D.C. Appropriation Easily Passes Full Committee
with New Money and without New Attachments
June 6, 2006

Washington, DC—The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that she was able to restore $20 million in federal funding to expand the Navy Yard Metro Station and to retain the $2 million increase (total $35 million) to the popular D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant program (TAG), as the full House Appropriations Committee approved the District’s FY07 appropriation this evening.  Norton had earlier said that she believed she could save the $20 million in Metro upgrade funds after they were cut by the D.C. subcommittee a week ago.  She conceded what Congress, of course, knew about D.C.’s interest in increased capacity at the Navy Yard Station because of the baseball stadium, but stressed the significant federal interest, for example, the new Department of Transportation headquarters, which is bringing 5,500 employees to the area, several thousand in addition to the 10,000 employees already employed at the renovated Navy Yard, and the hundreds of federal contractors that have followed the Navy Sea Systems Command to the new office buildings that now line M Street, S.E.

Norton said that overall the District was fortunate to have received the increase it did at a time when the budget for the subcommittee was cut hundreds of millions of dollars (D.C. is now included in the large Departments of Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development (TTHUD) appropriation).  TTHUD appropriation components had numerous cuts relating to national programs, including cuts to Amtrak and housing rehabilitation, and Norton is still struggling for the construction funds for the Coast Guard headquarters on the campus of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.  The Congresswoman was pleased that the special appropriation to cover police, fire and other services for national demonstrations that she has gotten on a regular basis beginning five years ago was retained.  Her chief regret, she said, was the removal of the $30 million that had been in the President’s budget proposal for city libraries, many of which are in seriously rundown condition.