Press Releases
August 20, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After videos circulated online of federal police officers using excessive force to make arrests as part of President Trump’s unnecessary and inflammatory surge of law enforcement in D.C., Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) announced that they’ll reintroduce their bill to require all federal police officers, including those from Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Park Police, to wear body cameras and use dashboard cameras in marked vehicles when Congress returns in September.
August 19, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a bill which would make D.C. eligible for funding under the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program (Program) established by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Senate Republicans, who created the program, made only the 50 states eligible, likely depriving the District of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. Although the Program’s title references rural health, the law permits use of funding from the Program for health care services, providers and technology outside of rural areas.
August 15, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After D.C. sued the Trump Administration over its unlawful federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) applauded the District’s assertion of its own rights in the court system and highlighted the united resistance D.C. is mounting against the Trump Administration’s unlawful and unprecedented attacks on home rule.
August 15, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) announced introduction of a joint resolution terminating President Donald Trump’s unprecedented federalization of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington, D.C., pursuant to the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973.
August 14, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) announced that he would introduce a bill to amend the Home Rule Act to allow the president to extend the federalization of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) indefinitely, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said, “Rep. Ogles’ bill is another in a series of extreme attacks on D.C. home rule.
August 11, 2025
WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) announced that they will reintroduce their legislation to grant the District of Columbia full control over the D.C. National Guard and the Metropolitan Police Department when Congress reconvenes in September. These measures are needed more urgently than ever as President Donald Trump today assumed control of D.C.’s police department and announced plans to deploy the National Guard in the District. The Administration took these actions without consulting D.C. government officials and despite crime being at a 30-year low in 2024 and a decrease of 26% this year compared to the same time period last year.
August 11, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After President Trump announced that he is federalizing D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), for the first time in history, and activating the D.C. National Guard (DCNG) to address crime in the District, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that the decision is counterproductive, potentially dangerous, and an egregious assault on D.C. home rule.
August 8, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today reintroduced her bill to permanently remove the statue of Confederate General Albert Pike near Judiciary Square and authorize the Secretary of the Interior to donate it to a museum or a similar entity. Norton said that Pike, a Confederate general who served dishonorably and was forced to resign in disgrace, represents the worst of the Confederacy and has no claim to be memorialized in the nation's capital. Norton’s bill was passed by the House Committee on Natural Resources in the 116th Congress.
August 7, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. –After President Trump suggested that Congress should repeal the D.C. Home Rule Act, threatened to federalize the D.C. Metropolitan Police and call in the D.C. National Guard to address crime, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released a statement condemning the comments and defending the right of D.C. residents to govern themselves.
August 7, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced a bill to make “blue envelope” programs, which improve interactions between police officers and drivers with difficulty communicating through speech during traffic stops, eligible for federal transportation safety funding. The programs, which allow drivers to receive a blue envelope that explains the driver’s limitations on the front and hold documents that an officer might request during a traffic stop inside, exist in many parts of the country but currently aren’t eligible for federal transportation funding. The first blue envelope program, instituted by Connecticut in 2020, was designed to aid drivers on the autism spectrum. The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) has endorsed the bill.