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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

White House budget calls for D.C. to receive budget autonomy

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.'s delegate in Congress, prepares to speak to local students about D.C. voting rights last September. Hatchet File Photo

This post was written by Hatchet reporter Sloan Dickey.

President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal met praise from District officials Monday for suggesting the city gain autonomy over its budget.

The plan, released by the White House Monday morning, said the administration would “work with Congress and the Mayor to pass legislation to amend the D.C. Home Rule Act to provide the District with local budget autonomy.”

The Home Rule Act requires the city’s legislature to pass along its yearly budget to Congress for approval. Congress also holds the right to review and veto legislation passed by the D.C. Council.

Amending the act would also allow D.C. to control local funds in the event of looming federal government shutdowns during budgetary negotiations.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s delegate in Congress, said the measure put forward in Obama’s budget “keeps a promise he personally made to her” about reforming the Home Rule Act.

District leaders have been calling for increased control over the local budget alongside their decades-long plea for D.C. to become the 51st state.

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