Budget Deal Restores DC Voucher Progam

TBD.com reports:

In addition to the abortion rider, the deal includes money to restart the city's school voucher program, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program,WTOP reports.

The program has been a priority of House Speaker John Boehner, using federal tax dollars to subsidize private-school tuition. Mayor Vince Gray and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton oppose the school voucher program, but other city officials, including Councilman Marion Barry and Council Chairman Kwame Brown, support it, according to WTOP.

The fate of one other D.C. provision, however, remained unsolved. The Washington Post reports a House-passed ban on the city using its own money for needle-exchange programs must still be negotiated.

"This is ludicrous. While one rider purports to provide educational aid to children in need, the other takes away desperately needed aid from poor women. Hypocrisy is alive and well in the United States Congress," WTOP reports Gray saying a written statement.