Why D.C. Budget Autonomy Remains Doomed

There’s a lot of optimism right now that the District could score a big Capitol Hill win, with support building for changes that would allow the District to spend its money without active congressional approval.

An earlier attempt at budget autonomy legislation was derailed when it got caught up in the abortion issue, with House Republicans adding language that would permanently ban the public funding of abortions for low-income women in the city. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and other city leaders rejected the compromise. . . .

. . . . But city leaders shouldn’t get their hopes too far up, because antiabortion forces are not going to be giving the city a pass.

A top official for the National Right to Life Committee, the best-organized antiabortion lobby on the Hill, said the group’s position is that abortion and the District budget are inextricably linked. Thus it opposes any budget autonomy bill that doesn’t include a ban on publicly funded abortions. . . .

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/mike-debonis/post/why-dc -budget-autonomy-remains-doomed/2012/04/20/gIQAOsR5VT_blog.html

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