Eleanor Holmes Norton: “In the 1940s, Congress gave OPM the authority to exempt Federal employees living in towns in Maryland, Virginia, and the…”

“In the 1940s, Congress gave OPM the authority to exempt Federal employees living in towns in Maryland, Virginia, and the immediate vicinity of the District from the Hatch Act's prohibition on Federal employees running in partisan elections, so that towns with a high concentration of Federal employees would not be deprived by having a significant percentage of their residents unable to participate in local affairs. However, OPM was not given the authority to exempt Federal employees living in D.C. because the city did not have local elections before the Home Rule Act of 1973. The Hatch Act Modernization Act includes these two bills and brings the District one step closer to equal treatment and self-government, and implements these and other commonsense revisions to the Hatch Act. I applaud the chairman and the ranking member for the entire Act, and I thank them very much that our bills are included.”