The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

The Consequences of Disenfranchising Our Nation’s Capital from A to Z

Because the residents of our nation’s capital don't have real home rule or voting representation in Congress, they have to live with policies made by representatives whom they didn't elect. Here’s a sampling of decisions that D.C. residents had no voice in making and no way of changing:

Advocacy for D.C. rights - Congress’ gag order
Most Americans can petition their government, but not residents of our nation’s capital. In 2002, Congress prohibited Washington, D.C., from using its own local government funds to lobby Congress for voting representation.

Bond ratings - higher interest, higher taxes for D.C.
Because Congress tends to delay final enactment of the D.C. budget beyond the start of the fiscal year each October, in some years D.C.’s bond rating has suffered. The result? Higher interest rates - and higher taxes - for D.C. residents.

Child support cuts - family values, anyone?
As part of the tax and program reductions that passed in 2005, Congress cut an effective child support program by $1.5 billion nationally and $2.2 million in D.C. This means that thousands of kids in our nation’s capital will have to go without some of life’s necessities. D.C. residents have no vote, and, therefore, no say in our nation’s tax policy.

Deaf children - a half century of segregation
An elementary school associated with Gallaudet University (and still open today), Kendall School for the Deaf opened in 1856, serving deaf children, both Black and White. But in 1906, in one of hundreds of actions establishing racial segregation, Congress sent the school’s Black children to the Maryland School for the Colored Blind and Deaf in Baltimore. Kendall did not accept Black students again until 1952.

Environmental impacts put citizens at risk
The Anacostia River is among the dirtiest in the nation. The sewage and storm overflow systems are significantly antiquated. Yet, with limited power in Congress and with the Environmental Protection Agency, the District has been unable to secure the support it needs to fix the sewage system and clean up the river. The result: a toxic river that abuts poor D.C. neighborhoods.

Firearms - Congress tried to interfere with D.C. gun safety laws
D.C.’s gun control laws are among the safest in the nation. They limit handguns and semiautomatic weapons, require registration of rifles and shotguns, and require firearms stored at home to be in non-operating condition. In 2004, at the urging of the National Rifle Association, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill repealing D.C.’s gun laws. But, fortunately, after being subjected to significant pressure from D.C. residents, the Senate didn't follow the House’s lead.

Greenbelt, Md. - Discrimination in a D.C. suburb
In 1935, Congress authorized the founding of Greenbelt, Md., a planned community in the Washington, D.C. suburbs to provide housing and employment for low-income families. The town was developed under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 and was operated by the federal government until 1953. For many years, no African Americans were allowed to live in Greenbelt, while another federally-built town, Langston Terrace in northeast Washington, D.C., was entirely Black.

Health insurance - Straight, married people only
In 1992, the D.C. City Council passed the Health Care Benefits Expansion Act to allow domestic partners to register with the mayor’s office, permit D.C. employees to buy health insurance for a registered partner at the employees’ own expense, and require health care facilities to allow visitation rights for domestic partners, including gay and lesbian partners, unmarried straight couples, and platonic and familial relationships such as grandmothers raising grandchildren. But Congress prevented the new D.C. law from going into effect by prohibiting D.C. from spending any funds - federal or local - to implement it. After an intense lobbying campaign, this rule was relaxed in 2002, allowing D.C. to spend its own locally raised revenues on the program.

Immigration - Give me your tired, your hungry, your disenfranchised
Congress is considering comprehensive immigration reform that would affect the 7-11 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. today, including 15,000-30,000 in the District of Columbia. Citizens of Washington, D.C., must be represented in this important immigration debate, which affects federal policies aimed at rewarding hard work and providing sensible ways for immigrants to emerge from the shadows. D.C. residents have no vote, and, therefore, no say in our nation’s immigration policy.

Judges in D.C. - Imposed from outside
Because D.C. doesn't have real home rule, neither D.C. voters nor D.C. elected officials select the judges for D.C. courts. Instead, D.C.’s judges - including its trial court judges who hear purely local disputes under D.C. law only - are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

King’s dream - D.C. marchers had no representation
On Aug. 28, 1963, thousands of D.C. residents participated in the historic civil rights march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for a strong federal civil rights bill. They, too, had a dream. Yet they had no representative voting for their dream when Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act in 1964.

Lawsuits in federal courts - for 139 years, no day in court for D.C. residents
Between 1801 and 1940, D.C. residents were not allowed to sue citizens of other states in the federal courts. Since D.C. courts of general jurisdiction were federal courts, D.C. citizens were left few options if, for example, they wanted to satisfy a debt incurred in New York.

Medicaid - Show me your papers
In 2005, Congress required recipients of Medicaid (the federal health insurance program for the poor) to prove their citizenship by submitting a birth certificate or passport. This will decrease Medicaid coverage among eligible American-born citizens, especially elderly African Americans, of whom about one in every five lack a birth certificate. D.C. residents have no vote, and, therefore, no say in our nation’s Medicaid policy.

No to full democracy
D.C. residents have limited democracy. Every single law that the D.C. City Council passes and the mayor signs is subject to a veto by Congress. In fact, local laws do not go into effect until after 30 "legislative days," which means some laws can languish for months before going into effect. This practice is a violation of the very basic American tenet of federalism - citizens have control over local issues.

Oversight by Congress - lost chances at adoption for foster kids
Several years ago, D.C.’s reimbursement formula for Medicaid and related programs was increased so that the federal government pays 70 percent. But, because of a congressional oversight in drafting the formula, the federal share of funding to place foster children for adoption was not raised. That means that D.C. is losing approximately $6 million a year for foster children’s adoption - money that D.C. could and should be spending to place more children who are desperately in need of stable homes for permanent adoption.

Prescription drug program - 80 percent of D.C. seniors excluded
While prescription drug coverage for seniors was widely supported, many of the specific elements of the "Medicare Part D" program that Congress enacted in 2003 provoked substantial opposition from members of Congress. The House vote on passage was 215-215. D.C.’s Delegate to the House did not have a vote either for or against the bill.

Quid pro quo - Congress’ playground
In the mid-90s, Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R. Calif., was vice chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on the District of Columbia. He lived on a houseboat at the Washington marina, near the fish market. He put $3 million into the District’s 1999 appropriations to renovate the marina/fish market area. But rather than use a competitive bidding process as D.C. officials wanted, he insisted that future occupancy leases for the wharf and marina be awarded to the particular people he chose, as quid pro quo for the $3 million.

Revenue limitations - D.C. tax-base reduced
Unlike all 41 states that have income taxes, Washington, D.C., does not tax the income earned by non-residents. That is because Congress expressly prohibits such a "commuter tax" - indeed, the prohibition, contained in D.C.’s Charter, was a condition of home rule in 1973. The tax revenues lost to D.C. each year from the commuter tax ban are estimated to range from $530 million to $1.4 billion.

Syringe exchange programs - Congress prevents prevention
In 1999, Congress prevented D.C. from using federal and local funds for syringe exchange programs, even though they are the best way to prevent drug users from spreading HIV/AIDS through their needles. In D.C., injection drug use is the most common path of HIV infection among women, and the second most common among men.

Tax cuts for the rich or health care for kids?
On May 17, 2006, President Bush signed a bill to extend the 2003 capital gains and dividend income tax cuts, amounting to at least $70 billion. In our nation’s capital, as throughout the country, the benefits are almost entirely going to the very rich, with the wealthiest one percent of D.C. taxpayers getting 64 percent of the tax cuts, $17 million in all. The impact of this bill is likely to be severe for D.C. residents. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, that $17 million could in 2009 buy health insurance coverage for fully 7,600 uninsured D.C. children. D.C. residents have no vote, and, therefore, no say in our nation’s tax policy.

Unemployment benefits - D.C. jobless get no relief
In 2003, D.C.’s unemployment rate was 7.2 percent, the fourth highest in the nation, and well above the national average of six percent. Congress refused to extend unemployment benefits for jobless workers living in the shadow of the Capitol building.

Veterans’ benefits and jobs: Congress just said no - barely
In 2006, the U.S. House rejected by one vote $53 million for additional services for veterans returning from the Iraq War, including combat-related trauma care, follow-up care, prosthetic research, war orphans’ benefits, and claims processing. In 2000, there were 44,484 veterans in D.C. - two-thirds of whom were African-American - including about 5,000 veterans of the 1991 Gulf war.

Workers’ wages: shut out of the debate
For years, Congress refused to enact an increase in the minimum wage. D.C. residents have no vote, and, therefore, no say in our nation’s wage policies.

Youth pride: the impact of feeling powerless
When D.C. youth are confronted with the reality of their disfranchisement, it can have a real psychological effect. During a program where student delegates went up to the Hill to visit their representatives, a D.C. high school student recalled her feelings that day: "I have never before felt inferior to fellow Americans. All I could do was listen at dinner that evening when my friends told of how they had discussed important national issues. I, too, have opinions on these and other vital issues. That day, I could share them with no one who had a voice or a vote in the United States Congress."

Zone of protection - protecting Planned Parenthood clinic users
Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington provides health and family-planning services at its five clinic locations to the D.C. metropolitan area. For years, the clinics have been targeted by demonstrators who bar access to their clients. To protect their clients, Planned Parenthood would like the D.C. City Council to pass a D.C. law creating buffer zones around family planning clinics. But concerns about Congressional reaction create a potential barrier to passing such a local law.