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Press Releases

March 13, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced a bill to permit commercial filmmaking and photography at the Capitol Complex beyond the area where it is currently permitted, Union Square, when both chambers of Congress are out of session. Norton’s bill would provide an economic and patriotic boost to the nation’s capital by allowing commercial filmmakers and photographers to showcase the Capitol in its fullest authenticity to the nation and the rest of the world. The expanded commercial filmmaking and photography would be subject to the same conditions and requirements that exist for commercial filmmaking and photography in Union Square. Norton said her bill addresses any security concerns by giving Capitol Police full discretion on when to issue permits. Norton’s bill is part of her effort to expand public access to public spaces, particularly around the Capitol.

March 13, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that President Biden's fiscal year 2025 budget, released this week, includes several significant victories for the District of Columbia, including, as Norton requested, $40 million for the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG), which a Norton bill created, and an increase in the DCTAG annual and lifetime grants. However, she said she was disappointed that the budget, like the president’s previous budgets, maintains the rider that prohibits D.C. from spending its local funds on recreational marijuana commercialization.

March 7, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After today’s Committee on Oversight and Reform (COR) markup and vote on two anti-D.C. home rule bills, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said the Republican efforts to repeal or amend local D.C. laws enacted by the duly-elected D.C. Council are undemocratic and paternalistic. The first anti-D.C. bill, introduced by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), would prohibit the D.C. Council from changing any existing criminal sentence, make several changes to D.C.'s criminal code relating to youth, and require the office of D.C.'s Attorney General to post information on youth crime data on its website. The second bill, introduced by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), would repeal D.C.'s recently-enacted vehicle emission standards.

March 5, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), co-chair of the Quiet Skies Caucus and a member of the Subcommittee on Aviation, introduced a bill today to require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to create and implement a platform for sharing helicopter noise complaint data in the National Capital Region and to make the platform accessible to the public online. The House passed the bill last year as part of the FAA reauthorization.

March 1, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that her guest for next week’s State of the Union address will be constituent Randy Clarke, general manager and CEO of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

February 28, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House today passed a bipartisan bill by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Chair James Comer (R-KY) to direct the federal government to transfer administrative jurisdiction over the RFK Stadium campus to D.C. for up to 99 years, allowing D.C. to use the land for stadium redevelopment, commercial and residential development, or other public purposes. Norton previously introduced legislation to allow the federal government to sell the land, which at 174 acres is the largest unused track of land in the District, to D.C. for fair market value.

February 28, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released her floor statement ahead of today’s scheduled debate and vote on her bipartisan bill with Chair James Comer (R-KY) to direct the federal government to transfer administrative jurisdiction over the RFK Stadium campus to D.C. for 99 years, allowing D.C. to use the land for stadium redevelopment, commercial and residential development, or other public purposes. Norton has worked on prior versions of the bill aimed at revitalizing RFK Stadium campus, which at 174 acres is the largest unused track of land in the District, since 2017. This is the first time any version of the legislation has been considered on the House floor.

February 26, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a bill to make D.C. eligible for the same federal funding as states under two federal wildlife conservation laws.

February 21, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that President Biden has nominated Norton’s recommendation, Sparkle L. Sooknanan, to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Sooknanan has been the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division since 2023. She previously served as a Deputy Associate Attorney General in the Department of Justice after first working in the Department as an appellate attorney in the Civil Division. She served as a law clerk for Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the U.S. Supreme Court, for Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and for Judge Eric N. Vitaliano on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Sooknanan received her J.D., summa cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School, her M.B.A. with distinction from Hofstra University, and her B.S., summa cum laude, from St. Francis College.

February 20, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a bill to amend the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Act to make the District of Columbia eligible for federal forestry research funds. The McIntire-Stennis Act provides U.S. states and territories with formula funds to support state-designated institutions' cooperative forestry research programs. Norton said that her bill would make D.C. eligible for funding that would particularly support research at the University of the District of Columbia's (UDC) College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability, and Environmental Sciences, whose programs complement the city's ongoing forestry efforts. UDC is the nation's only urban land-grant university. Norton successfully got her provision to enable UDC to receive federal funding for forestry research under the McIntire-Stennis Act included in the Senate-passed 2013 Farm Bill.