Conference Panel Is Set to Deliver D.C. Budget

Congress is expected to approve the District of Columbia's $5.3 billion budget, which would allow local funds for domestic partner benefits and bar any funds for needle exchange programs. "We adhered to the original House legislation on the needle exchange language, and while the negotiations took a while, we eventually came together," Rep. Joseph Knollenberg (R-Mich.) said of the House-Senate compromise version of the D.C. budget.

Knollenberg, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on the District, said House leaders had indicated they did not want the needle exchange provision dropped. "It's the same old story, with some Republicans upset with the domestic partner situation and the Democrats upset with the needle exchange language," he said.

The ban on needle exchange programs has been a staple of the District's budget process. It was included in the House version of the bill but was killed in the Senate version. Democrats have been pushing for more home rule authority for Washington, whose spending is overseen by Congress. Democrats had hoped the needle exchange ban would be dropped in the compromise bill. "We are denying the right of the District to save lives of the people who live here . . . and it is quite unfortunate that Republicans are unyielding on that matter," said Rep. Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania, the subcommittee's ranking Democrat. In addition to the ban on needle exchanges, the bill would restrict the use of federal or local money for lobbying for D.C. statehood or voting rights.

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