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After Showing D.C. Residents Pay Highest Federal Taxes Per Capita in Nation This Morning, Norton to Close out Her D.C. Emancipation Week Speeches with Special Order Hour on House Floor, Tonight

April 15, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) tonight will conclude her District of Columbia Emancipation Week floor speeches by hosting a special order hour on the House floor at 6:00 p.m. tonight in preparation for Emancipation Day, Thursday, April 16. Norton will dedicate the session to making the D.C. the nation's 51st state. Norton has given a series of remarks this week calling on Congress to provide D.C. residents with the full and equal rights they are entitled to as American citizens. Tonight, Norton will highlight a 2014 United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee report that said the denial of the rights of D.C. residents is a human rights violation under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights treaty, which the U.S. ratified in 1992. She will also compare the District to the half dozen states that have similar populations to D.C., but have representation in the House and Senate. Norton's special order hour can be viewed live on television on C-SPAN or online at https://www.c-span.org/video/?325337-3/us-house-legislative-business&live.

"Tonight, we reach the crescendo of our call for statehood for the 650,000 American citizens living in the District of Columbia by showcasing that the continued denial of equal and full rights for our residents is a blatant human rights violation and contradicts the democratic values upon which our nation was founded," Norton said. "No other country in the world denies representation to citizens living in its capital city. Furthermore, the District of Columbia has a similar population and budget as many states. History will ultimately be on the side of statehood, but it is up to D.C. residents and advocates to fight together to achieve it."

Earlier today, Norton called for statehood for the District, citing official government statistics that show D.C. pays more in federal taxes per capita than any state in the Union while having no vote on the House floor or in the Senate. Her full remarks can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npdzCb7E0yU.

"The slogan ‘taxation without representation' is something you would hope had perished with the end of the Revolutionary War, but it still applies today to the 650,000 Americans who call the District of Columbia home," Norton said. "We feel our status as lesser citizens especially on April 15. It is a moral outrage that D.C. residents pay more to support the federal government than Americans anywhere, but get no quid pro quo vote like our fellow Americans in the states. Worse, the District not only pays more in federal taxes per capita than any state in the nation, but pay more total federal taxes than 24 states! If more Americans knew this, they would surely join our outrage. My remarks during D.C. Emancipation Week are one more effort to shout it to the hilltop."