The Washington Post - 27.03.2020

B6 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAy, MARCH 27 , 2020

President Trump and the nation’s governors Thursday, according to a person on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to dis- cuss the talks — said the funding slight illustrates the need for the District to achieve statehood, including full representation in Con- gress. “Every state that has two senators was treated the exact same,” the mayor said in a news conference. “We don’t have two senators. And it matters not having two senators. And that’s why we have pushed so hard for statehood.” Spokespeople for Senate majority Leader mitch mcConnell (r-Ky.) and Schumer (D-N.Y.) did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. Under Democratic control, the House is likely to vote on D.C. statehood legislation this year, for the first time in a generation. Lawmak- ers are expected to pass the bill, mostly along partisan lines. But mcConnell has said the bill will go nowhere in the majority-republi- can Senate, and he called the con- cept of D.C. statehood “full-bore socialism.” “It was clearly intentional,” Van Hollen said of the decision to desig-

“It was curious that in this bill they decided to treat the District of Columbia in a very discriminatory way,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) s aid in a news conference Thursday morning. “It really makes no sense unless you have some other motivation.” The bill, passed late Wednesday in the Senate, calls for the District and five U.S. territories to divide $3 billion by population, giving the District about $500 million — less than half of the minimum $1.25 billion guaranteed to each state, officials said. As o f Thursday evening, the Dis- trict had 271 known coronavirus cases, which is more than the five territories combined and more than 18 states, according to data gathered by The Washington Post. The entirely urban nature of the District also means the virus has a better chance of spreading among residents living in rowhomes and apartments than in the suburbs and rural communities of neigh- boring Virginia and maryland, D.C. officials say. mayor muriel E. Bowser (D) — who raised the issue on a call with

BILL from B1

D.C. to get less than half

of relief funds it expected

puts not only District residents but all Americans at a n increased risk,” the letter says. The District has been used as bargaining chip in previous congressional negotiations. During a budget s tandoff in 2011, then-Pres- ident Barack obama agreed to lan- guage prohibiting the city from using local money to give low-income women access to elective abortions after House republicans sought restrictions on federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Despite decades of fighting for D.C. autonomy on policy matters, Bo Shuff, executive director of the statehood advocacy group DC Vote, said allies of the District nev- er anticipated such tactics during a global pandemic. “It’s not something we had on our radar to worry about, to be honest,” h e said. “This is a new and different level than we’ve seen be- fore.” [email protected] [email protected]

nate the District as a territory. “I don’t know all the motivations, ex- cept we do know republicans are opposed to giving the people of the District of Columbia voting rights in the U.S. House and Senate.” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting repre- sentative in the House, said the District has a better chance for full funding in the next round of virus- related relief if the bill starts in the House. “Whoever over there [in the Sen- ate] decided we should be lumped in with the territory has really de- fied precedent,” she said in an in- terview. D.C. Attorney General Karl A. racine (D) organized 36 fellow attorneys general, including 10 republicans, to write a letter to the president and legislative leaders asking for the District to receive at least $1.25 billion in funds. “Given the District’s connec- tions t o nearby states, jeopardizing the ability to respond to the crisis

Source: D.C. Department of Health THE WASHINGTON POST

Number of confirmed coronavirus cases in D.C., by day Cases reported as of Wednesday night.

0

100

200

3/7 3/16 3/25

235

and Howard University Hospi- tal,” A dams w rote. “ It i s absolute- ly appropriate for Howard Uni- versity to receive emergency funding.” The coronavirus relief bill passed the Senate on Wednesday and is expected to send about $14 billion to colleges and universities that are hemorrhaging cash. The allocation is $36 billion short of what higher-education advocates had requested. The Wednesday night v ote ended days of negotiations over legislation originally introduced by Senate majority Leader mitch mcConnell (r-Ky.) that Demo- crats viewed as unfairly tilted toward corporations. The deal is set to be voted on by the House. [email protected]

ty’s hospital, which is one of the District’s designated covid-19 treatment facilities. Gaetz’s comments quickly drew criticism. Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), a Howard grad- uate, tweeted that $13 million is a small amount of money com- pared with the proposed $30 billion education stabilization fund designed to assist primary, sec- ondary and postsecondary schools. “Why do you take issue with money going to Howard, Congressman?” Harris asked in a tweet. rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.), founder and co-chair of the Bi- partisan Historically Black Col- leges and Universities Caucus, also reacted via Twitter. “Congressional appropria- tions fund Howard University

leges and universities. It receives an annual federal appropriation and has since the 1920s. Without the emergency funding provided by the stimulus bill, Howard would get nothing. Gallaudet University was also mentioned in the bill. The university for the deaf and hard of hearing in the District was creat- ed by Congress in 1864 and is slated to receive $7 million from the stimulus bill. “The proposed amount of emergency funding allotted to Howard is comparable to the support proposed for other colleges and universities in re- sponse to this unprecedented pandemic,” Howard President Wayne A.I. frederick said in a statement. The funding also would assist Howard Universi-

BY LAUREN LUMPKIN

rep. matt Gaetz questioned emergency funding being direct- ed to Howard University, sug- gesting that the allocation does not belong in a $2 trillion relief bill designed to blunt the novel coronavirus pandemic’s effect on the economy. “$13,000,000 in taxpayer funds could be going to families across the nation struggling to put f ood on t he table in the midst of CoVID-19,” Gaetz (r-fla.) tweeted Wednesday. “ Instead, it’s going to Howard University.” But there’s a reason money was earmarked for Howard: Be- cause the historically black university was directly chartered by Congress, it does not access the same federal funds as other col-

THE DISTRICT

Rep. Gaetz questions Howard U. emergency funds

BY JUSTIN WM. MOYER AND KEITH L. ALEXANDER

D.C. Council member Charles
Allen ( D-Ward 6) asked the feder-
al Bureau of Prisons on Thursday
to provide residents of Hope Vil-
lage, the city’s only halfway house
for men, with essential supplies
and release as many as possible to
home confinement amid the coro-
navirus crisis.
In a letter to Bureau of Prisons
Assistant Director Hugh J. Hur-
witz, Allen said Hope Village in
Southeast Washington had ended
“all non-emergency movement”
of residents on march 20, “effec-
tively terminating most residents’
employment and immediately
isolating them in the facility with-
out access to income.”
residents were also unable to
receive “essentials” such as hand
sanitizer, toiletries and food from
family members, Allen said, add-
ing that those eligible for home
confinement should be released.
“Without immediate action, a
severe outbreak of CoVID-19 in
Hope Village and the District’s
other [residential reentry cen-
ters] is inevitable,” the letter said.
Kevin Donahue, the District’s
deputy mayor for public safety,
said officials “have heard con-
cerns from members in that com-
munity, friends, loved ones and
attorneys” a nd have been in touch
with the D.C. Corrections Infor-
mation Council, an independent
body that monitors conditions at
facilities where D.C. residents are
incarcerated nationwide.
“I have been on the phone with
the head of that office,” Donahue
said. “They have assured me they
are having inspectors go into the

facilities. They told me today that they were there today to inspect to make sure that they have the appropriate health supplies.” Hope Village officials did not respond to a request for comment. Bureau of Prisons spokesman Justin Long said the agency has no evidence that residents aren’t receiving essential items. He not- ed the federal agency is waiving subsistence payments that residents make to support their confinement. “We remain confident that residents are being provided ample sanitary supplies to include soap, water, and other basic necessi- ties,” he said in a statement. Allen’s letter followed reports first published by WAmU that Hope Village residents were without essential supplies. Phinis Jones, a spokesman for Hope Vil- lage, told the station the reports were not accurate. “A ll of this noise about no soap, no water, and that kind of thing is just fabricated,” Jones said. “It’s just not true. We have plenty of soap, plenty of water in every building.” opened in 1978, Hope Village has often been accused of provid- ing substandard care. It briefly lost its federal contract in 2018, gaining it back only after a legal battle. ron moten, a longtime D.C. activist who has advocated building another halfway house in Northeast as an alternative to Hope Village, said he went with a group Tuesday to try to deliver supplies to the facility but was turned down by staff. residents were gathering for meals in groups as large as 30, he said, despite official attempts to limit gatherings to no more than 10 people. “Hope Village i s a mess,” moten said. “The thing is a public health issue.” [email protected] [email protected]

THE DISTRICT

P lea for supplies at

men’s halfway house

Council member asks prison officials to release as many as possible

DOUG KAPUSTIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Fire companies from Howard and Carroll counties respond to a house fire in Woodbine, Md., j ust after 10 a.m. on Thursday. The structure, which was partly under renovation, b urned to the ground within an hour, fire officials said. No injuries were reported, and officials said the cause of the fire was unknown.

Fire destroys a Baltimore-area home

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