D.C. budget deal: A reader on the riders

The indignities of living in a politically orphaned city don't slap D.C. residents in the face every day. In conducting their daily lives, they do pretty much what people elsewhere in the country do. They go to work, buy their groceries, go home, turn in, and repeat.

Here, the affronts to the American way of life come at rather predictable moments. Every other year, for instance, D.C.ers go to the polls. There are always a great number of races to vote on, including those for the D.C. Council, the advisory neighborhood commissions, the school board, and others. Yet there's no place on the ballot for people who will exercise a vote on the floor of the House or Senate.

Another reminder often comes around the time Congress works on its budget---especially when the Republican Party rules the House of Representatives. That's when Congress flexes its constitutionally enshrined power to mess with the city's budget.

As one of the most liberal jurisdictions in the country---it's nearly 80 percent Democratic---the District's policy leanings invariably clash with those of congressional Republicans. One of the central planks in the job description of D.C. congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, accordingly, is to convince the GOP to leave the city alone.

She cannot report much success this season. On Friday night, Congress and the White House reached an agreement that included two budget "riders" that would: 1) re-launch a school vouchers program that had been discontinued; and 2) bar the city from using its own money to fund abortions for low-income women. The fate of a push to ban the District from funding a needle-exchange program is unclear.

Outrage spilled into the weekend, with Mayor Vince Gray issuing a statement decrying congressional meddling in D.C. affairs. The riders, said the mayor on Twitter, constituted a "shameful violation" of the District's right to self-determination.

Gray set the tone for a lively discussion that'll preoccupy the region for weeks to come. Here's an annotated rundown of stuff that's been written about the matter.

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http://www.tbd.com/articles/2011/04/d-c-budget-deal-a-reader -on-the-riders-58264.html

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