Norton Blasts Tom Price for Introducing Anti-Home-Rule, Anti-Union Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) strongly condemned Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) for meddling in her district instead of taking care of his own Georgia constituents after Price today introduced the Federal Employee Rights Act (H.R. 4461), which would, among other things, prohibit the federal and District of Columbia governments from deducting union dues from employee paychecks. Norton has previously fought off similar bills that have sought to weaken labor rights of federal employees and target local unions in D.C. by redefining the District as a federal agency.

“Congressman Price has managed to make an already discriminatory anti-labor bill worse by dragging in our local jurisdiction,” Norton said. “I would have thought that a self-proclaimed Tea Party Republican would be the first to respect the choices of citizens, and certainly an independent local jurisdiction. Treating the District of Columbia like a federal agency is an insult to the people I represent. I will work hard to defeat this bill to not only protect federal employees’ rights, but also to defend the District’s right to home rule.”