EASING CONGRESS'S HEEL ON THE CAPITAL CITY

Congress is on the verge of enacting a sea change for self-government
in the District of Columbia that would at last allow the district to
finance abortions for the poor, permit medical marijuana and end the
ban on using federal funds for city workers' domestic partner benefits.

Proponents are cheered that the changes -- long sought by the
district but denied by Congressional diktat -- are tucked away in a
mammoth multi-issue spending bill that is proving difficult to amend or defeat.

The House approved the measure Thursday, but abortion opponents and
other critics promise a fierce fight in the Senate. It's imperative
that majority Democrats fulfill their vow to smash these fetters
placed on the district by past conservative-dominated Congresses.
Historically, national lawmakers have too often meddled restrictively
in the district's business. The omnibus bill carries the promise of a
freer day, including a provision for a more liberal use of
needle-exchange programs to combat the spread of H.I.V.

The encouraging proposals hardly expunge Washington's second-class
status. The district continues to be denied a voting representative
in the House for its 600,000 citizens. But passage would at least
make the district less a point of embarrassment before critics who
note that, for all the talk of democracy in Congress, the host city
has never been allotted its full share. "Taxation Without
Representation" bedecks license plates of residents who properly
decry Congress's "plantation mentality."

The omnibus proposals would end the Congressional ban on using local
tax dollars for abortions by low-income residents, just as states do.
They would also put back on track the plan for doctor-prescribed
marijuana approved in 1998 by 69 percent of district residents, but
then blocked by Congress. It's time for the Senate to reverse
Washington's role as Congress's pocket colony and restore vital
home-rule initiatives.