After Dedicating 2009 Metro Crash Memorial, Norton to Introduce Bill to Give Education Grants to D.C. National Guard In Memory of Victim

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that when Congress returns to session tomorrow, she will reintroduce a bill to permanently authorize a District of Columbia National Guard tuition assistance program and name it for Major General David F. Wherley, a former Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard, who, with his wife, Ann, was killed in the tragic Red Line Metro crash on June 22, 2009. Today, on the sixth anniversary of the accident, Norton spoke at the dedication ceremony of Legacy Memorial Park, a new memorial to honor the nine District of Columbia-area residents killed in the crash.

Although Norton has gotten funds for the tuition assistance program for many years through the appropriations committee, she is requesting the program be permanently authorized and named for Commanding General Wherley. Norton got the full requested amount of $435,000 for the program included in the fiscal year 2016 House D.C. Appropriations bill, the same amount as the fiscal year 2015 enacted level.

At the dedication ceremony, Norton said she realized that nothing could make up for the loss of nine residents, seven from the District of Columbia, or for injuries to 70 others. However, Norton said that the memorial will further inspire her and her colleagues in their struggle to replace a House cut to Metro's $150 million in annual capital funding that was achieved after the 2009 tragedy.

In her remarks at today's ceremony, Norton said, "We are hopeful that the beauty of this space and its sculptured remembrances, bounded only by what nature has given us, will bring all of you the peace that comes with the knowledge that you now have a loving and living bond with the city itself and with this community symbolized forever by the Legacy Memorial Park."