a bill to require Congress to approve a local budget. How un- Republican. And worse, undemocratic.
