I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 214
To restore the management and personnel authority of the Mayor of the
District of Columbia and to expedite the suspension of activities of
the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management As-
sistance Authority.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 6, 1999
Ms. NORTON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Government Reform
A BILL
To restore the management and personnel authority of the
Mayor of the District of Columbia and to expedite the
suspension of activities of the District of Columbia Fi-
nancial Responsibility and Management Assistance Au-
thority.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘District of Columbia
Democracy 2000 Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds as follows:
(1) Among the major problems of the District
of Columbia government has been the failure to
clearly delineate accountability.
(2) The statute establishing the District of Co-
lumbia Financial Responsibility and Management
Assistance Authority proved necessary to enable the
District to regain financial stability and manage-
ment control.
(3) The District has performed significantly
better than the Congress had anticipated at the time
of the passage of the Authority statute.
(4) The necessity for a financial authority has
resulted in a diffusion of responsibility between the
Mayor, the Council, and the Authority pending the
time when the District government would assume
the home rule status quo ante.
(5) This lack of clear lines of reporting author-
ity, in turn, has led to some redundancy and confu-
sion about accountability and authority.
(6) The Authority statute requires the Author-
ity to ‘‘ensure the most efficient and effective deliv-
ery of services, including public safety services, by
the District government’’ and to ‘‘assist the District
government in * * * ensuring the appropriate and
efficient delivery of services’’.
(7) With the coming of a new administration
led by Mayor Anthony Williams, the Authority has
taken the first step to ensure the accountability that
will be necessary at the expiration of the control pe-
riod by delegating day-to-day operations over city
agencies previously under control of the Authority to
the Mayor.
(8) The Congress agrees that the best way to
ensure clear and unambiguous authority and full ac-
countability is for the Mayor to have full authority
over city agencies so that citizens, the Authority,
and the Congress can ascertain responsibility.
(9) The transition of authority to the new ad-
ministration will take nothing from the Authority’s
power to intervene during a control period.
(10) The congressional intent embodied in the
Authority statute contemplates full home rule by the
District government when it attains the necessary
stability.
(11) Congress assumed that it would take 4
years of balanced budgets to achieve the requisite
stability.
(12) The District has exceeded congressional
expectations by submitting 3 years of balanced
budgets plus surpluses.
(13) The Authority is an emergency body that
should not be held past the existence of the emer-
gency at a cost to democratic self-government.
(14) To take account of conditions that im-
proved beyond expectations, full self-government
should return to the District one year ahead of time,
in the year 2000.
SEC. 3. RESTORATION OF MANAGEMENT AND PERSONNEL
AUTHORITY OF MAYOR OF THE DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle B of title XI of the Bal-
anced Budget Act of 1997 (DC Code, sec. 47–395.1 et
seq.) is repealed.
(b) 
CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—Section
1604(f)(2)(B) of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (Public
Law 105–34; 111 Stat. 1099) is repealed.
SEC. 4. SUSPENSION OF ACTIVITIES OF DISTRICT OF CO-
LUMBIA FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND
MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE AUTHORITY.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 209(b)(1)(B) of the Dis-
trict of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Manage-
ment Assistance Act of 1995 (DC Code, sec. 47–
392.9(b)(1)(B)) is amended by striking ‘‘4’’ and inserting
‘‘3’’.