D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said Friday the Government Accountability Office report on the enacted the fiscal 2022 earmarks shows the District’s lack of statehood has likely cost it up to hundreds of millions of dollars in the latest round of budgetary set-asides for the city.
While Norton got a similar amount of the fiscal 2022 earmark funding as other House members, D.C. has no senators to request earmarks in that chamber.
She pointed out that Vermont, which has a smaller population than the District, received $193 million more than D.C. in the fiscal 2022 earmark funding, and Alaska, which only has 62,000 more residents than the city, got $234 million more than D.C.
“While D.C. generally is treated as a state for federal funding, since D.C. pays the same federal taxes as states, including more federal taxes than 23 states and more federal taxes per capita than any other state, there are instances where D.C.’s lack of statehood, particularly its lack of Senate representation, has cost it substantial funding,” Norton said. “This Government Accountability Office report is only the latest example of why it is long past time for the Senate to pass my House-passed D.C. statehood bill.”
The delegate noted in the last congressional session, the CARES Act treated D.C. as a territory, thereby depriving the city of $755 million. However, during this Congress, Norton made sure the District was treated as a state and received the full $755 million under the American Rescue Plan.