Chaka Fattah

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. I thank the gentleman for his comments. The issue of budget autonomy is one that I support, and I am the cosponsor of the bill, but it is also a matter of having the city be able to reach the revenues that are here. The city is prohibited from taxing sales that happen on Federal property. It cannot go after suburbanites who earn wages in the city, because we prohibit the city from, as other cities, mine and others are able, to attach those wage earners. So if we are going to talk about the fact that the city has a limited tax base, we need to understand why it is limited. It is limited because of our own actions.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman, who has led us to this moment. We have a much-improved product from previous years, and it is because of the leadership that the gentleman from Michigan has put forward in this effort. I want to also thank a number of the people on the staff on our side: Tom Forhan and William Miles on my personal staff. I would also like to thank Migo Miconi and Mary Porter on the chairman's staff, and also Jeff Onizuk on the personal staff of the gentleman from Michigan (Chairman Knollenberg), who have all played a very important role in this bill. This is not a perfect bill, and there are things in it that we would like to improve even further. But I would have to say that we have done a very good job in terms of addressing many of the concerns, and I note that the mayor of the city has had very kind things to say about the work of the conference committee. I would like to also thank his staff, and in particular, Sabrina McNeil, who worked very hard to make sure that we understood the needs of the District. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, again I want to thank all who have been involved, but mainly the chairman of the subcommittee. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver).

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the conference committee report, and compliment the ranking member and the chairman and the others who worked on this bill.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to, first of all, say to the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) and to the whole House, that I want to compliment him on his service and his leadership, leading us to this moment on this appropriation. It has been the smoothest I think of any of the D.C. appropriation bills since my time here in the Congress, and it is because of his leadership; and I would also like to thank the senior staff on both sides of the aisle that have worked on this. I have a motion to instruct that simply would remind the conferees on behalf of the House of our deep concern about the young people in the D.C. area and to focus our energies to represent the House's position on a number of education matters, in particular, and by example, the appropriation for St. Coletta's. Mr. Speaker, in that regard, I yield as much time as he may consume to my colleague from West Virginia (Mr. Mollohan) to say a few words about this important appropriations.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman from Michigan yield for just 1 second?

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to instruct conferees.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I want to compliment the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) and thank him for his leadership and cooperation and, of course, the full committee chairman and ranking member, their guidance, as we have moved through this process. I am anxious to go to conference and finish our work for the year; and I believe that the motion to instruct and, moreover, the committee's work product is a great foundation from which the House could proceed in a conference; and I would be remiss not to also thank the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for her leadership and urgings as we have walked down this road towards the D.C. appropriations. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the remainder of my time.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield 6 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I thank the majority chairman of this subcommittee, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg), for doing a magnificent job with an extraordinary degree of sensitivity to the issues involved and the intricacies involved in the affairs of the capital city. He has visited schools, met with local officials, worked with the delegate, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), and been ever-present in the effort to work toward a piece of legislation that could build a strong consensus in this Congress. I want to commend him and his staff, for we have a bill that I support, and I know that as we move the manager's amendment and our work in conference will even be a better bill than it is now. But it is the best bill for the District that has arrived on this floor in many, many years. The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) is not the only Member of the majority, there are others like my friend the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) and others who have shown in the various committee meetings a real sensitivity and a legitimate effort to make this city a better place. I want to commend them. I would like to thank the staff, particularly Tom Forhan and William Miles, for their work. And for the majority staff also, Migo and his team, because they have done a terrific job. This bill, as has been stated, is about $65 million less than what the appropriation was last year. It is about $30 million above what the President requested. It represents a response to the needs of the school district with its 68,000 children and the need for a first-class police department. It responds to each and every item that the city has suggested that they have a need at the dollar amount that was requested. There are a number of issues that deserve mention. I will first start with the fiscal control board, a piece of legislation that the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) and myself and a number of others, like the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran) and the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) worked on in my first term in this Congress. This control board has worked very well. This city has had an improvement in its bond ratings for each of the last 4 years. It has a cash reserve that I think is unmatched by any other American city. The mayor and the city council deserve all of the credit, working with the control board, to moving the fiscal functioning of this city to where it is today. I would also like to take a minute to talk about the tuition support program, another piece of legislation that I had an opportunity to join with a number of my colleagues in cosponsoring, for it has responded to the needs of literally hundreds and hundreds of students from the District and allowing them to pursue an education in colleges all across this country and to do so at an in-State tuition rate. It is, I think, representative of the kind of legislation that this House can produce when we avoid getting mired down in the activities of trying to micromanage the District, but really focus on a higher mission, which is how to really improve the capital city and its functioning in a cooperative way with the local officials. All that is good about this bill could and hopefully will not be overshadowed by some of the activity that will take place after the general debate. There will be amendments unfortunately in which some of my colleagues, I believe, perhaps, well intentioned, but nonetheless, will attempt to overrule, not just the wisdom of the full committee when we made certain decisions about how the bill should be finally shaped when it was brought to the floor, but, moreover, they will attempt in these amendments to micromanage and to overrule the local city council and the mayor. I want to say one thing about this. The District of Columbia and its citizens, who have sent more people to be involved in our military than many of our States, they pay a higher share of taxes than some of our States in terms of the total aggregate amount, deserve a right to have their votes count. They have no vote here on the floor of the House or in the U.S. Senate. The only place that they really have a vote is when they vote for city council and for the mayor. We should respect those votes in a way in which when the city council and the mayor come to a consensus around even controversial public policy, that we avoid the need for the Congress to try to sit as a larger city council. We come from other places and other towns, many who have made decisions on these similar types of matters, and we should not, unless it is a matter of national policy for the whole country, interject ourselves in the affairs of the capital city. I would hope that we would avoid that today. I would like to compliment the full committee for avoiding it and voting in the right way on these issues when we dealt with this bill in full committee. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. FATTAH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver), a member of the subcommittee.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank).

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I am a former Scout, and my son is a Scout. I am amazed that we are debating this matter as part of the D.C. appropriations bill. It is probably appropriate in the authorizing bill, or perhaps maybe not even there, since it has always been the majority party's view that local communities, those closest to the people, should make decisions; that they know best, and that we should not, as a Federal government, intervene in these local matters. But nonetheless, absent a reversal of the Supreme Court's viewpoint, I do not know why we are in this at all. I would hope that we could move on with the more important business of the Nation, which at this time makes this matter a pretty small issue, given tens of thousands of our troops being arrayed across the world, to be here now debating back and forth a decision by the Human Rights Commission here in the District. Maybe some want to be a Member of the D.C. City Council, and I know that there are elections coming up, and perhaps they want to offer themselves.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, a lot has been said in particular about the Weldon amendment that we expect to hear from. I want to return, however, to compliment the chairman for the full body of work that is represented in the committee's efforts. I would hope that the committee bill will survive the day's attempts to amend it. Mr. Chairman, I would now say in terms of the expected amendment offered by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon), I am reminded of the Hippocratic oath: First, do no harm. Obviously, if we were to pass the Weldon amendment, we are preventing an opportunity for citizens in the District to have health insurance. That is not something we should do, especially when they are going to pay for it with their own money. Absent doing that, these people will have to be paid for through Federal resources in terms of their health care. So that the gentleman who just spoke is worried that he could not, in good conscience, have his citizens provide resources for this, but by supporting the Weldon amendment, we would, in a direct way, require that Federal resources through Medicaid have to be expended for the health care of these citizens who would have paid for, absent the Weldon amendment, health care under their own resources. Mr. Chairman, we heard the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt) refer to one of the heroes that saved the plane from crashing perhaps into the Capitol, who happened to be a gay person, but nonetheless, and maybe even because of, he felt a need to stand up and to do what was right. I would hope that this House would do what is right and defeat the Weldon amendment.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, reserving the right to object, I just want to clarify that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) would have an opportunity to offer his amendment. Obviously I think that there may be a point of order or something raised at that point, but that his opportunity not to offer be void by this unanimous consent.

Mr. FATTAH. Further reserving the right to object, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to accept the amendment offered by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant).

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2\1/2\ minutes. Mr. Chairman, I would read, in part, a statement from the ranking member of the full committee. This is from the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey). ``In full committee, Chairman Young and I presented an amendment to redirect $13 million in Federal funds to help the District prepare and begin to implement a revised emergency operations plan.'' It was first thought, and I am paraphrasing, that there was no plan available. It later it became obvious that the District was not prepared. It submitted a plan to the committee, and the ranking member goes on to say, however, that this plan needs serious revision. He said, ``I trust this bill provides adequate resources to do a careful and complete revision of the Emergency Operations Plan, fully coordinated with other entities in the District, like the U.S. Capitol Police, the Federal Office of Personnel Management,'' and other local governments. Mr. Chairman, I include for the Record the full remarks of the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I withdraw my reservation of objection.