In a statement Wednesday, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said that while she was pleased the spending bill includes $40 million toward D.C.'s tuition assistance grant program, which helps local high-schoolers attend colleges outside of the city, Norton also said she was “outraged at anti-home-rule riders in the bill.”
Other city officials voiced similar displeasure. D.C. Council member Charles Allen , who chairs the council’s transportation committee, notedthat repealing automated traffic enforcement would likely spur a $1 billion shortfall over the city’s financial plan, causing severe, detrimental impacts on the city’s public safety efforts and social services.
“There would be zero camera enforcement, and the best way to enforce red-light running is a camera,” Mendelson said. “Two months after excoriating officials about being soft on crime and being a lawless city, they turn around and make it easier for red-light runners to drive through the District.”Mendelson and other members of the council have for years raised concerns about the ban on legal marijuana sales, noting that it has allowed an unregulated “Council member Brianne K.
A House appropriations subcommittee approved the spending bill Thursday morning. Next, the bill would be considered by the full appropriations committee before heading to the House floor for a vote. Federal lawmakers will likely pitch changes to the bill, including the removal of proposed restrictions on D.C. — but they could also add new ones.