Obama Budget Includes Language on D.C. Budget Autonomy

President Barack Obama has largely been silent on D.C. voting rights since coming to office three years ago. Today, though, he is unveiling his 2013 budget, within which he has included language endorsing the District's fight to spend its own money when and how it wants:

“The District of Columbia annually receives direct Federal payments for a number of local programs in recognition of the District's unique status as the seat of the Federal Government. These General and Special Payments are separate from and in addition to the District's local budget, which is funded through local revenues. Consistent with the principle of home rule, it is the Administration's view that the District's local budget should be authorized to take effect without a separate annual Federal appropriations bill. The Administration will 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.”

While D.C. officials have recently pushed for statehood, they've similarly been putting pressure on Congress to free the District's budget from the congressional restraints that have set back the city's fiscal year relative to other jurisdictions (ours starts in October, instead of the usual July) and allowed members of Congress to weigh down local spending plans with noxious social riders on everything from abortion funding to needle-exchange programs.

At a hearing last May, city budget officials noted that having to submit an annual budget to Congress every year made it harder to plan for contingencies. A month prior, Mayor Vince Gray, members of the D.C Council and residents were arrested during protests over self-determination and budget autonomy. Additionally, the District's budget was caught up in numerous fights over federal spending, threatening multiple shutdowns of local services.

Obama's proposal may well received favorable treatment on the Hill, especially considering that late last year Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) proposed that the District be granted some budget autonomy. Still, even Issa's plan wasn't free from the strings that most District officials wish were cut altogether -- he would maintain the prohibition on funding of abortions with local funds. (At the time, city officials rejected his plan.)

Gray, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and D.C. voting rights activists have planned a press conference this afternoon to weigh in on Obama's proposal.