D.C. Coin Bill Challenges the Senate for the 5th Time

D.C. Coin Bill Challenges the Senate for the 5th Time

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today won House passage of her bill to allow the District of Columbia to put a design of its choice on the reverse side of a quarter and to give American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands the same right. This is the fifth time the House has passed the District of Columbia and United States Territories Circulating Quarter Dollar Program Act on the suspension calendar, which is reserved for non-controversial bills with little opposition. While the coin bill has been blocked in the Senate in the past, Norton is optimistic about Senate passage this time with Democrats in control, and particularly since one of the bill's previous Senate sponsors is Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CN), the Chairman of the Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee, the committee of jurisdiction.

D.C. and the territories inadvertently were excluded from the Fifty State Quarter Dollar bill that gave each state their own coins in 1998. Twenty-one billion quarters representing 40 states have been minted thus far, contributing $6 billion to the U.S. treasury. In introducing the bill Norton said, "Under the Constitution, all Americans are equal, notwithstanding important differences in form, structure and other significant distinctions... By including all Americans, Congress avoids any appearance of differential or discriminatory treatment and the implication that the District and these areas are colonies, never the intention when these jurisdictions were not included in the original bill in 1998, as the House has made clear by repeatedly bringing this bill to the floor."

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Del. Madeline Z. Bordallo (D-GU), Del. Donna M. Christensen (D-VI), Del. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-AS), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE), and Del. Luis Fortuno (R-PR) joined Norton in cosponsoring the House bill. Norton expressed deep appreciation to Rep. Frank, the new chair of the committee of jurisdiction, who put the bill on the fast track for passage.

The coin measure is the first to pass among nine bills in Norton's "Free and Equal D.C. Series." These bills would eliminate anti-home rule legislation and remedy obsolete or inappropriate intervention into the local affairs of the District of Columbia or denials of federal benefits or recognition routinely granted to other jurisdictions.

http://www.norton.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=484