D.C. was intentionally classified as a territory in virus-aid bill, lawmakers say.

By Jenna Portnoy and Fenit Nirappil
March 26, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. EDT

This article was published more than 3 years ago.

'Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Thursday that the coronavirus relief package expected to pass the House of Representatives on Friday deliberately classified the District as a territory instead of a state, which means the city will get less than half of the funding it was expecting.

Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he doesn’t know how the District got lumped in with five U.S. territories — the city is almost always treated like a full-fledged state by the federal government when it comes to grants, highway funding, education dollars and food assistance. He said he would try to ensure the District receives the money it believes it was due retroactively, as well as in a future relief package.

“I was enraged by the fact that the District of Columbia was going to be shortchanged,” Van Hollen said in an interview. “I immediately talked to Senator [Charles E.] Schumer about it and was told that the Republicans had insisted on the formula the way it was in the bill.”

Asked why the District is not treated like a state in the bill, a spokesman for Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said: “Because Washington, D.C., is not a state. One can debate whether or not it should be, but that’s a separate discussion.”'>>>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-was-intentionally-classified-as-a-territory-in-virus-aid-bill-lawmakers-say/2020/03/26/4b8c4ba8-6f74-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html?

((Sorry to bring this up now; it just appeared for/to me.))