(Photo by Moshe Ovadya)

When Mayor Muriel Bowser submitted her 2019 budget, it included $1.1 million to require that Washingtonians carry health insurance, with the goal of keeping “the Affordable Care Act protections strong in D.C.”

Congressional House Republicans, one might not be surprised to learn, are opposed to such an endeavor—and are now attempting to block it.

Representatives from other states have inserted seven provisions, known as riders, into the 2019 federal appropriations bill that would alter laws passed by the District’s elected officials. Meddling in D.C. affairs (or trying to) via the budget bill is an annual tradition, but Congress watchers say this year’s attempts are more numerous than ever.

“We’ve never seen this many riders in a House bill before,” says Benjamin Fritsch, the communications director for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.

The latest two riders, introduced on Wednesday, are aimed at curbing D.C.’s ability to enact a local individual health insurance mandate.

The GOP’s tax bill, passed at the end of last year, repeals the Affordable Care Act’s penalties for individuals who don’t carry health insurance. It takes effect in January.

But a number of jurisdictions are working to preserve the individual mandate locally. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont have each passed a state-level mandate, and one is in the works for the District of Columbia.

Earlier this year, Bowser quietly inserted the Health Insurance Requirement Amendment Act into the city’s annual budget law, which has not yet been finalized.

But Representative Gary Palmer (R-AL), no stranger to meddling in the District’s affairs, inserted a rider in the federal appropriations bill that would bar D.C. from using local funds to carry out the health insurance mandate.

A second rider, introduced by Representative Keith Rothfus (R-PA), would bar the city from carrying out one of the bill’s provisions, which would allow the city to seize residents’ assets to enforce the law.

The amendments “show that Republicans have not gotten over their repeated failed attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, despite controlling the House, Senate and White House,” Norton said in a statement released Thursday. “I do not intend to allow D.C. to become Republicans’ scapegoat as they fume about the ACA’s continued popularity.”

Bowser said the two new riders “jeopardize health insurance for our residents” in an emailed statement, and pledged that her “staff will continue to work with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton to ensure these riders do not become law.”

Before this week, House Republicans had already added in five other riders to the 2019 federal appropriations bill that target D.C. legislation. All five concern D.C. policies that they have gone after before, in some cases successfully. The riders would again bar the city from allowing the sale of marijuana or spending local funds on marijuana, as has been the case under past annual federal appropriations bills. The other three 2019 riders represent renewed attempts to overrule the city’s Budget Autonomy Act, the Death with Dignity law that allows medical aid in dying, and legislation that bars employers from discriminating based on reproductive health decisions. Previous attempts to overturn them have been unsuccessful.

“We are all too accustomed to these undemocratic Republican assaults on our district, but I have kept most of these House riders from being included in final spending bills,” Norton said. “Here we go again working closely with our allies in the Senate to ensure the District’s self-government rights are respected.”