Photo by Erik Cox Photography.

There are 259 pages in the draft version of the House of Representatives’ 2017 Financial Services Bill, and you better believe that a few of them are dedicated to imposing control over the District of Columbia.

For one, it repeals D.C.’s Budget Autonomy Act, a law approved by more than 80 percent of voters and upheld in D.C. Superior Court. Last week, the House Oversight Committee also advanced a bill that would prevent the city from spending its locally raised funds without Congressional approval.

The draft bill “continues to appropriate the District’s local funds,” according to the Appropriations Committee.

D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton will testify against the bill to repeal D.C. budget autonomy this afternoon and in favor of her amendment to make the Budget Autonomy Act federal law. “It is difficult to understand congressional opposition to budget autonomy … Until this Congress, there had been bipartisan support for budget autonomy,” Norton says in her prepared testimony. “Control over the dollars raised by local taxpayers is much-cited as principle by congressional Republicans, and is central to the American form of government.”

Why does having authority over these funds matter so much? Well, because of all of the other things that Congress is able to dictate as a result. Provisions in the bill block the use of federal or local funds for abortions, or toward full implementation of D.C.’s cannabis laws. It also maintains the provision that prevents the use of federal funds on needle exchanges in D.C.

The bill has a $725 million federal payment to D.C. That’s $4.6 million less than the level enacted in 2016 and $38 million less than requested, according to the Appropriations Committee.

Well, at least there’s nothing in there about sledding.