WASHINGTON, D.C. — The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced in a press release that Norton successfully got three provisions vital to the District of Columbia included in the Heroes Act, the phase-five coronavirus response bill passed on May 15 in the House. Norton secured state, city-, and county-level funding for the District; $755 million in retroactive funding to fix D.C.’s treatment as a territory instead of a state in the CARES Act; and authorization for D.C. to participate in the Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) the Federal Reserve is establishing.
According to estimates, the Heroes Act would provide D.C. this year with $1.5 billion. at the state level, $740 million at the city level, and $264 million at the county level, for a total of $2.5billion, to address the coronavirus health and economic s crisis. Norton argued, “D.C. uniquely provides state-city-county services to residents, so it should follow that the District receives funding at all three levels.”
The MLF is being established to support short-term borrowing by states, cities and counties for coronavirus relief. Norton got a fix in the Heroes Act authorizing D.C.’s participation in the MLF. “We do not yet know when or whether D.C. will need to participate in the MLF, but we could not. afford to wait to get this authorization,” Norton said.
Norton retrieved the $755 million Senate Republicans and the White House took from D.C. in the CARES Act, the phase-three coronavirus response bill passed on March 27. “The CARES Act intentionally discriminated against D.C. by treating us as a territory rather than a state in the Coronavirus Relief Fund, depriving the District of $755 million. We could not let that stand,” Norton said. “D.C. is almost always funded at the same level as the states, even without statehood, because the District pays the same federal income taxes as the states and, in fact, pays more per capita federal taxes than any state.” See the full press release in Congresswoman Norton’s newsletter at https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwHNVvtkVVMzTdSprStHPqKtgjz
