BUDGET & LEGISLATIVE AUTONOMY
Although the right to vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole, which Eleanor first won in the 103rd Congress, was approved by the federal courts, Norton proceeds without a vote to pass D.C. bills. Despite this, she successfully fights attacks on home rule, gets D.C. rights traditionally afforded to states, and expands home rule. Eleanor's hard-won victories have earned the Distirct unprecedented budgetary and legislative autonomy.
UNPRECEDENTED MOMENTUM FOR BUDGET AUTONOMY
Eleanor has a clear track record of fighting for budgetary and legislative autonomy for the District, and winning. Recently, she was able to eliminate provisions that treated financial assistance as taxable income and that repealed loan interest deductions. Eleanor also created investment incentives for low-income neighborhoods in Wards 5, 7, and 8. Thanks to Eleanor's advocacy, D.C. has true momentum toward laws and a budget that put D.C. first.
LAYING THE GROUNDWORK
FOR STATEHOOD
By fighting Congressional Republican's efforts to infringe on D.C.'s laws and budget, Eleanor has laid the groundwork for D.C. statehood. She has shown that DC can govern itself, and should. D.C. residents want safe, sensible gun laws. They believe in a woman's right to choose, and they want affordable housing. Eleanor has fought tirelessly for these goals, and shown that the District has its own priorities--priorities it should be able to pursue as a state.
MORE EQUALITY FOR THE DISTRICT
Eleanor's Hatch Act National Capital Region Parity Act gives D.C. residents who are federal employees the right to run for partisan political office in local elections as independents, which their regional counterparts have had since the 1940s. The bill enables a significant segment of D.C.’s population to more fully participate in the political life of the city.
In a home-rule victory for the District and its women, D.C. is now treated as a state under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This means the District gets the same amount of funding as states, at 1.5% of the total appropriated by Congress, rather than the 0.25% allotted to four of the territories. This change maximized funding to combat the epidemic of domestic violence in D.C.
Eleanor also successfully fought for the inclusion, in the Senate’s farm bill, of a provision that enables the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) to receive federal funding for forestry research, a victory for the equal treatment of the District.