With two recent legislative introductions, Ward 1 D.C. Council Member Jim Graham is hurtling into two controversies: taxis and chickens.
“They go together beautifully, don’t they?” Graham asked.
In one measure, Graham wants to establish a mechanism under which taxi drivers who live outside D.C. may continue to work in the District. In the other, he demands that grocers post signs indicating whether the eggs they sell come from free-range or caged hens.
Under a law adopted by the Council in 2001, the District’s 7,500 taxi drivers are required to reside in the District — though an estimated 80 percent do not. The law, which the city chose to enforce this year, has caused a storm of controversy, including the ugly threat of a cab driver strike.
“I’m not somebody who goes out of my way to favor nonresidents,” Graham said. “But here, if we don’t do something, we won’t have any taxis in the District of Columbia.”
The existing statute is enforced by preventing Virginia and Maryland residents from registering their cars in Washington. But Graham’s bill would ensure cab drivers on the job prior to March 1 would be protected by a grandfather clause.
As for the egg legislation, Graham, a vegetarian since 1979, said it’s principally “an issue of animal liberation.”
“I don’t know if we can pass this law,” he said. “But I want to do somethingto raise the public’s consciousness about animal cruelty.”
The bill requires that grocers identify eggs produced by caged hens with a sign “with black letters at least one inch in height.” Ignoring the sign rule would constitute an unlawful trade practice.
Though it does not have a position on Graham’s bill, the National Grocers Association argues the market is better equipped than the government to deal with such knotty issues.
“If consumers demand these products and they’re willing to pay a premium for it, the grocery stores, the market, will react to that desire,” said Erik Lieberman, the association’s director of government affairs.
